On my Mori Lathes I like to use G112. It can be turned on through the misc values button on the tool path parameters page. This will cause the c-values in the g-code to represent Y values rather than degrees. Your cnc control will then interpolate these values to make a smoother path. You don't need a Y-axis machine to do this. My machines are C-axis only and it works just fine. It will also be considerably less lines of g-code. (edit) - I am using the mpmaster post to do this. When I used the generic fanuc post it did not work.

Go to your machine def for that machine. Edit general machine parmeters. Look on the tools/materials library tab. There is a folders button there. Make sure it is pointing to X4 and not X3.

quote: That about sums it up for Mazatrol!!! At least the 4-axis Mazatrol control could synchronize top and bottom turrets. It even had balanced feed and balanced depth cutting. BTW, This was way back in the 80's.

Depending on chucking pressure you will see a standard height jaw deflect outward (on the face). I have checked several new hydraulic chucks on various new Mazak lathe installations. Typically I have seen .002 to .004 face deflection at 300 PSI. I have seen it on Kitagawa and antoher Japanese brand name that slips my mind at the moment. This was a test I did on my own after a customer complained of the bar stock slipping back in the jaws while turning. The problem ended up being mostly bar whip. Some bars ran fine, the bent ones would slip back unless you lowered the RPM. This seems to be a fairly common problem when using 12 foot bar lengths.

Use "Primitives", set it to surfaces, create half a cylinder using the same radius you used to roll the arrow. Then use the Surface "trim surface to curve" commmand. When it asks for the surface and area to keep, just move the base of the indicator so it is inside the arrow geometry and click.

I have successfully picked up an OD thread on a cnc lathe after re-chucking a few times. It was tedious and time consuming. Basically I would mash some modeling clay into the threads, set the RPM to very slow, set the angle of infeed to 0 degrees, offset the tool up higher than the thread depth per side, and then single block thru a few passes. Then stop the machine to see if the new thread was in the middle of the clay. If it wasn't centered I would offset the Z-axis and try again. As it got closer to center I would then set the X offset to go a little deeper. Just keep tweaking the Z and X offsets a little at a time.

quote: You can have more than one shape Following along the same path, but it will result into seperate solids. Well it all makes sense to me now. The statement above combined with reading the help file for the umpteenth time, and a little more experimenting, has cleared it up for me. I use this teapot file when I teach surface modeling and never had any trouble. It was interesting to try it as a solid and learn what we did in this thread. For me, I would just like to thank everyone that participated in this discussion.

Here is the link to the page: http://www.emastercam.com/files/x3_mill_l3.html Its the file named tutorial 8 wirframe

Its not even working if I just create two closed half arcs in the front plane at different Z levels.

Been playing with it for an hour now. I have the same results as you. I have tried rotating one of the arcs to make sure it was parallel to the other arc. I have tried creating a plane off the large arc and projecting the small arc to a distance from that plane. Can only sweep one or the other arc along the path. Like you said, did it in surfaces and converted to a solid and its good.

Better in "next release". Did not get the alarm. But still had to use "heal solid" when opening.

It is a step file from Pro-E. I will try the "next release" after I finish with class today.

I have a file that comes up with "Parasolid® Kernel Interface Error: PK Error Code: 547 - non-manifold body or boundary. This error comes up when first choosing FBM Mill. Anybody know what causes this?

I and others have been running X3/MU1 and X4 Beta 3 on Windows 7 for a couple of months now. I have not found any problems. I had a little trouble installing X4. I had to change the properties of the setup.exe file to be compatible, but I can't remember if I made it compatible to Vista or XP to get it to install.

Try turning off roll around corners. I have sometimes noticed that it makes verify look funny, but it seems to machine OK.

A few years back I bought a new computer that came with an ATI Radeon X300 video card. The computer worked fine for the first two weeks. Then I installed Mastercam. The computer would crash every time I tried to open Mastercam. Some times after restarting the computer, I would just move the mouse and the computer would freeze and lock up. I threw away the ATI card and put in an Nvida based card and all the problems went away. Do like gcode says and try downloading new video drivers first.

This is correct for a Fanuc control. Each sub has a different program number starting with the letter O. M98P___ calls the subrprogam.

John, this is the roll die parameter screen,but I don't see a place to key in CW/CCW or a degree. Is there a different place to key in this info?

When you put it this way it sounds like a reasonable request. You might try posting this explanation and request in the Mastercam Enhancement Dicussion Board. This board may not always show up when you first enter the forum page, just click on the mastercam logo to see more boards. I have just the opposite opinion on perspective view. When I go from Mastercam to Solidworks, the use of perspective view makes geometery look strange and not parallel to me. I have never needed perspective view to get my parts programmed. I suppose it just what we get used to using.

Yes, for some reason verify of that roll die example makes it look like it is cutting 90 degrees out of position, but its really not. I think this is just a limitation of verify. There is a setting in mach def, but it just moves all the tool paths 90 degrees from where it was. Ron is right, if you look at the output gcode closely you will see the c-axis angles are within the same range as the other tool paths. Since this is an In-House Solutions example maybe someone from In-House could give us some better insight as to why this occurs with this example.

Hey Pete, I always appreciate your input, keep it coming. Comments like the one above is when I can really appreciate your siggy. Forums just make it too easy to vent frustrations sometimes.

you can control the feed rate on the thread shape parameter page. Change the radio button from threads/inch, to inches/thread, and set the value to .875 or twice that amount? or half that amount? It depends on how you interpret that call out on the drawing.

Is it crashing right away when you right click and pick setup sheet, or do you get a setup sheet and it crashes when you hit print?

From Machienery's Handbook: Lead is the distance a screw thread advances axially in one turn. On a single-thread screw, the lead and pitch are identical: on a double-thread screw, the lead is twice the pitch: on a triple-thread screw, the lead is three times the pitch, etc.

There is a "multi-start" button on the "thread cut parameters" page. Set it to 2 starts. You might have to double (or cut in half) your "lead" setting on the "thread shape parameters" page to get it to output the right feed rate. Post some g-code and see what it outputs for feed.