I recently did a rotary contour toolpath, using unroll (it was a contour around a cylinder), and posted the toolpath using the Inhouse MPMaster Okuma post. The toolpath looked fine, and verified fine. However what the machine actually did, was arc on to the contour, then instead of doing the full 360 degree move, it just arced off, as can be seen in the code below. Does anybody have any ideas as to how to avoid this? Its kind of got me stumped, as the toolpath looks fine. X50.546 A179.222 F1164.039 X50.521 A179.333 X50.499 A179.444 X50.481 A179.555 X50.468 A179.666 X50.458 A179.777 X50.452 A179.889 X50.45 A180. <-- Should be a 360 degree move after this line X50.452 A180.111 X50.458 A180.223 X50.468 A180.334 X50.481 A180.445 X50.499 A180.556 X50.521 A180.667 X50.546 A180.778

Tslot2.dll worked great! Unfortunately, it bombs if the chains are anything other than straight lines . At least its a step in the right direction

I just called him He said it was "ok" for basic stuff, but in the times that they used it, if the model had a hole added, when it was opened in Edgecam, they had to reselect the holes. He said that Edgecam was buggy, and when they complained about some of the bugs, their dealer gave them a beta to try. As he said, he didn't know what was worse, putting up with buggy software, or having a beta to try. They ended up getting Powermill, so they dont use Edgecam much nowadays. Interesting..... Give me Mastercam any day

I've yet to talk to someone who has actually used it at all. I'm going to call someone I know that actually owns the product, and see what they say. I have to admit, I'm somewhat skeptical. I used to run Unigraphics, and the whole integrated design and manufacture thing works up to a point. As soon as you get into complex stuff, the software chokes. Then its just like usual, having to re-pick surfaces etc. Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'll let you know what I find out today.

I was talking to a prospective Mastercam customer the other day, when they raised a potential stumbling block to their purchase of Mastercam. They had checked out Edgecam, and its ability to "totally" integrate into Soldiworks, so that if a change was made in a Solidworks model, that was toolpathed in Edgecam, when the model was opened in Edgecam after the changes, the user would be alerted to the changes, and the toolpath(s) could be regenned. As far as I'm aware, Mastercam cant do this. I'm curious on anyone's feedback who have used this feature in Edgecam, and if it is as good as they say it is.

I would like to see trochoidal slot milling. I would make good use of that feature.

Continually venting your frustration with Mastercam on this board isn't the correct way to go about solving your problems. Emailing [email protected] is. I have had nothing but positive assistance with CNC Software whenever I have had to deal with any product issues, both for myself, and for customers.

Hasn't this Randle guy left yet?

Hehehe... cheers... Its 11:30pm here, and I am real tired... Just spent three days flying the Mastercam flag at a Trade Show.

Trochoidal cutting as an option to cut a slot. For example, cutting a slot through material. That would be a GREAT feature to add.

Er, I think that is a typo. The gear ranges on those lathes are M41, M42, M43 and M44. They'd conflict with G41 and G42 if they were G codes.

So what purpose does this thread serve? You'd be better emailing [email protected]. Thats a pretty negative title to the topic too.

Thanks for the replies guys. It seems the old OSP3000's are a dying breed. If anyone does come across a G50 work shift example, please send it to me The OSP3000 doesn't have User Task, so that option isn't suitable. But thanks for responding.

Hi there, Does anyone here have an example Okuma programme utilising the G50 Zero Shift command? I have a local customer having no success with it. I used to run an old LS-N with an OSP3000L control, and I recall running this feature successfully. I thought I still had the example archived, but it appears I dont anymore :/ If anyone does, if possible, please email a sample to me, at [email protected]

John, The no_spc$ function didn't work for me :/ However, for some reason, the following function doesn't work. What I did, was initialise the pctrcomp variable at 1. As far as I can tell, the following should work: pccdia #Cutter Compensation #Force Dxx# if prv_cc_pos <> cc_pos & cc_pos, prv_tloffno = c9k if cc_pos, sccomp if cc_pos & ctrcompout = 1, "D",35,"518" if ctrcompout = 1, ctrcompout = 0 What I am trying to achieve, is on the first linear feed motion, when cutter radius compensation in control is activated, to output the G41 D#518 output. Once it has output, the line "if ctrcompout = 1, ctrcompout = 0" should stop any further output of the G41 D#518 code. However, it wont output the initial output of it at all. I am totally confused as to why this wont work :/

I want to format a variable to include an Ascii character, as follows: instead of outputting D518, I want to output D#518. Is there anyway to do this? Thanks in advance for any help

Thanks for your replies! I need to investigate this further. From what I can tell, our control doesn't recognised the G130/G131, but the Hi2NC is engaged in, as you describe, "fallback mode". The trouble is, it seems to me, that it needs to set for wach machining operation, ie: I might be doing a suface finish contour toolpath, and the settings that work well for that, may not work for a surface finish scallop toolpath, using a different tool/parameters. I take it there is no "generic" setting that works well for all contouring code (ie no rapids or cycles). If not, it looks like I need to experiement a bit Thanks again for your help. I'll let you know how I get on

35K Chipper, We have two machines, a U100M, and a E100M. According to the machine manuals, the Hi2NC can be switched on at the control, or using G130/G131. We cant get it to work with G130/G131 (neither can another couple of companies locally using the same machine). When it is functioning (we have it switched on at the control), it shows it on the control, flashing a display (I cant remember the actual text it displays). My question is, what settings do you use? when I was running a Matsuura with a Yasnac i80M, and HON/HOF high speed machining, we just switched it on, and we naver had a problem. With the Okuma, it seems to work some of the time. Since there are several settings on the parameter page, I'm curious to see what other users are using for settings, when machining 3D surfaces. I'll check our settings at work tomorrow and post them here

Thanks for the replies I apologise, I used the wrong description. Its the Hi2NC function I want to know about. Its the high speed "look ahead" function for contouring/surface toolpaths. My experience with it so far, is that the machine motion is smooth sometimes, and other times it pauses, or shudders. We're using the DNC/DT transmission option (ethernet) so it isn't a data flow issue.

Does anyone here use the Hi2NC/Hi Nurbs option for surface machining on their Okuma verticals? I'm interested in what settings you use, as we haven't had a lot of success with it, and our local agent isn't very helpful. When running large 3 axis surface toolpaths, the machine motion seems to be very slow, even with a programmed high feedrate. I'm interested to hear from any other Okuma users utilising this option, and what settings are being used. Cheers

Someone here mentioned getting a Mori MT253 post done. CNC Software have one in their library, that has been proven on a MT253 down here. It is a cost item, so talk to your dealer about it

I've been messing around with the WCS. If I set the Woff # to 1, it should output G55, is this correct? For some reason it wont, it is just forcing G54. If I switch off the WCS, and use the toolplane, and set the Work Offset number to 1 in the Toolplane/Construction Plane settings, it outputs correctly. It seems to me that somehow, the post isn't picking up the Work Offset Number from the WCS. Does anyone lse have this problem? I'm setting up a modified version of MPFAN for a customer. I tried using MPMaster, but it does the same thing.

David, Yes, I'd be interested in checking out your post. Please email it to me, if at all possible. I'd really like to try it Chris, The G87 Canned Finishing cycle doesn't seem to work in V9.1, at least on my system. When I try it, it doesn't even post the tool output, as in the whole operation isn't posted at all. That is with using the an unmodified MPLOKUMA post. I assume for Canned facing, you use the Canned Rough toolpath, and use the facing option? I just tried that, and yes, that seems to work, but as you say, it doubles the depth of cut.

I've been tinkering with the MPLOSP post for a while off and on (its kind of become a hobby for me :/). I couldn't work out what I had changed to make it not output the LAP cycles, or more to the point, change the output of the LAP cycles. I've managed to put my finger on it.... If I disble Fastmode, it posts the G87, but also the contour as well. If I enable fastmode, it doesn't output the G87, or the tool sequence at all...I think I've stumbled onto the cause of this long running problem Now, does anyone want to help try and sort it out, because I have tried a number of things, and nothing seems to have worked If this could be sorted, this would work fantastic for Okuma lathes

Thanks for the interesting responses. There is just enough work to keep me busy with contract programming, and with the "free" (nothing is really for free, right? ) programming, it has hurt my business. But, all the other scenarios, I have certainly thought through. I'm not stressing about it, but probably more concerned, that having put so much time into building this up, that someone can step in and offer the same thing for nothing. Well, almost nothing. Either way, I cant see it lasting. And yeah, it is dog eat dog out there, but thats when all dogs have four legs each... hehehehehe And gcode, yes, it would be great to have the tooling lines incorporated into readymade libraries.