quote: I wish that when you go to open a file and you pull down the file type... i wish THAT list was alphabetised. I HATE than list now.agreed 100%...makes you wonder who decided on the order that it is in now????

just an FYI....the link I posted I got from this very forum.....tho I cannot find the thread where I first saw it. I just happened to bookmark it when I did see it. I was/am surprised that the document was hosted on an official Mastercam site...guess that particular site does not honor the beta rules.

Sorry had to remove the link. [ 07-26-2010, 03:49 PM: Message edited by: Jay Kramer @ Precision Programming ]

When we first got our H-plus 630 (awesome machine) one of the first things I tried was typing in a G93. It alarmed out. Then I looked for the G54.2 page....nothing there. There was a problem with the keypad so Fanuc had to come up anyways....I immediately put in a P.O. for those 2 options. On these newer controls Fanuc has made it virtually impossible to turn things on without being a Fanuc guy. Inverse Time....was about a grand. Dynamic fixture offset (G54.2) was a bit more. I could live without the inverse time....G54.2 with a spindle probe was the best $$$ spent on that machine. My belief is that these options should be standard on any horizontal....I would not own one without them.

Thanks for this great tool...nice to see its all ready for X5....Used to be I would not install a new version till I could have holeaxis....that gets used daily. Minimum bounding box sounds very nice also.

quote: If you get involed now, your enhancements/suggestions may be in the X6 release, IDK. I have been hearing that since...I dunno...like the first X version...."just wait till X2"...then "just wait till X3"...ect. Why wait when there are other viable solutions? Waiting for a maybe is a waste of time and money.

Anyone at CNC listening???? There is a reason we dropped maintenance on our lathe seats....and I would encourage everyone else with lathe to follow suit. The only thing I can really think of that has changed with lathe since V8 is a round boring bar in verify.

quote: Strictly a FANUC guy...Yet you know that the 840Di blows Fanuc out of the water when it comes to processing speed....tho the Fanucs aren't that bad.... back on topic....wouldn't a Robodrill match your space requirements? I would put that machine up against a hurco/milltronics any day.

Seeing as how this was offered for free & I still have a copy....anyone who wants it let me know & I will get it to you. Then again...with X5 around the corner....with as much as I use this utility I would pay for it. Programming 5ax stuff would be MUCH more cumbersome without it.

Granted...the data there now is limited...I can see that changing VERY quickly. How bout making this one of the few "Stickies"?

quote: upcoming 3d OptiRough toolpath which will be released in X5. You could call it the 3d version of Dynamic.awesome news there.... Along with having more data....maybe even have whether dry or wet...air blast...if wet what brand of coolant & concentration. or may that's overkill.

quote: I use Escape to exit..agreed...this does work 90% of the time. Tho shouldn't the OK/close button do the same thing????

There are many resources out there...in my (granted limited with book learning) experience the books you can order from e-mastercam are very easy to follow. I am sure that there are also many other excellent sources....including on-line classes. Your employer...if they have any sort of a clue...should buy these books/classes for you. It honestly boggles my mind to be using a very advanced machine with 10 year old software.

quote: currently im the only one using mcx as the others still use mc8 (not keen on change) quote: M/C been used in a DMU 50 evolution (5 axis)That is a sweet machine....and all the others are using mc8???? I can't remember....but does MC8 even have the "basic" 5axis simultaneous toolpaths??? No WCS in V8 from what I remember.... Do yourself a favor....get a few books...spend some time after hours studying...with you using a modern tool (MCX) you will be dominating the programming dept in no time.

top/front. As far as moving programs to one of our VMC's....90% of what we run on the horizontal gets positioned at many different angles....would not work out very good on a VMC. Back in V9...we used to do top/top

quote: Create them as 2 separate operation and use the tool path editor to remove the the rapid retractsWe got a winner....thanks a bunch!!

I keep thinking I am missing something simple here...but here it goes. Been doing quite of bit of medical parts as of late...and they all have this similar feature. Its a counter-bored hole, .215 dia X .09 deep, then going down to a .198 dia .04 deep. What has been working great is roughing with a 3/16 drill and then using a ramp contour or helix bore with a 1/8 endmill. This is where I am trying to get a few extra seconds....after ramping out the .215 dia, mastercam wants to rapid back up the the clearance plane, then feed back down to the start height of the .198 dia. Realize that I do have my plunge rates set at 200IPM and the machine can rapid at 2000IPM, but when traveling such short distances (Clearance plane is only .100 above the part) it does not accelerate to this speed. What I would like to be able to do is ramp/helix the .215 dia the go ahead and ramp/helix the .198 dia without going back up to my clearance height until the .198 hole is done. Cutter comp must be used (total tolerance of the holes is .001). I know this will only save maybe 1-2 seconds per hole....but when you are talking 1000's of holes it adds up. I have tried making my own helix's for mastercam to follow....but along with being a PITA to create, they come in as a spline which makes the program much longer than it needs to be. Any ideas????

The UV direction tool and the creating 5 axis curves & vectors look way sexxay....gonna have to check this one out more.

quote: You'll also have to get used to 'Pre-selection'.You can turn this feature off....tho I would not recommend it. Once you get used to it, you will appreciate it. The combination of pre-selecting and quick masks make thing like changing colors, moving thing to different levels, changing line styles, ect a dream compared to the V9 interface. I personally hated the old interface....I learned other programs like CadKey & Solidworks just to avoid using it for anything else other than toolpathing. The X style interface, while not perfect, is vastly superior to the old one.

quote: As a practical matter and based on previous experience, don't expect anything in X5 lathe worthy of justifying the maintenance cost.Agreed 100%. Other than the "X style" GUI, 99% of what is in lathe was in V8. The only thing I can think of is in X2 they finally got the VTL machine def correct. Oh...some grooving enhancements came along. Boring bars are also now round. Thats about it.

quote: I don't think they'd spend this kind of money if they didn't plan on showing up for the party. I would at least like to see what 7 months of progress (bout how long they have had the machine) has accomplished.

Mitsubishi AJX cutter rips through the stuff. I run in both 15-5 & 17-4 at 350~400SFPM & about .03 CPT (chip per tooth) & .05~.06 DOC. VP15TF grade of insert.

A little OT, I know...till I try to get it working in the post We are running production parts on a 5 ax mill that have a internal groove with a diameter of .225 +-.001 and a height of .067 +.001 -.000. Now on a low production part this is not a big deal....it is easy to adjust the program to get the height correct. On a production part it is a PITA to make adjustments to a proven program just to adjust the height for when you change tools, tool wear, ect. (Feature is being cut with a keycutter) Here is an abbreviated example of what the code looks like now... code: G1 Z-.146 F40. G41 D1 X.0094 Y.0094 F12. G3 X0. Y.0187 I-.0094 J0. X0. Y.0187 I0. J-.0187 X-.0094 Y.0094 I0. J-.0094 G1 G40 X0. Y0. Z-.15 F40. G41 D1 X.0094 Y.0094 F12. G3 X0. Y.0187 I-.0094 J0. X0. Y.0187 I0. J-.0187 X-.0094 Y.0094 I0. J-.0094 G1 G40 X0. Y0. So basically the cutter feeds down to the first height, cuts the groove, feeds down .004 and cuts the second height. What I want to do is be able to adjust the cut on the first height...lets say I need to make the slot .001 wider. So in my head I pick macro variable #580 and make it .001 and modify the program as follows... code: G1 Z-.146 + #580 F40. G41 D1 X.0094 Y.0094 F12. G3 X0. Y.0187 I-.0094 J0. X0. Y.0187 I0. J-.0187 X-.0094 Y.0094 I0. J-.0094 G1 G40 X0. Y0. Z-.15 F40. G41 D1 X.0094 Y.0094 F12. G3 X0. Y.0187 I-.0094 J0. X0. Y.0187 I0. J-.0187 X-.0094 Y.0094 I0. J-.0094 G1 G40 X0. Y0. The only change I made is to the first line....my question is...would this work???

I agree this is a royal PITA & have seen more than one person get bit by this. In the post, I have done things to get around this...but once again it gets to be a PITA when you need to use 2 different diameter offsets for the same tool (not uncommon with our older machines doing 2 different sizes circle mill cycles) I like the "use rules in machine def" idea.

Matsuura's come with CAMPlete (both a post and verification package). Works very well with mastercam. I also believe that all of the new Mori's come with Esprit built in....just saw a few of them last week