When I was younger and dumber I thought some stuff was "retarded" as well. Now I have learned to stop, listen, and observe. I program both styles on different machines with great success. Some in this forum are starting to sound like they came from alt.machines.cnc "Hey this guy sounds pretty smart, lets jump on and ride his wagon." Some people don't have enough common sense to make a decision for themselves.

From a cnc router standpoint I know that programming from machine zero has it's uses. I used to feel the same way as James does, till I run auto fixturing machines and multiple head with servo controlled spreads. I also use a custom post for a twin table machine that selects the left table for x- and right table for x+.

These walls appear to be vertical. Are you trying to profile the top of the wall?

You can do what you want with your post. set subout=1 on all your main stuff. and subout=0 on all your subroutines then last thing in your post use mergesub or mergeaux. Someone who is alot better on post than me can help you do this.

The machine I have in mind is not a Thermwood. We have a Thermwood and that is all I will say about that. I need a quick visual way of checking everything without setting up indicators ect.

I need a quick way of verifing that my machine has homed up correctly and that the spindle is in line. After indicating everything I am thinking of mounting a wooden block in a back corner and drilling a hole with B & C at 45 deg. Then each morning or when in doubt run that program and see if the tool hits the hole. If not, investigate farther. What do you all think? Do any of you use a quick check of any kind? My C axis got off 1.2 deg the other day and you can't see it, but it sure showed up when we tried to cut parts. We could have easily missed this on some parts we run, and it really shows up on others.

quote: Or maybe a dream during your pre-lunch nap....? Jimmy, WTF is wrong with that? BTW Have you gotten your speach up to speed yet? I hear you can get in quiet a bit of trouble in the big city for talking slow.

Now my laptop has downloaded sp2 and is upgrading again. WTF?

Your post may be adding safe z retract to your program that mcam does not generate. Alot of my programs will not verify without a crash but run fine because my post takes the tool to z2. between cuts.

Weird Question. My laptop which has been giving me a heck of a time since it upgraded to sp2, did an auto update today and went back to sp1. Anyone else seen this? Has microsoft discovered a demon in sp2? [ 09-23-2004, 10:36 AM: Message edited by: Travis Buchanan ]

After doing all of the above if you still show enities do a ramsaver. On large drawings I have had the level manager show enities that were not there untill I do a ramsaver.

oak, Look at SL laser projector for this. They will pay for them self in cycle time you are using for probing boarders. I also had a cms with probe & puck. If you are doing ones and twos stick with the puck. But a laser projector is the greatest things for boardered, craped cornered and fancy face tops around.

I don't know much about milling machines, but here is a question I have pondered many times. A) Buy a high price heavy duty machine that will last for 20 years for 300k. or Buy a meidium duty machine that will last for 10 years for 150k. Each has its advantage/disatvantage. With the heavy duty you get years of service and everyone gets trained up and used to operating the machine. With the lesser machine you can upgrade technoligy in 10 years and usually get another year of warranty. I personally like upgrading to new equipment more often.

Matt Q did you look at it yet?

I put the file up on the ftp as "Curve 5-axis Lines.zip" I had to select every other line as tool vectors. I am open to any suggestions as how to do the size cuts a better way. I have already tried swarf but had a lot of tool drag where it did not stay as normal to the surface as i wanted it to. This is a 5-axis cut but I want the tool to stay as normal as posible to the fixture with the secondary axis "B", so that the contact of the tool with the material stays realitively equal. Clear as mud right?

Is there a maximum number of vector lines you can select? I keep bombing out this tool path. I have 350 vector lines. Help!!!

Approx 1200 feet. Before I moved down here average elevation was 3500 feet.

Hey don't forget to throw in a little altitude factor. Not all of us are working at sea level. Travis teh 14.5 psi in teh mountains.

Soooo Katie, How did everything go for you down in Atlanta?

Top of stock is greyed out under surface parameters. I am putting the file on the ftp. 1666.mc9

It is unchecked. It is also greyed out.

Hardmill, It is on its way to ya.

ok I will try again later.

For some reason I cant get to the ftp.

How do you keep the tool from cutting Z+ air? Cut depths are absolute min of -1. and max of -6. But on the 1st pass it cuts the stock to leave on drive surface. All other depth cuts act like they should. I am putting the file up on the ftp. 1666.mc9