I use the OSG guidelines for most everything I do for 3D (regardless of cutter brand). http://www.osgtool.com/_branding/books/80059ca-v5/80059ca-v5.html

This conversation stems from the Guhring catalog I received. It says the cutting tool diameters are H10 tolerance. I also received a Fraisa catalog. In that catalog it calls out an E8 tolerance on their cutting diameters. I just wanted to make sure I was understanding those tolerances. Thanks for all the responses.

I just want to make sure I am understanding this correctly. If a cutting tool catalog calls out a H10 tolerance on the cutting diameter, the chart says 10mm-18mm is +0/-.07. If I am reading this correctly - the diameter is then +0/-.0027"?

Lie!

I already have them working on it. I posted here just to see if someone else is using MCX for this application. Programming the charmilles is not that hard, but we are trying to minimize errors by the operator entering incorrect coordinates. We also want to reduce the amount of machine idle time while the operator is writing the programs.

Does anyone use Mastercam to program their sinker EDM's? We are looking at a large Ingersoll Eagle Sinker and was told by using a custom post we could use MCX to create the burn code for the EDM. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlQ14EmL3jU According to this video it can be done with Powermill. My boss is looking for feedback from anyone using MCX to program their sinkers (we currently have (2) Charmilles. Thanks!

Nevermind. I found them. I was on the wrong Triag website.

Does anyone know if models are available for the Triag vises? I am putting a presentation together to transition into modular workholding and would be great to layout a machine with the vises in place.

So I was playing with the profiles this morning. The Dell factory settings runs the Benchmark 2.0 file @ 4:55. Solidworks profile runs @ 4:25 and the NX profile runs @ 4:29. I hope to have time later today to try some of the others.

My company just recently purchased a Dell Precision T5810 workstation for me. It came with the Dell Precision Optimizer software. Does anyone have any experience with this software? It is supposed to help optimize the hardware for different CAD packages. I see that it has NX and Solidworks settings, but nothing for any CAM software. I am curious if I should keep it or ditch it. Thoughts? Thanks!

I save all my MCX/DXF files to a directory on our server. When upgrading from version to version MCX will update the files in that directory as well. I have the same files in X5, X6, X7, and X8. To avoid this I put them separate on the server with our other MCX files. Glad I could be of help!

I have had problems with rib cutters in the past. I define them in the tool manager and they display correctly in the tool manager. The problem I get is when it goes into the simulator - it doesn't recognize the taper between the shoulder and shank and sometime would show a false collision. What I do now is I create geometry files for all my rib cutters and those display correctly in the simulator. If I need to change a should or something (grind it back) I just copy the geometry to a level and leave the original file intact. Have you tried creating a custom geometry file for your center drill and seeing if that would work?

I have always had trouble getting good consistent results with the lead in and lead outs using the linking parameters. I usually get something like this (see below). Any ideas how to make them all smooth transitions?

Dell Precision T5810 Xeon E5-1650 V3 @ 3.5GHz 32Gb DDR4 256Gb SSD 1Tb HDD Quadro K4000 4:55

I haven't used it since multi threading came around.

My box came from Dell (Precision 5810). Device manager shows the SSD drive as a SK Hynix SH920 2 SCSI Disk Device. Dunno if that's a good one or not.

I just got a new box yesterday. Xeon E5-1650 CPU, 32Gb DDR4 RAM, Quadro K4200 video, 256GB SSD + 1TB 7200rpm HDD. Win 7 Pro My question - to utilize the SSD - is there a special setup on the installation of Mastercam? Do I put all the files on the SSD? Or some on the HDD to save space?

I guess maybe I should have asked which manufacturers to stay away from.

Another question came up yesterday - what brand of 5-axis machine would be a good fit for mold machining (cores and cavities hard milling)? Heard some good things about Fidia, Makino, and Hermle. What are other good machines worth looking into?

I use stock models for roughing only. When trying to do finish passes in a stock model it takes A LOT of time to process all the moves and makes your files greater in size. I find it easier just to use the simulator - faster and keeps file size smaller. I have also seen that processing drilled holes increases the generating time of a stock model. There have even been some instances where the stock model wouldn't generate because of some drilling ops. http://www.emastercam.com/board/topic/65677-stock-model/ Above link is a thread I use for reference. I use an initial stock shape tolerance of .01 and path/tool shape tolerances both at .003 for majority of my stock models.

Another thing I noticed - as Mastercam is sitting idle - I see in my Windows Task Manager that there is 12% CPU usage. I look into my processes tab and see Mastercam is at 12% CPU usage. It's not doing anything but it is using the CPU? Anyone know what it's processing when sitting idle?

Ok. Found the multi-thread settings and - funny - it was set to 4. I set it to 7 so we'll see how this helps. From what you said - if I had it set to 4 - why would it take all 8 cores? Or because it's hyper-threading - is it asking for actual physical cores?

I have multi-threading enabled. Where do I set the # of cores to use? Also it's the Waterline (Restmill) operations that are taking the time to crunch.

The only thing I need to be doing while it's processing is creating additional toolpaths. Our molds are not very complex. Current mold I am working on is 10" x 9" x 3" cavity block with around 1200 faces selected. Some of the waterline restmill toolpaths (that take all my cores) take over 30 minutes to generate (.0005 total tolerance - .0001" cut, .0002 arc and .0002 smooth). Thanks for the feedback Ron.

I posted this in the other forum and haven't received any responses yet. When processing a HST Hybrid, HST Waterline - it seems that Mastercam is using ALL my cores for 1-2 toolpaths and more or less brings my computer to a crawl. I have a Xeon E5-1620 @ 3.6 GHz, 16GB of RAM and an ATI FirePro V7900 video card so I believe I have plenty of horsepower. I know I should be able to process toolpaths in the background and continue to work - but it seems now with X8 if it's processing in the background my computer crawls and more or less becomes unusable. Are others experiencing this or do I have a setting wrong somewhere? Thanks!