Time to get those carbide inserts into the wire machine and give them a new edge. Yes I have seen this done. It's insane and pointless and a huge waste of money and time but when your boss is really really cheap that's what you get. If you are using DME's P-20 base I would use extra caution on drilling. For the last 3 years or so that steel has had quite a bit of hard spots. It's also a huge pain when machining small detail in core and cavities.

It takes some experimentation to achieve the finishes you want. I have a new computer now so I don't hesitate to go to .0002 or less on tolerance on final fishing as the processing time is not an issue any more. Like other people have said: you have to work with the limitations of your machines and control. If you have a computer that can crunch your tool path fairly quick you can tighten the tolerances to your liking. It takes time to master all the surface tool paths, so keep at it and good luck. Any questions in particular and you will always find someone who can provide you an answer here.

It's been many moons for me, but don't indexers have a feed ratio that you have to apply to your milling feed when you mill rotations?

What is the depth you are cutting?

I've had to resort to picking 3 points on a plane or a line. Not exactly an enhancement..........

I've been having the same issue. MC wants me to pick a line or 3 points on a plane. Has something changed or is this a bug?

I upgraded to Win10 only to experience screen resolution problems. That might be the problem for you, chun yu. Our IT guy at work said to wait to upgrade until Microsoft issues its first service release. Then maybe some of the drivers incompatibility issues will be cleared.

It's been a while but I think your disc has a "repair install" that doesn't affect your current settings. Can anyone verify this?

Never mind. LOL I just noticed that things set to "main level is always visible" instead of "only main level is visible." Mondays........... Edit: Thanks jlw.

I noticed that when I move items to a level that is not visible, that level then becomes visible and I have to open Level Manager to make it invisible. Did I change something in my config by accident? I'm not finding anything in config about that. Anyone else experience that?

The problem was that the default value for "Sip pockets smaller than" was too large. How did I miss that? Time for a vacation, maybe. Thanks everyone for their help.

I don't see this setting. Does it go by some other name? I'm using High Speed Roughing, btw.

I wish I could, but, no, I can't. I did what Rick recommended and that tool path hugs the PL OK. Only issue is the tool is not reaching deepest area of cavities. I played with max/min depths as well. These high speed tool paths give me all kinds of problems when I work with small geometry.

I did that. But my tool path is still cutting above and not following parting line. And it's not machining the deepest areas in the cavities. I'm going to search online and try to find a tutorial. Thanks for your help.

When I want to use "Rest Material" within Surface High Speed I get a warning that operation does not have a STL. Where does one select STL file?

No luck. Is there some specific examples of using stock model that I can look at?

I'm playing with the STL file. Let's see what happens.

This has been bugging me for some time. I'm cutting a sloped parting line and then I need to cut two cavities that are below said PL. I'm trying to find a way to get rid of all those step downs that just cut air as. As far as I can see, MC doesn't have a roughing tool path that follows the existing z levels of PL. Has anyone run into this as well? Is there a work around? Sorry I can't upload a file.

Why don't you try "Surface-Scallop?"

Also take a look at the setting asking you the size of the tool you used prior. When this happens to me it's usually because I forgot to set my tool plane correctly. The part about "contact your Mastercam reseller" seems very odd, though.

Just a guess: maybe use a smaller tool as your .25 em doesn't have the room to dance.

I was just about to ask if you were posting with "Post 3D Arcs" option. I never do. I have a phobia about posted files interpolating in planes other than X Y.

The very few times I have used this toolpath was when cutting a single surface. The putzing around you have to do to get multiple surfaces to cut correctly just never seemed worth the effort.

That's not what I'm referring to. I'm talking about MC pushing a small tool into a left over area and taking an excessive amount of stock. WorkNC kept a stock history (without having to make stl files and such) and cut accordingly. Never gouged or broke a tool when picking out small areas.

That's how I approach this situation. I'll add an extra tool path before the leftover one with a tool dia. that's somewhere in between. Most of what I cut are one offs and there's no room for scrapping a mold component and I just don't have the patience to tinker with a virtual model of the work. This is where I miss WokNC; it would actually cut all of the leftover material without sending the tool plunging into heavy left over areas. Hint, hint, Mastercam.