There are so many different ways to correct this issue.

Assuming your machine is in good working order and your tool geometry is good as well as your length offsets.

You could choose any/all of the following methods to correct it.

1 - choose the top surface as a check surface/avoidance surface

2- by using a boundary

3- by using Z depth limits

4- by using slope values. Only cut surfaces between 1 and 90 degrees of slope. ( assuming the top surface is flat/ zero degrees )

Carmen

On 10/9/2021 at 11:01 AM, Dan@home said:

This happens in all versions. One day it happens, next time it doesn't. Sometimes changing planes around works.

This is the most accurate statement in this thread. This issue has been happening since it was introduced in the software. The ONLY fix I have ever come across is to completeyly close Mastercam and re-launch it.

Carmen

On 6/7/2021 at 4:21 PM, Matthew Hajicek - Conventus said:

On this I disagree.

When I buy something for the business, be it a machine, software, or anything else, appearances are really low on the priority list.  Capability, speed, and efficiency are what matter.  It can be ugly as heck and have a steep learning curve, but if it's 10% faster once I'm up and running and in practice with it, that's the win.  We're in this to make money, not to put on a show.

Clicking icons, in ribbons or in right click menus, can never be as fast as touch-typing through dropdown menus.  It's not possible.  If they just let me set the access keys back to something that made sense, I'd be a happy camper.

I agree 100% with you.

Using the 3D seat, I would use High speed area clearance to rough it out with a small ball end mill, then follow it up with waterline cutting from slope angle 30 degrees to 90 degrees, and then use raster cutting from slope angle 0 degrees to 35 degrees.

Carmen

12 hours ago, crazy^millman said:

Depending on the Material. I was tearing tools up ramping into Inconel and Ti. We predrilled them and the tools latest 3-6 times longer.

There are always exceptions, I agree.

To get the most out of the newest tools like Optirough will require you to drop old habits like pre-drilling. Not only does this take extra programming time, but it also adds to the workload on the shop floor setting up needless tools. Optirough will allow you to ramp your tool down to the appropriate depth to begin the clearing passes. Use it.......you won't be disappointed.

Carmen 

This is really a simple question to answer unless I'm missing something. You can do exactly what you are looking to do with the old (legacy) toolpaths. Select  Mill toolpaths/surface finish/pencil     In the last tab of the toolpath settings, you can select "one pass" and it will accomplish what you are looking for. I would use "window" to select all the solid faces of one cluster, plus the floor face as my drive surfaces/faces to do the calculation.

I too would program just a single cluster and then transform the toolpath to the other locations.

Carmen

I understand. Going by the photo you posted, it shows it as a 1.5" diameter. There are many work arounds. That is just part of life with Mastercam.

Seems like it has more to do with your tool description.  From what I see, the tool is a 1.5" diameter with a .250 corner radius which results in a 1" flat area.

95% of 1.0"  is .950"

If you want to get a larger stepover, reduce your corner radius of the tool. Highly unlikely that a 1.5" tool would have a .250" radius.

Carmen

Perhaps a quick instruction on how to unregister/register would be helpful to other with the same issue.

Carmen

Same issue here. Very frustrating when designing something.

Carmen

Every situation is different, but picture a 4" square block with a 3 in bore through it. If the block expands, the bore gets larger too.

You are also correct with your description

20 hours ago, JoshC said:

D isn't correct either because why would we leave extra stock on a part if it expanded... if anything cut it to size and then machine it down if it expanded since you would have more stock on the part, we wouldn't leave extra stock on a part if we expected it to grow otherwise you would be compensating for a growing part by adding more stock, that doesn't make sense. 

 

Think about it...………… if you have a block with a bore, and the block expands, then the bore gets larger and thus reduces stock, not increasing stock.

Carmen

Mastercam has no ability to calculate the accel/decel of your machine. The tighter the tolerance, the more any high speed machine is gong to slow down in the corners. The only way to make the times be closer would be to loosen the tolerance control values or eliminate cycle 32, however, I have no doubt you would end up with poor quality parts.

Carmen

We did the same as above. We have full control of the tolerance control through misc integers.

Carmen

This crap has been happening for many versions of Mastercam. It's not a new issue at all.

Carmen

Waterline with "extra passes in shallow areas" enabled would work just fine too. If you are just learning Mastercam, just try to stick with the high-speed toolpaths. Once you learn them well, they will cover most every job you do. The old legacy toolpaths work in many cases too, but why waste your time learning old techniques.

Carmen

Hitachi would be my first choice followed by OSG. Both pricey, but Hitachi endmills are simply the best I have ever used.

Carmen

5th Axis suggestion will work, however, if the groove is important, then his suggestion won't work due to steep and shallow areas. The best way would be to offset the edge geometry to create a centerline and then project the toolpath onto the solid/surfaces. This will maintain proper depth of the contour.

Upon closer inspection, I see your contour is a full radius, so 5th axis suggestion will work just fine.

Carmen

Pete, you nailed it. That's what it was. The shop computers were still running update 2.1   That never even crossed my mind.

Everything is working as it should now.

Thanks for the help.

Carmen

21 minutes ago, nickbe10 said:

Save the file out of Solidworks as a parasolid (x_t or x_b). They should be able to import this (or open it) directly into MC.

Always the bullet proof method for file (model) transfer.

Thanks and I am aware of the other file formats, but I'm not looking to add more complication in the engineering dept. I can open the Solidworks SLDPRT file on my computer without any issue at all. I do not have Solidworks installed on my PC. It is the shop computers that can't open the file. Basically Mastercam shows that the file they are trying to open contains no entities.

I tried moving the file from the server to the local and open it from the desktop and I still have the same issue.

I searched the Mastercam.com forum and found an old article about registering the Solidworks .dll from the advanced configuration and that didn't do the trick either.

2 hours ago, Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc. said:

Are you downloading the files locally first or accessing them directly from the server?

directly from the server. We have done it this way for a decade without issue.

Hey guys,

I did a search on this topic but couldn't find anything related to my issues. I can open Solidwords 2019 part files on my computer in the office, however, the guys on the shop floor either get no import at all, or, they get an alarm that they don't have a Solidworks licence. We are using Mastercam 2019. We are retrieving the files from our server. When I try the shop computers, I go, File open / solidworks files/      now I see the file that I want ( lets say it is 500KB ) and if I select Options, I see that it shows zero entities. I can open the same file on my computer without any issues.

Can anyone shed any light on this issue?  Thanks in advance.

Carmen

Here, I threw a few different options into the file for you to look at.

3-340-036-008-B.mcam

10 hours ago, wojtek90 said:

Should I create new geometry or use tool off set?

I didn't open your file, but it appears from the photo that those are ramps sloping down towards the outside. If you want to clean up those steps, figure out what size radius you can live with in the corner and use the appropriate endmill to achieve that. You can make multiple passes with a small step-over to blend perfectly. You shouldn't need to create any geometry at all. You can use the legacy pencil toolpath, or the HST pencil toolpath. There are so many ways to derive the toolpath.

Carmen