I am moving more and more to 2021 from 2019 and one of the thing I don't care for is the tool bar that changes at the top when you are working along. I find it more cumbersome than helpful. Is there a way to turn this off? I like the old standard of it stays where I had it. Thanks.

When I first started out in this trade, the first shop I ever worked in used IPR on the mills. It made life easy for the reasons mentioned above. You could plug the info in from the back of the insert box and get a baseline. If you changed the RPM, the feed rate stayed the same. It was easy to go from mill to lathe also. Tapping calculations are easier as well. I feel like IPM is ok, but I find myself leaning on what the actual chip load is. Thankfully, Mastercam will figure it out for you and it's one less calculation I have to do. Everything here at this shop is IPM, and it's not a big deal. If I was to start my own shop I would probably use IPR for continuity throughout. The old work smarter, not harder adage I guess.

I agree with everything said above. I don't post a lot on here, but have learned a lot from Ron just from reading his posts. You have given me some Ah Ha! moments and helped me more than you can know. I have been watching the cam instructor series and look forward to learning from you for years to come!

It's here in 2019. Not sure in 2021

Could you use model prep/change face to make them all the same color except the odd ball and then use the quick mask to select them?

Update on this... I updated to Patch 2 this morning. First thing I did was try these tool paths. In backplot, the tool still comes in upside down when you run just the curve 5 axis path. In verify, the move to origin is gone as promised. However, the tool wants to run upside down still. Sending this off to my re-seller this am to get sent up.

This is the card in my computer. Seems to run well doing medium sized files and multi-axis tool paths.

The posted code is correct. If you run just that op in backplot the tool comes in incorrectly (upside down) but as you step through it, it flips the correct way and runs the rest of backplot correctly. If you run all three ops together, the orientation of the tool remains correct the whole time. I don't know if that information will help or not, but figured I would pass it along.

Hopefully this link works! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k1z8rluERGThrE_HaLWO_Yu-8KkgfWv4/view?usp=sharing

Thanks guys. Dylan, I have updated to Update 1 so it is probably going to addressed in update 2. You are correct in thinking that I have it tied to 4 axis. I am following a wireframe curve and pointing to the origin point to maintain tool orientation. Ron, I have double checked everything I can think of in 2019 to 2021 as far as settings. I may have missed a checkbox though. I will work up a watered down file and share it. I learned this trick from you so it is pretty fitting that you responded. It has always worked great and I use it to miss some of our fixturing. I thank you for all that you share here! This is not a huge deal for me. I just skipped it in verify and simulation as it is tried and true. I also double checked the posted code and it is correct also. I can get by without too much of a hassle. File will be coming shortly.

Hi guys, I sent this question to my reseller yesterday, but haven't heard back from them yet. I am trying to move over to 2021 from 2019 and am seeing an issue with Verify and Simulation. Please see the attached video. As you can see the tool is coming in from the wrong side of the curve. Also it seems to move to the origin when the op is complete. When I run just this toolpath alone in back plot, the tool comes in backwards on the approach and then flips to the correct orientation. Has anyone seen this before? Is it a setting that I am missing? Thanks in advance!

Thank you for the update. If you need anything on either of those issues, feel free to message me. I would like to get things worked out.

It's not fixed in 2021....I reported it to my reseller and he sent it up to you guys. This happens in both verify and simulator. All I did was bring in a 2019 file, regen it in 2021 and this is the results. https://youtu.be/9w8_KE50H-4

I had never noticed it there before. I have wished it was turned on though. Just toggled it on in 2019 and will give it a try. I learned something today! It's a good day! Thanks guys!

I like the pmesh idea. I have never liked using stl files for the reasoning that Ron mentioned. One of my "big" files is about 98 megs. I know this is a work around but it should allow use to update to 2021 and get back to the forefront of the software. I will try the pmesh suggestions and look at the stock model tolerance and go from there. I for sure like everything being in one mastercam file. It makes things a lot neater and flexible in the future. Thanks for all the help guys!

Thanks for the idea. Normally I make 3-4 stock models per part but there are some that I have 8-9. I will give that a shot going forward and see which way seems to flow better work flow wise.

This seems to work for me. Plus sides is I can actually use stock models. Big Plus. Also the regen time of the stock models is faster since it doesn't need to look at all the tool paths again. Double edge sword is you lose the associativity of the op driving the stock models. If I go back and change a tool path the stock model doesn't go dirty anymore as it is reading it from a file and not from those ops. This is good when changing something minor like a lead in/out but has potential to be bad if I change a stepdown. Negative is multiple STL files in the part file folder. It's not a huge deal at all as I am working off a server so space doesn't really matter to me. Just something to be aware of.

I will give those suggestions a shot guys. Thanks!

Well....drawing in my own transition moves between paths didn't fix it.....

Thanks for the ideas guys. I changed all my retracts to 25 inches and no change. I also did force tool change and no change there either. Interestingly enough, verify (now called simulator I guess) shows no gouges so this seems to be an issue with stock models only. My models come from Solidworks. They are developed by the engineering department. It is important that I use the stock models especially when we are dealing with forgings. If the stock models are invalid I am pretty much stuck as I drive most of my tool paths off the stock. I think I am going to draw some wire frame up and use the curve multi axis path to force the transitions between paths. This may be a way to band-aid it for now. I will report back.

I created a separate topic so that this topic can stay on track.

As I mentioned in the Mastercam 2021 thread I have an issue with the stock models in Mastercam 2020/2021. I contacted my reseller. They sent it up to CNC software and they logged it as Defect "D-39190". Per Mastercam, they have moved the defect up to High Priority. Hopefully they can get it figured out and we can update here at work. While Mastercam describes it as "Stock Model shows gouges with Area Rest Roughing operations" it happens on other ops, just not Area rest roughing. I worked up a dummy file to share with the community. FIrst stock model is good, second one....well you will see. Stock Model Defect.ZIP

I will get something worked up. Thanks for your interest. I will create another topic also to not deter from this one. I would really like to get this put behind me and be able to move to 2021. Lots of changes that we are missing out on.

Same results with my retracts to 25.0 ABS and Full vertical retract picked in the tool paths.....I was going to throw a multi axis linking tool path in to try that, but it's asking for an access code (that's new, we have multi axis seats here of course).

I will give that a shot and let you know. Thanks for the idea.