Hi All, I made an oopsie and lost some of my settings on X5, but basically before this mistake I was able to rotate a toolpath and when I had the "Force Tool Change" box checked, it would only force the tool change at the first operation, not the subsequent rotate operations. For example, I'm milling 2 different sized pockets, and then rotating that toolpath around the center about 5 times. Instead of manually selecting the other 10 sets of lines and surfaces, I just use the rotate function except now for some reason, it's forcing a tool change at the other 5 operations in the rotate toolpath, whereas it wouldn't do that before. This adds unnecessary stops. I'd like to keep the force tool change checked at the beginning of the operation, as it allows the operator a chance to check everything out before moving on with the program. I can't seem to find where I messed up to change this. Would this be something in the post processor or the Mastercam settings?

Same here, the previous programmer here just left and didn't offer any help, I had the company sign me up for the NTMA course a little while back and this forum has been very helpful. Thank you for the suggestion once again!

This worked! It's fun experimenting with different stuff. I created a revolved surface and selected that as the avoidance geometry. Thank you for the suggestion, and thank you to everyone who gave a suggestion as well.

Hmm I hadn't thought of that, that actually might work. I will try that later today and see if it works, I might have to offset it lower than the profile just to be sure it cuts the entire window. I'll report back later tonight on how that turns out.

I did but it didn't change the way it follows the material on the bottom of the part. I can set the the Max depth to what I need but it still has a lot of air time under the spoke. That's what I was thinking, I might have to do multiple operations and create a new stock model each time to create the cuts I'm looking for, or just deal with the extra run time in the short term.

Hey Guys, I've recently been learning on a newer version of Mastercam after taking an NTMA course and it seems a lot easier than X5. The basic class was a lot of drawing but I wish there was more on the toolpaths side of things. I've been spending some hours researching this forum to see how I can make this as efficient as possible. The best way seems to be by using stock model and then selecting that in the rest material options. However I'm still losing some time once it cuts past the spoke of the wheel. How do I keep the tool engaged only where the material is on the bottom inner side of the part? The pictures are attached. The top seems fine as the program is stepping over and moving down. Thank you I appreciate your help.

I will check it out thank you very much!

Wow, thank you for the quick response guys! I appreciate it and I will checkout the PDF's.

Hi All, As the title suggests I'm an X5 user who is also new here and also new to the world of CNC machining. I'm just wondering what would be the best course of action for me to take regarding learning how to use Mastercam professionally. I work for a wheel company, and I've been learning how to use Mastercam (We only have X5). I can so far toolpath a part provided that the drawing has 3D milling lines for me to follow for contours. I can't seem to figure out how to program a 3D solid. When I'm trying to program a solid, I have trouble selecting the surfaces, because it selects the entire part. I took a Mastercam basic course with the NTMA training center, but most of that was lathe and 2D milling, I've had a hard time trying to apply those basics to programming a solid forged wheel with different angles and surfaces. I appreciate any tips and feedback!