If you have mastercam solids you can pull solidworks file in directly. Go file/converters/ parasolids then in pull down menu select solidworks sld part file.

Thinkmaker Try converting to am STL file, we use this alot for our customers. All most any viewer will read in an STL file such as 3DVIEW and Autoview among others. Just an idea. Kyle

I agree cutting useing negative is great, but the only problem that I had with it is the fact that it does cut the -z also, to get around if I have a .010 overbut I set my geometry so it is .010 above 0, then when I cut the trode I do not lose my known z height on the trode, the main reason I do this is say all the trodes in a job work with say 5/8 think poco, then when I mount them on my erowa tool holders all my electrodes offsets in my edm machine will be the same, only need to reference one trode. I agree with mold that the negative is great and makes so there is no surface or geometry manipulation.

I guess all I was getting at was that I try to avoid having to do an offset on the machine, to me that is one less step, would be fine if I was cutting trode buy why put in that variable. Also we tried that method on a shutoff electrode say .200 in width with .005/side overburn, finished dim. should be .1900 and did not come out...offset the geometry and trode came out fine, we found that we did not get correct size by doing the negative offset,plus say you have 50 different trodes for a job and cut one using that method you have a different z offset for your burner, I myself like having them all the same if possible.

I would do as chico said, lie about the cutter size...this works great if your edm will do a spherical burn...I am used to chramilles and this works great, no modifying geometry...I don't like the just leave -.008 method since if you cut the whole profile it pushes your z down your overburn...way around that is to shift everthing + in z to compensate.. only downfall about adjusting cutter size and doing a spherical burn is that all corners are radiused whatever your overburn is. Hope this helps a little.

I am wondering if someone cam help me, I some detail to burn for a customer and they call out a ntma #160 and an ntma 280 surface finish, is this same as microinch or a seperate form of measurement? I am trying to deterime the power settings to use in our charmilles burner, any info would be greatly appreciated.

I had same problem and setting gap to follow surfaces made no difference for me, did the same path in version 8 and came out fine.

Sorry Dave and Ryan, the problem we were having was one of our operators error, he was not updating the correct file, I updated the correct file and everything worked fine. Sorry for any trouble caused, we are not very familiar with posts, And thanks again for all the help, you guys are great!!!

I have a question concerning updating posts from version 8.1.1 to v9. I was able to run the update dll file for my boston digital but when I ran it on our post for a Makino GF6 it came with error unable to read pst, I have the posts coppied in the mcam9millpost directory. I also wondered do we need to run the update, I ran the post as is from version 8, gave an error while posting but still output good code. I would appreciate any info. I tried calling my reseller but they are reciveing trainging this week and we need to be up and running sooner than that. Thanks for any help.

hello rakd, I would be interested in your program. Please let me know if you are interested in sharing. In our bosto now we have four positions for our erowa holders, to do this now I translate the programs around to the four positions, makes a long program but with ethernet and fact bosto has a large hardrive hasn't been a problem but I am looking for a better way. Thanks again for all the help.

Where I work we have a Boston Digital 32GS graphite machine. We are using mastercam and looking for a good post for this machine. We have been using the machine a couple of years and only have a few problems with the post. For drilling using the G83 cylcle, the bosto does not use a - symbol for depth, how do I get it to post a positive number, till now have just been writing the program with a positive depth and seems to work, Also have been maually editing the peck increment, regardless what I put in in mastercam comes up the same when posted. Also have had trouble and gotton a circle destination error when machining simple circles, got it to work most of the time by forcing out x,y,z,i,j, but was lately cutting a simple circle and could not get to work, ended up making cirle a spline and then worked fine, I tried breaking cirlce into 180 degree moves and 90 and got same result, like the machine does not know where to go. Forgive me if these are dumb questions but I am not familiar with posts at all. Thank you.

Thanks again cadcam. I would greatly appreciate it if you or Jmaynard could tell me where else I could get the drivers needed or cam we get them from mastercam directly? Thanks again, you guys have been great! [ Webmaster: Comments making reference to the Mastercam distribution channel removed. ] [ 01-10-2002: Message edited by: Webmaster ]

Thanks for the help guys. What I am wondering also is will the hasp com with drivers for windows nt or will I have to get from somewhere else. Thanks again everyone.

Hello everyone. I have been looking at this forum for quite some time and finally decided to become a member because of all the great help I have seen on here. I do have a question, possibly for cadcam,my father has 1 seat of mill8 but two computers and is wondering if he gets the usb hasp key can he go from one computer to another, the reason for this is his main computer is in his office, and he would like to be able to use mastercam in his shop without purchasing another seat of mastercam. Is this possible? Also, his main computer is running windows nt 4.0 sp6 and his shop is windows 98, I know that windows nt has limited usb support so is this even an option. I would greatly appreciate any info. Thank you.