Del the formulas are great but I don't think they apply to my situation completely. I am making a planetary gear set, actually more like a ring and pinion set. Small gear inside driveing the larger ring. The small gear will be driven by a shaft with a gear on the other end driven off a larger gear. The large gear and the ring gear will have the same RPM but in oppisite directions. We need to rotate 2 discs in opisite directions at the same RPM, all running on the same axis.

Dose anyone know how to use the gear C-hook? I have no problem creating 1 gear, but when I try to creat 2 that mesh together the don't work. Also any other gear design information would be helpfull.

Sometimes after a crash the temp working file dose not get deleted. If these files start pileing up you can get some odd behavior from the software. Shut down MC and go to this file location. C:Mcamxcommontemp The temp file should be empty, it should only have a file in it if MC is running.

Can buttress threads be thread milled with MasterCam. If anyone has done this before I could use some advise.

Creat> Surface> Untrim. The keep original button is top left on the ribon bar (don't know the proper name).

Untrim surface copy. Then you can extend the surface as much as you like. Make sure that you hit the keep original button so you get a copy of the surface untrimed.

It is a bug, it has been brought up before. Selecting depth cuts last and the check mark is the workaround. Apply dose not set the depth cuts, you must use the green check mark.

Scott, high speed all the way. I don't even use any of the older programs unless I have to. As was mentioned above there is a skip pockets smaller then (specify a diameter) option.

Works here, I used it all day yesterday, no delay.

Right click in the area between toolbars. Down at the bottom you will have customize, click this. In the center of the new form you will have a catagory drop down, scroll to the bottom for the X+ icons. Left click and drag to the screen to create a new toolbar.

Go to customize and create a new X+ toolbar. I have never had any luck with the standard X+ toolbar, so I usually just make my own. You can also just use as Chooks.

Hey Scott, what are you doing on day's? Sorry I can't be of any help with this one, good luck.

That's got to be a bug when you have to use the check and not apply.

It works the way it has always worked here. It never (since V9) ramped per level, it always ramped to the final depth then if you have it set it will take a complete pass at the final depth. When ramping set the depth to your depth of cut, this will set it to take that depth per revelution around your contoure and you will not overload your cutter.

If you are useing the faceing toolpath, go to cut method and pick dynamic instead of zig zag. This will give you a spiral cut. It is in X3 also on parameters page under cutting method.

X3 was about 3 crashes a week here. I have only had 1 since going to X4. X4 surface trim to curve is perfect, have not had a problem with it yet. In X3 when you tried to keep both, sometimes it would work and sometimes not. X4 multi threading is a great time saver. The only problem with X4 is moldplus is not ready yet.

You have to go the the options tab right next to the check box on the bottom of the import form. I just tried it and it works here.

I got it to work, had to change my construction plane. Never noticed it being plane dependent before.

Has anyone tried draft surface in X4 yet? I can't get it to work.

Good luck with that. I had this problem where I used to work, no matter how good your setup info there is always a way to get it wrong. Especially if they don't care. It's easier to blame it on the programmer then to have to think about what you are doing or ask questions.

If you use Run - Menu - (select your program) when you run it you can see about 6 lines of code at a time. I don't know how large a program you can run like this, we usually use Utilities - DNC - fast - (select your program). But we did load the other way for a job that was a short run part. If you load in the run mode you just change the part and hit cycle start again, you don't have to load the program each time you run it. Not sure if this helps, but it can be done.

Depending on the way I load the program I can see the code. The usuall way we load the program you can only see 1 line at a time, and they go by fast. The machine is running right now, when it is done I will see if I can get the load procedure for the alternate method recorded.

When creating high speed toolpaths there is a button on the (arc filter / tolerance) page. this is where you can see the slide bars.

Thank's all for responding. Peon, I tried that horazontal slider and that made it stick. I went back to the file that I ran yesterday to check and see if it really stuck, and it seems that when I open that dialog box it jumps to the better position. If I look at the numbers below the horazontal slider they are what they should be for the best position, so it seems to be sticking until I reopen the dialog box. These files were all made in X3 and modified in X4 because the machine that automatically gives a great finish is down. I will just have to see what happens with a new X4 file.

Yesterday I ran a mold cavity with the smoothing option set to best finish. Mold turned out great could not get a no polish finish with this machine without it. Today when I set to best finish and close the form it reverts back to better. It will not stay on best finish. Is there something I am missing?