I don't try to do the math. If my solids layout scale is .75 them my drafting scale is 1/.75; if my solids layout scale is .5 them the drafting scale is 1/.5. I let mastercam do the math for me and it will eliminate roundoff also.

MasterCam!

We get a lot of phsical samples and the only way to get the geometry is to measure the part. When you have a game plan for modelling the solid it reduces the amount of measuring you need to do. It does not take as long as tracing or photocopy/import operations and the results will be closer to the phsical part. The more you do it, the better you get at it.

If you want/need to work within MC you can manually create your drawings. Simply use the create-curve-slice method to obtain the geometry, then rotate and postion the geometry so that all slice are in the same plane, and then dimension the geometry. The create-curve-slice funtion works with solids and surfaces.

You can analyze contour, window the points and then save the output. Or you can save the file as ASCII and the point location x,y,z will be in a text file

It shouldn't, My all entities is checked, but it does not start up with solids shaded.

It sounds like they also sent the individual part files referenced by the assembly file. You could always open one and then merge the others.

Have you tried swapping the sim with another?

If the solid is imported, you will need to make a circle or 2D countor on the face with the hole, extrude the hole and in the extrude dialog select add boss. If it is a mastercam solid, go to the operations manager --> Solids, find the extrude cut operation that produced the hole, delete the operation or the contour for the hole in the "geometry" section if multiple holes were produced in the extrude cut. You can plug the hole in a mastercam solid the same way as and imported solid, but it is always better to modify a mc solid in the history tree. Hope this helps

You should be able to grab the right hand border of the operations manager and slide it to the left exposing the graphics screen again.

The solid modelling will require 2 steps. First, extruding the stuff from 2D geometry in a flat plane, then trimming the ends with another solid or surface to get the radial faces.

If you have a wheel mouse you can pan by pressing and holding down the wheel and move across the screen.

If it is a single surface the orientation may be on the other side. Try checking/changing the normal.

Might be better to use PLOT function wuth a scale factor that works.

I put the new stuff on a different level with a different color. Turn shading on and the differences will be obvious assuming the postion of each model matches. If you see both colors flashing as you rotate the solids, the faces match. It is then easy to spot the changes/differences.

Do you get anything if you use Mastercam to open the DWG and DXF files you just created? I do not use Rhino, but I do send a lot of DXF files to sub contractors. I found that setting the output to R13 gives the best translation to the sub contractors.

I would think that if you will be using a lot of solids it could justify the cost of the solids option. Not big bucks as I recall.

Why not keep it all in MC. We design all of our tooling (molds, fixtures, assemblies) using MC solids. Unless you are planning on complex lofted stuff MC will do just fine. Much better than importing solids for NC operations,

Slowing down the machine so the controller can keep up with it stems from very small moves on each block of code. Using the arc filtering as has been mentioned will replace those short linear moves with an arc. There could also be a parameter that controls the speed ramp up and ramp down that also contributes to the jerky motion.

It sounds like one of the configuration/startup files have been corrupted. I'm not sure of the best way to correct it since I have never had to do it before but I'm sure some one will offer a more direct solution.

You are not tied to your current reseller. If you do not like the service and can get another reseller in your area that would be an option for you.

Having said that, we have experienced some trouble when doing the side by side. There has been an ocassion when the mcamx.config file was pointing to sub-folders in the prior version folder which did not get caught until we deleted the folder containing the prior version. Also, it is always best to uninstal a version prior to installing a new version since the uninstal procedure will also clean out files in the system needs for the new version. I keep the new vrsion and the last version on my system. When x3 or mr3 gets released I will uninstall x2mr1 then install the new version. So I will end up with the new version and x2mr2.

Rick, we actually use the software for production jobs but will monitor each aspect closely. We do solid designs inside of mc for all machining operations so first we make sure there are no glitches in constructing solids. Then the same for machining. By doing the side by side install it is easier to use the previous version if problems are found with the new version.

It is my understanding that service packs (SP1, SP2) are not complete insatlls and need to go over the MR2 install. However, I always do a side by side with major releases so that I can test them prior to production use.

Remember that with the block lettering you will need to select 2 contours for the extrude to work for the "4". One contour for most of the outline and the triangular contour for the "inside" of the 4.