^^This^^ and generally slower speeds & feeds keep the material from gumming up the tool. Use air blast if you have it to blow the chips away from the tool. Like any unusual material, trial and error with speeds & feeds, and holding the part firmly may take some time. We did some milling on polyurethane parts a few years back using 3D printed vacuum fixtures with suction cups to hold the part. It worked pretty well as I remember, but I did need to work with the speeds and feeds quite a bit to find a happy medium. Good luck and welcome to the forum!

:bump: Come on Haas gurus! I know you are here somewhere!!

Freakin' bean counters! Btw...welcome to the forum Sasquatch! As to the OP, yes, more and faster RAM as Ron and Jeff both recommended. Mastercam always runs better when you have more RAM than think you need.

Greetings all, I have an application where I am cutting a Multiaxis Curve toolpath where I want to make slight mid-program adjustments to the depth of the cut at several different points along the cut. Currently running the job with an older Heidenhain Mill Plus control, it is relatively easy to accomplish using the G39 (Activate Tool Offset) variable. Here is a sample of the Heidenhain code: ... N1013 X-1.0557 Y-2.9073 Z-1.459 B-87.054 C86.934 N1014 X-1.065 Y-2.9069 Z-1.4603 B-87.061 C86.844 N1015 X-1.0743 Y-2.9064 Z-1.4615 B-87.067 C86.754 N1016 X-1.0835 Y-2.906 Z-1.4628 B-87.074 C86.664 N1017 X-1.0928 Y-2.9056 Z-1.4641 B-87.08 C86.574 N1018 X-1.1021 Y-2.9052 Z-1.4653 B-87.087 C86.483 N1019 X-1.1114 Y-2.9047 Z-1.4666 B-87.094 C86.393 N1020 X-1.1207 Y-2.9043 Z-1.4678 B-87.1 C86.303 N1021 G40 (Cancel 3D Comp) N1022 G39 L-0.003 (Negative L value cuts deeper at this point) N1023 G141 (Activate 3D Comp) N1024 X-1.1309 Y-2.9038 Z-1.4694 B-87.1 C86.209 F15 N1025 X-1.1412 Y-2.9032 Z-1.471 B-87.1 C86.115 N1026 X-1.1515 Y-2.9026 Z-1.4726 B-87.1 C86.021 N1027 X-1.1617 Y-2.9021 Z-1.4741 B-87.1 C85.926 N1028 X-1.172 Y-2.9015 Z-1.4757 B-87.1 C85.832 N1029 X-1.1822 Y-2.9009 Z-1.4773 B-87.1 C85.738 N1030 X-1.1925 Y-2.9004 Z-1.4789 B-87.1 C85.644 N1031 X-1.2027 Y-2.8998 Z-1.4804 B-87.1 C85.55 N1032 X-1.213 Y-2.8992 Z-1.482 B-87.1 C85.456 N1033 X-1.2215 Y-2.8985 Z-1.4835 B-87.121 C85.361 N1034 G40 (Cancel 3D Comp) N1035 G39 L0 (Cancels previous G39 L value and returns cut to nominal depth) N1036 G141(Activate 3D Comp) N1037 X-1.23 Y-2.8978 Z-1.4849 B-87.142 C85.266 F15 N1038 X-1.2385 Y-2.8971 Z-1.4864 B-87.164 C85.171 N1039 X-1.2469 Y-2.8964 Z-1.4878 B-87.185 C85.076 N1040 X-1.2554 Y-2.8957 Z-1.4893 B-87.206 C84.981 ... In the example, I am able to change the depth of cut at line 1020 to cut .003 deeper, then cancel that .003 depth offset at line 1033 and return to nominal depth. I may need to transition this particular job over to a Haas VF4 at some point, so my question is this: Is it possible to achieve this same kind of mid-program depth of cut adjustment on a Haas 5-axis mill using G43 / G44 variables that can be changed from part to part? If so, what would the syntax look like on the Haas compared to the Heidenhain example above?

^^^^^This^^^^^ I do this often and it works great.

Agreed. Although I still have X8 installed on my current workstation, and I do find myself doing a quick 'X-form STL' once in a while, just for old time's sake. Other than that, I think CJep is right on point. Adapting to the new software rather than fighting against it is the path of least resistance for me too.

Welcome to the forum, sir!! Yes, we generally position the part in CAD space relative to the tilt/rotary pivot point of the machine, and program everything in the TOP plane. As long as your G54 X, Y, and Z zero point on the machine matches your Mastercam origin point, you should be good to go.

Here's what I often do: Select an unused level and name it Drive Chain, or something similar, and make it the active level. Use Create > Curve > One Edge On the Solid Selection Tool, click on 'Select Edge' Now click on the edge curves you want for your drive chain, green check when finished. Turn off all levels except the current one, which should only leave the new drive chain geometry visible. Use the 'Analyze Chain' function to find gaps or overlaps, and repair them as needed. Select the 'repaired' chain as your drive chain and you should be good to go! I have used this method many times. It takes a little extra time, but when you can isolate the chain you are working with on a separate level it is much easier. Good Luck!

Joey, Another useful setting in the Curve 5 axis parameters is Lead/Lag and Side Tilt angle. Those would allow you to make minor adjustments to the angle of the chamfer feature as well. Much easier than messing with vector line lengths!

Thanks, Ron. So changing those min and max settings won't help?

Hey all, I have been tasked to run a retrofitted A/B table on an older Fadal VMC 4020 with the CNC88 control. I have an In-House post for it and everything seems to be working as it should. My question involves the inverse time feedrates. I seem to be getting some huge variations in feed outputs, i.e., the tool crawls in some areas of the toolpath and rips across other areas at a very high federate. Is there any way to bring that output to more of a happy medium? I see a Minimum and Maximum Inverse Feedrate setting in the general machine parameters. At the moment it is set to Minimum = 1000.0 and Maximum = 0.0001. Will changing those values help me to get closer to a constant federate?

^^^^^^^^^^^^This^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This is the ONLY way I ever trust any mirroring operation. (And I use them quite a bit. ) When you do it this way you can look at the actual parameters of the mirrored operation and make any necessary changes without changing the original toolpath. I have noticed enough weird things like chains reversing direction or toolplanes getting messed up to know that you must check every detail before you can trust the output you are getting from any mirrored operation. They do work, but you gotta be careful! Like Ron said, sometimes it's just as easy to mirror your geometry, copy and paste the toolpaths, and then reselect the geometry on the mirrored side.

^^^^^This^^^^^^^^^ The default machine def was loaded when I opened the troublesome file. I changed it to the correct def and all is well. Thanks, G

No it's a local USB hasp. The file opens, and I can do anything else except use the operations manager. As I said, it appears to be greyed out like it is inactive. There are toolpaths there, I just can't select them, backplot them, or post them. :OldForumHeadscratch: I tried closing the file and reopening, and closing Mastercam and reopening but it's the same deal.

This is weird and probably has an obvious answer. Why is my Operations Manager greyed out, and how do I make it active? I just installed 2018 on a different workstation, opened a file on the network, and tried to regen and post the toolpaths, but the ops manager is not responding. What am I doing wrong?

Yes, I see this once in a while too. I believe Mastercam creates those temporary entities in the background when generating toolpaths, but for some reason they sometimes hang around when they are supposed to be deleted after the toolpath has been generated. Like gcode said, they are usually blanked as well so it's tough to find them. I have just been changing the color to one I know I don't use, then I use Delete> All> That Color. That has always worked for me in the past, although I don't think I have come across that problem with MC2018 yet.

Or just keep replacing operators until you get the previous shop culture weeded out. There is a name for operators in our industry who refuse to follow work instructions..."Unemployed" Make the one guy you do have trained correctly the lead person and have him train everyone else accordingly. When someone crashes a machine because of failure to follow work instructions after they have been trained, start a disciplinary process that includes verbal and written warnings, suspension, and ultimately termination if they still refuse to comply. Yes, it will likely be an uphill battle. If you could just show the ownership of the company how much time and money they are actually losing every time a lazy operator blows off his work instructions and crashes a machine, they might start to come around. If not, as Jeff said, looking for another job yourself may be your last resort. Good luck.

Jeff, Yep...that's how I do it with a Haas VF5 and an older Fadal with the trunion table. As Foggy said, you are basically tied to that rotation point at the intersection of the tilt and rotary axes and inverse time calculations. I've just been lurking in this thread, but your problem still sounds like a WCS issue. It seems as though something is off by 90 but I don't know exactly what it is either. Is there room in your budget for a good NC verification program like Vericut or Predator? Those run the NC code directly and don't rely on the NCI file. Maybe someone here can run your NC file through theirs to see what it looks like?

Got an email from Ernie. All good! Thanks Ernie and the gang @ Verisurf!

Still no response w/ 2 different email addresses. Maybe just a bug in the system? I will try again later.

Same here. I used my work email but no response. I will try a different address.

Ahhhhhhh...the dreaded *.nc file name mismatch! Yes, that one drove me crazy back in the day too. Glad to see JP was able to help you get it sorted out.

Welcome to the forum Stephen! As with anything, there are many ways to achieve the same goal in Mastercam. If you want more precise control of your tool axis, you could try using a Curve 5-axis toolpath with the bottom spline as your drive chain geometry. You can create vertical lines between the endpoints of the top and bottom splines, then use them as your tool axis control vector lines. It's a little bit more work but the vector lines give you much more flexibility. In areas where you want the most control you can create node points along the upper and lower splines, then connect those points with additional vector lines. This allows you to have maximum control of the tool axis when you don't like the output you get from the swarf toolpath.

Should we delete the Libraries \ Documents \ shared Mcam2018 folder as well before installing the new release?