Sean, Is the reason you can't access the ftp site something other than maybe just your browser settings? If you are allowed to access ftp sites you can fix this easily. In Internet Explorer go to Tools > Internet Options > Advanced. Look for the box labeled 'Use Passive FTP' and uncheck it if it is checked. This should allow you into the ftp site and allow you to download whatever you need. Otherwise, Brendan said he will hook you up. My employer frowns upon outgoing email with attachments larger than 1Meg or I'd send it to you myself. Good luck and I hope you enjoy the chess set. I thought it would be cool to make it all out of aluminum then black anodize one set of pieces and leave the other set the natural aluminum color, and also black anodize every other square on the board.

Sean, Welcome to the forum! Look in the Just4Fun folder on cadcam's ftp site. (Link at top of this page) In there you will find a file called 3D_CHESS_SET.MC9 The knights are messed up a little so you might want to fix them before machining, but the rest of the pieces should be OK. Good luck with your deployment to sea. P.S. The forum has an "Off Topic" section for non-Mastercam stuff like this, so you will probably get a quicker response if you post it there next time.

OK...I see what you mean. The transition point between the R.25 and the R.5 is not defined. Unless you are given more information, it will be difficult to guess what the designer wants given the 2D layout you have to work with. I'll keep messing with it, but there's no guarantee we'll get what they want.

I'll give it a go.

No sweat bro...have a nice weekend.

quote: which I could not make in МС ...what James said... With all due respect Slava_6, James is 100% correct. Just because one person can't do a particular thing in MC doesn't mean it can't be done. I too deal in complex 3D surfacing and 5 axis aerospace type stuff and have yet to see a part we couldn't make with Mastercam. Maybe I am somewhat biased, but Mastercam does have 'the goods' as far as I can see.

John, Just to clarify, the TA,1 command is used to load a program into the resident memory of the control, and the DNC command is used to drip feed larger programs directly from your PC. The simplest way to drip feed is to do the following: 1. Make sure the first character in the file is % 2. With the control in Command Mode, key in DNC >Enter 3. Send the program from the PC using either Cimco or the Mastercam comm utility. (There are lots of other methods, but this one is the simplest and therefore the best place to start. ) If you get an error, try this: From command mode again, key in SETP > Enter You will now see the parameter settings page for the control. Make sure the baud rate setting matches the setting for that COM port in either MC Comm or Cimco. If that isn't the problem, I'm not sure what it is. If you like, you can e-mail me a sample program and I'll see if I can drip feed it to my Fadal. Edit: I forgot to say that I have one machine running in Format 1 and another in Format 2 and this method works on both. Methinks your post is putting something funky in the program header that is keeping it from drip feeding. Send me a file from that post if you still have trouble.

OK... the simple question first... Do you have % as the first character in the file you are sending? Next, are the parameter settings matching in Cimco and at the control? (COM Port, Stop Bits, Parity, Baud Rate, Data Bits, Mode) I have 2 Fadals w/ CNC 88 controls and I use DNC all the time. It must be something simple.

quote: You might also want to look for "noise" problems. Does the DNC cable pass close to power cables or other machines ? Good point Christian. Even if the cable is too close to a flourescent light fixture you could experience the kind of intermittent data transmission problems you describe. I have 2 older Fadals (circa 1991-1992) and we found through trial and error that slower baud rates = more stable data transfer during DNC operations. HTH

Welcome masterp! Go here to check your current hasp. At the top of the page you will find a HaspInfo program link. Download that and run it and it will tell you if you have hasp3 or hasp4. (You probably have 3 ) Then fill out the form and send it and you should have your new sim in a few days. edit: Thad teh beat me to teh punch!!

Thanks Pete...that's good to know. At first I did use the subfolder switch to import the whole directory, but after the first crash I decided to try just importing a single folder. Same result...crash after importing 10-12 files. Tried it again importing a different single folder but it crashed again. I guess I'll just leave them in the MC9 folder though since I can access them from there.

I'm trying to import my MC9 files into X and X keeps crashing. It will import some files (10-15)then crash. The files that were imported so far are in the proper directory and appear to be OK, but I've got quite a few more to import. I've tried this 3 times and crashed 3 different places, so I don't think it's just a bad file. Mayhaps do I need to import them in smaller batches? Thanks.

Nice to see young people getting interested in this line of work. Welcome to the forum, Exodus! Stick around here long enough and you will no doubt learn enough to 'exodus' straight to the head of the class. Sounds like you may have a possible job offer in the works already.

quote: I'd much rather use keystrokes and not have all those icons cluttering the top of my screen. Me too. I'm just starting to use X and I think finding the cool features is part of the fun. I'm still tied to 9 especially since we had 2 killer weeks last week and this week so I didn't have time to muck about with new software. We just had stuff to get done as quickly as possible and I'm not comfortable enough with X yet to travel at hyper speed. Next week looks a little calmer so maybe I can play around with X a while and get more used to it. BTW...Any NY NJ PA forum members going to 3D training at Prism Engineering Oct 24-26? If so I'll see ya there!

HMMMMMMM... If you could copy your file to the ftp site I'm sure someone can take a look at it for you. It sounds like a strange problem. But it's difficult for others to diagnose a problem without seeing the geometry. If the file is something proprietary that would get you in trouble for posting then we'll just try to solve it on the blind, but if you can post it to the ftp site I'm sure someone will be able to find out what the issue is.

Greg, I hate to be a pain, but are you sure the tool length is set correctly at the machine for the endmill in question? Also, did you check to see that you have 'tip' selected in your tool parameters instead of 'center'for that particular tool? On a 2" ball mill, that's a 1" Z error! Either of these will give the unwanted result you are seeing. I can't imagine it's a problem with the surface if the other tools cut the same surface normally.

quote: I have a problem where one cutter is not recognizing a surface and cutting through it like it is not there - and the next two tools using the same boundary and surface do what they are supposed to do. Welcome Greg! Do you mean it doesn't work in backplot mode or in real operation? If it's in a real operation it could be as simple as a tool length offset being incorrect. If it's not backplotting to the correct depth, check your tip control settings as well as your top of stock and / or clearence plane settings. As for the FTP settings, in Internet Explorer you want Tools> Internet Options> Advanced. Uncheck the 'Use Passive FTP' box if it's checked, and also try checking 'Enable Folder View for FTP sites' if it's not checked. HTH

quote: If you want more room for geometry creation just slide the toolpath window over to the left it worked for me. Alt+O will toggle the ops manager on and off to give you full screen for geomtry creation. If you aren't a keyboard kiddie, click on View> Toggle Ops Manager. I'm just starting to learn X...and it is different...but I'm not ready to start bashing something I've barely learned to use. I'm sure I'll have problems / complaints, but I know where to get the answers I need.

OOPS...good catch Richard. I forgot about that one!

MillingMan, If you use Internet Explorer you may need to enable the FTP setting. Go to Tools>Internet Options>Advanced and check the box 'Enable folder view for FTP sites' which is under the 'Browsing' heading. HTH

quote: I have both installed. Using 9 and playing with X I have not experienced any speed problems at all. Same here. No loss of performance in v9. However, I haven't tried running them simultaneously. I guess I'm afraid I'll cross the streams and cause every molecule in the universe to implode... or something...

Thanks for the info Ezra. I'm still just messing around w/ the sample geometry and toolpaths. I haven't run any live programs in X yet...I'm just getting a feel for what to expect. I'm glad to hear the time estimate is accurate in X because that's a question I get often from management, i.e., 'how long will it take to machine this part?' I still don't like the new format though. I'd rather see straight hrs./ mins. than just a value like 4040.119.

Thanks gcode! That was the ticket. Looks much better now. I still don't like the time thing though! Jim teh don't wanna calculate nuttin.

I've just begun messing around with X and one of the first things I notice I don't like is the backplot function. It seems to jump and flicker and doesn't give a smooth output. I tried slowing the speed slider but it doesn't help. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but I liked the old backplot function. I also liked it when the old backplot gave the time estimate in hours & minutes. It wasn't 100% accurate, but pretty close. Now the backplot tells me 4040.119. What the heck is up with that? I thought software improvements were supposed to make things EASIER. Now I have to calculate 4040.119 into hours / minutes? I thought calculating was the software's job? Seems we took a step backward in this area. Is there a way to display the estimated time in hours / minutes format?

Finally got meh X installed and running today... WOOHOO!!! Now I have to overcome that feeling of being a complete idiot who can't even sketch a line.