My rig's specs are in my siggy. In January I'll probably be getting a new one. Next one will be the fastest i9 with a 17" monitor and a Quadro card.

That's a relatively new setting. By default it's off.

A few possibilities; 1) Go to the CAM Wizard, go to the NC Format page and make sure the "Output Tool Ref" and "Input Tool Ref (CAM File) are both set to "Tool Tip". 2) Go to Manage, Tools Ribbon, Options, File Types, Mastercam. Make sure the Default Tool Ref. is set to Tip. 3) While still in Options, Scroll down the Preferences to "NCI - Force Canned Cycle Paths to Tool Tip". Make sure it is checked. Give that a shot.

Maybe it would be better with HOOPS? Or graphical CMM Paths? Asking for a friend.

This is my usual setup;

I wonder if a scanning CMM would have been a better solution for that application I had all the trouble with? The profile read out would have looked like a profilometer scanning a vinyl record.

I had an experience one time where inspection was using a ruby that was so small it was picking up the peaks and valleys of the milling operation. I had .0008" profile to hold and it was all over the place. I couldn't figure out WTF was going on. Surface finish was called out as 32. I was around 16. So I go into inspection and watch. I see the inspector had some features to measure where he needed the .5mm ruby. He was using that same ruby to measure the tight profile feature. I asked him to change the ruby for the feature that was going out. He said no. I protested to the Mfg. Manager. Long story short, I lost that battle. I had to get the surface finish down to 8 to get the all the profile points in. On my write up, I explained that inspection, engineering and manufacturing need to get on the same page. By meeting the surface finish call out It would have been impossible to meet the profile requirement with anything less than a 3mm ruby. I created drawings to prove my point. They said I was full of $#!+. Alrighty then....

It is not and I cannot share. Frank's an east coast guy right? You should have at least a couple guys back there. I've been sworn to secrecy under threat of perpetual FANUC phone support.

FANUC guy for OEM support. I meant to say.

I rarely call FANUC. If I think it's a parameter I'm missing I will, but at my level, I need to talk to the OEM guy. The odds the guy answering the phone at FANUC can answer my questions is about 10% at best. Fortunately our OEM guy lives in the next city over from our office and we've been friends for the better part of 20 years. So..... #MembershipHasItsPrivileges Builders and dealers get a discount I think.

You may want to take the 3 Day Understanding the FANUC 4 and 5 Axis Functions FANUC class in Chicago as well as the1 day Understanding the FANUC 4 and 5 Axis Functions - Maintenance Addition that is done on the 4th day. The maintenance Addition goes over parameters, troubleshooting, etc... I took them last year. I had a pretty healthy handle on them previously but when it came to explanation, they give you some tools to better explain the functions to customers. It was worthwhile for me. Cars, coat hangers, toothbrushes, CNC Machines... it's all the same right?

Typically I'll only use M1 with Opti-Rough because as the toolpath name implies "...Rough". I'll run 1's on my modes if I only need to hold around 25µm or so. I'll use 2's if I need to hold 10µm or so and 3 ONLY on finishing passes if I need to hold single digit µm. You finish the paths, I'm certain they'll ALL pass... as long as inspection does their job. See the attached document. Matsuura High Speed Look-Ahead Functions Procedure.pdf Dollars to donuts they are checking by calculating radius centER.

We do the same. When Matsuura and Methods divorced for lack of a better term, we are the flagship US dealer (Dealer of the Year since inception of the Award) so we worked closely with Matsuura USA before they even had an Applications Engineering Dept actually, and helped put together packages based on the machine type in conjunction with the type of anticipated work type (for the look ahead options ... VMC, HMC, and 5-Axis, and controls). Like you, we won't even sell a machine without the appropriate option package. Too much damn grief down the road and the machne sale is not even worth that grief. Anyway, not sure if you know this but FANUC (at least in the US) has done a little better over the last few years. They have their own option packages as well. FAST Package III R372 for 5-Axis machines (90+% of what I do) for example. You are right though, the majority of Machine Tool "professionals" in the industry are clueless about what options are needed for the various activites and it creates serious headaches for those of us that do know. I've participated in training over the years and one in particular I was pretty shocked at how little the vast majority of Applications Engineers actually know abut the under the hood stuff. Kind of a bummer really, because FANUC is so powerful, but the because of how it's packaged, supported, and sold, it doesn't always show well. Thankfully most all of our sales guys ask when there's a question. I'm one of the Senior AE's we have so part of my job is staying up on what's new and what direction we need to move in. Matsuura USA has assembled a good team at their HQ and we give them feedback, and they get us factory information so that helps matters.

Dataservers have plenty of Data Storage. Even the vaunted Siemens has limited CNC Mem. For large program storage you have to run off the HDD. Same as a Dataserver (at least on the 840 Di's I've put my hands on. I've put a 32GB CF card on a Dataserver. That was the largest card I have. I'm guessing a 64, or a 128 GB card would work as well.

FANUC is a buffet. The machine tool builders (or the builders in conjunction with their Distribution partners) go to FANUC and say what they want. All that said, at the end of the day, the company buying the machine ultimately doesn't make sure the machine is properly optioned. This is not a FANUC problem.