@cncappsjames that is exactly what i mean.

@5th Axis CGI yes but then it seems more productive to just use a pocket toolpath and make it spiral out to in.

Is it possible to let a horizontal operation run from the outside to inside of the surface.

Yes I could use pocket or face but when there are multiple towers with flat faces on different levels the horizontal operation is very easy to use..

Except for the fact that it always goes from the in to the outside and its not always possible to leave enough stock to prevent material from breaking

I'm not sure if i understand completely but have you tried to simply offset all surfaces, make a solid from these surfaces and choose that as stock in property's - stock setup?

thnx again, I'll look into that!

It's manual programming and thanks a lot, that solved the problem.

Now you're talking about macro programming, i,ve been looking for a possibility to use that but haven't found it so far. do you got any advice on that subject?

HI there,

So i have a problem setting the right side on contours when selecting wireframes by colour. We have large quantities of PVC parts so give the wireframe different colours for quick programming. unfortunately is goes always for conventional milling but i want to use climb milling. is there a way to make sure this is the go to strategy in stead of conventional?

On 5/15/2019 at 9:50 PM, JoshC said:

part was probably already shipped in 2015 lol, this topic has died a long time ago and someone brought it back from the grave so no point to keep making suggestions for him lol

To be honest, I find a lot of useful information in old topics. So maybe there is no point making suggestions for him, but it might still be useful for others who run into similar problems in newer versions.. there is always a point to sharing information!

Also make sure to check if the rest roughing option isn't on while there is no material to find...

On 2/17/2019 at 4:38 PM, M4573RMZD said:

I Recently came across a post which got locked because some kind of war started. People were trashing each other, throwing things at one another tossing tables and smashing chairs across everyones back but in the light of the fallout which looked like something of an aftermath of a RS-28 SARMAT ICBM,  some thing good came out of that thread.

Colin GilChrist (Which I nicknamed Mill-Christ due to his eapprentice lessons because this guy really knows his stuff on a level which I have never seen before) mentioned how to create new toolpath groups and subgroups and me being new to Mastercam I knew how to do this and understood the purpose of this but Colin showed a way that brought it to a whole new level. I am assuming that most people know this already but he showed the picture below.

What struck me in this picture was the subgroups for specific operations.....ie; roughing, drilling, pocketing and so-on. I never thought to use toolpath groups like this before. I only used them to separate different operations. So in it;s simplest form.... the next time I'm drilling a series of holes I will create a group called Centre Drilling another group called drilling, and another group called tapping. The reason why this is recommended is that lets say I need to adjust the parameters for centre drilling I can find them easily as they are in their own group. 

Because of Colin's post my Mastercam files will never look the same again.

Thanks Colin.

I know most of you are saying..."well what did you thing the TOOLPATH group was for?? DUH!

35.214

I use Vericut or check programs for crashes and stuff. But vericut doest like these toolpath groups, if i make to many groups it won't see the tools in the lower groups.

A solution is to make a group on top which contains all tools used in the complete program. It works but its not efficient.. and i like things to be efficient.

Anyone got experience with this?

On 2/22/2019 at 1:52 PM, jlw™ said:

Ok, I know what you mean then.  You can't record macros but you can use hotkeys as well as build nethooks and chooks.

What exactly are you wanting to do?

The idea was to use it for rough milling parts with similar shapes. But i guess the Feature Base Machining could be used for that. I just haven't had time to dive into that.

What I've seen so far is that you need a solid part to make that work instead of a bunch of surfaces.

Does anyone use FBM and have good experience?

By the way, thanks for the feedback all!

Neither I guess. I used to work in DEPOCAM before where I had the ability to simply record a series of actions and save it as a macro. But maybe I'm getting the therms wrong here..

Hi there people,

I'm new to this forum but came here looking for a guide on how to use macro's in Mastercam2018.

Can anyone please point me in the right direction?