Paul

leap are the agents for forming technology software in Melbourne.they did a demo on one of our parts ask to speak to paul oshannesy.

Jeff

We considered the ug converter. for around the same price we purchased solid edge part and assembly .Solid edge is a unigrapics product that reads .prt files also step . Mastercam can read native solid edge part files .It may be worth considering this option .You may have further use for solid edge .We use it for tool design.

I have uploaded post (anilam 3300m 120402.pst)to the posts folder on the ftp site.The post now outputs z arcs (xz plane and yz plane arcs) correctly.the post may need further modification as mentioned by Phil.As i'm new to anilam conversational language i would welcome any help by anilam users in further improving the post for our common benifit

thanks

bb

Hello Tony

I use containment boundaries at least two to avoid the pocket in the middle of the surfaces.Hope this helps.

Steve could you upload the post.I will try to help if it's not beyond my knowledge.

I put this question to mastercam technical support awhile back .there answer was to allocate a total of half your available ram. if you are working with large files increase database allocation because when drawing size is geater than data base allocation a temp file is used to hold drawing between drawing saves. if this happens a drive icon appears at bottom rh corner of screen.hope i have helped.

I have successfully regenerated your file left.mc8 (no spikes) renamed and uploaded it's called leftbb.mc8 .I have also uploaded my config file mill8mbb.cfg . I'm using version 8.11 system tolerance 0.001 . Can anyone explain the effect system tolerance has on cutter path results. While system tolerance may not be the only difference between Kurt's and my cutterpath I get different output when I change my system tolerance.

Kurt

your cutter path parameters look ok.

what is your system tolerance configuration setting set to.

try reducing system tolerance till toolpath is ok.

Kurt

your cutter path parameters look ok.

what is your system tolerance configuration setting set to.

try reducing system tolerance till toolpath is ok.

Try this construct an axis like the one in the bottom left corner of the screen at x0 y0 z0.

change view to isometric.

change consruction plane to isometric.

cplane,next menu , = gview

construct a circle at 0,0,0

save this drawing into your patterns directory for latter use.

open a existing mc8 file

cplane

rotate

(rotate cplane axis )

save

cplane

next menu

save named

(name the view)

(set the origin)

ok

tplane

next menu

=cplane

create

next menu

pattern

name

(choose the axis you created previously)

do it

0,0,0

this places the axis relative to the construction view and origin

gview

entity

(pick the circle in the axis pattern)

this will give you an isometric view of the setup

hope thyis has been of help

have been createing assemblies for some time of press tools .I start with a lay out drawing a 2d tool design . i place the 2d views in suitable construction plane and position.layering views something like this plan view of bottom tool level 201 top tool 202 section aa lev 203 etc.the tool components are created on levels relative to there item no. item 1 level 1 etc.i've recently discovered by copying surfaces useing current contruction attributes the blanked base surfaces also are layered this may speed the layering process.this works in v8.11 but did not in previous versions.we machine the die components useing toolplanes and constuction planes in what we call die position.

we also use solid edge (recent purcase).i agree with charles about solid modeling design packages being a better way. i model smaller assemblies in mastercam being more familular with the product this will change as i get better at solid edge.we convert the solid edge assy via. parasolid translators. all the solids are on one level the last or highest level no. wire frames come in on sequential layers.

The rate in Australia is about $8US to $12US.This don't seem like much but may be ok relative to our cost of living.I'm happy with my life style