Span your the man! That got me where I needed to be. 88Matt, you're on point as well. The geometry wasn't nearly as accurate as I needed, so I created everything in 100 scale and then rescaled everything when the geometry was created. Thank you all.

I way overthought this, I've always used toolpaths/next menu/circ tlphts/thread mill for cutting internal threads in round geometry, but never knew you could apply that to any closed chain and cut threads externally. As this circle is sort of elliptical I am having trouble understanding how I can create a helix that follows it's path (as the helix/spiral function just creates round geometry). "Contour - ramp - compensation off Backplot - save as geometry" I'll look at this too, thanks span. I was almost thinking I would have to creat a solid of the contour, create the helical geometry inside the solid and then draft them, although it was just an idea, I'm not sure if it would have worked. Thanks for all the help, I'll get back to it.

I am trying to draw a chain which I can use as a tool path to cut a form thread tool. As you know a form thread tap isn't round, but has sort of a squared off profile. I have the profile drawn from 4 indidual arc sections creating a closed chain, but cannot come up with a way in which to create a helix that will follow it. Does anyone have any experience creating this sort of geometry? Is there a way to drag the end point so it begins and ends on the same x and y coordinate but changes z height in regards to the pitch so I could just copy the geometry? Maybe I'm not approaching this from the right angle, any insight would be appreciated. -Bill [ 11-20-2006, 12:52 AM: Message edited by: Bill Mellander ]

Is it possible to adjust the shading settings so that the drawing appears solid, but has crisp color on the top surface? I want to get rid of the reflection of the overhead light(it makes the colors appear lighter when I save drawing as an bmp image). Thanks for your help as always gentlemen. -Bill

sweet, I'll try that out. Thanks for your help.

Is is possible to save a mastercam file as a raster image such as a Jpeg or something along those lines? I curious to know as I'd like to use design to draw things I can save to my web. Thanks for your help.

Thank you both, That did it. I appreciate the quick help.

mill, gms1 and code breaker sorted me out, I didn't have the proper value in my retract box. Thank you guys

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am having trouble writing drill paths. On v9 I need to rapid 3.5" below the material surface (hole already exists) w/ a flat bottom drill, feed .25", and rapid out, then move to the next location. I have four holes to perform this operation on, so any combination I come up with either leaves me feeding the entire distance of the hole, or not retracting all the way out of the hole. What is the proper way to set this up?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am having trouble writing drill paths. On v9 I need to rapid 3.5" below the material surface (hole already exists) w/ a flat bottom drill, feed .25", and rapid out, then move to the next location. I have four holes to perform this operation on, so any combination I come up with either leaves me feeding the entire distance of the hole, or not retracting all the way out of the hole. What is the proper way to set this up?

I am having trouble writing drill paths. On v9 I need to rapid 3.5" below the material surface (hole already exists) w/ a flat bottom drill, feed .25", and rapid out, then move to the next location. I have four holes to perform this operation on, so any combination I come up with either leaves me feeding the entire distance of the hole, or not retracting all the way out of the hole. What is the proper way to set this up?