mpmaster will work with this control with very little tweaking. Even tho it is a Siemens, it will run Yasnac code no problem.

quote: articulating arm CMMarticulating 3 axis?

quote: Unless your doing production parts a manual CMMs is a much faster inspection system.Depends on the part. The whole thing that got this started was a round part with some crazy lofted surface with 300 holes put in all normal to the surface. I am not saying that it would be impossable on a manual 3 axis cmm...but it sure would not be easy. Sounds like no matter what aftermarket package you go for, it posts out a program...which in our case would run under PCDMIS. CMMWorks looks pretty cool (thanks Kevin)...if it keeps track of the tolerences created with the model...looks to be one less step in programing.

hey all, right now we are running a 5 ax Brown & Sharp CMM with PC DMIS, a software package that I am less than impressed with. We are starting to look at other packages, and I was wondering what everones feelings are about Verisurf...being that it is based on Mastercam, I figure the learning curve on it will be minimal...so what are your opinions on Verisurf in gerneral ( ease of use a huge bonus )....and what other "aftermarket" cmm software options are there? Thanks!

just want to pick your brains on this one...we have a Toshiba horizontal boring mill with a Tosnuc 888 control on it. For communications to and from machines, we use a program called XPert DNC. We are having a problem getting handshaking to work with this control. On our Fanuc's & Yasnacs, the DNC program is set up to "wait for signal" (actually using XON & XOFF), that is, you get the puter set up to send the program, but it does not actually send the program till you go out to the control & either put it in tape mode & cycle start or you just read the program in...this saves alot of foot traffic. Problem is, we have not been able to get the Tosnuc to work this way. We have to go out to the machine, get it ready to read, then back into the office to send the program. Any ideas on getting handshaking to work?? Thanks!

According to my dealer, its now looking like April or May....11 months behind schedule (the first I heard of X being released was supposed to be June of '04) I only wish my customers were patient enough to wait a year before seeing a finished product......

Backplot & verify here. Suprisingly, in contradiction with most here, I have better luck with verify than backplot. Example...one time I was using the "edit random parameters"..(ok, edit common parameters) to change toolplanes. On one of my operations the toolplane got lost so the c-plane & the t-plane was different, but it backplotted perfectly. Unfortunatly, it was far from perfect & crash. Verify did catch the crash tho (after the fact, of course)

^^^ I stand corrected...they did add features for undercut tools. Perhaps they should of done 2 seperate releases...one for the bug fixes for the people who's maintence has expired and one for the people who did renew for the new features... maintence contracts for bug fixes is not cool....

no worries...according to the readme file, MR0105 is just a bunch of bug fixes....oh and a .STEP translator.

^^^^^^^ not much of a responce to my offer either......

quote: Currently I write specific postblocks or a series of them for features such has putting tool info at top of program or using drill cycles for probe routines. These are self contain and can be pasted into a post. Maybe if we try to write modules instead of entire posts it would be easier to write posts. you know...I was recently thinking about something along those lines. kinda have an "open source" post project. just a thought......

chris... I do understand that reasoning...yet when a new person makes a request such as this the responces are far from cordial.... So the guy didn't know the rules...and assuming that he/she paid as much as I did for Mastercam, you can imagine how discouraged a person can get...kind of a double insult.

quote: Jmc, Sorry if I sound rude, but have you made a post yourself. Man I found it a real sweating job to get a perfect job. from complete scratch, no. Yet I have modified my fair share of posts, from lathe to 5 axis mill posts. One of them happens to be for the tosnuc control. My belief on giving them away freely is is that I know how frustrating it is to puchase a expensive cad/cam package only to find out that you have to learn a whole (or at least part of) language (MP post language) in order to get a post to work the way you want it to.....

why do people get so pissy when someone requests a post? [edit] yes I am sending him a post for that machine [/edit]

^^^^ aye, sounds like an outdated converter problem. Note that if you are running Windows 9x, then the new converters (Nov, 2004) will NOT work.

How are the dual SCSI drives configured? ( ie raid 0 or 1, duplexing, drive 1, drive 2??) [ 01-17-2005, 04:33 PM: Message edited by: JMC ]

quote: Where in MC can I change the default to the csv I made? Great idea...I typically organize my levels the same for every job...this would be way cool

looks like we are all on the same page...I do it the same as MayDay & Michael.....MayDay just explained it much better than I did. guess the question is...is the WCS "supposed" to work with 5 ax work???

right now I am programming about 50 different parts, all very short run, all 5 axis work (some swarfing, but mostly 5 sided or more machining). Typically, how I do this is by creating a c-plane by either rotating a plane or by picking a solid face. I then go into the WCS manager & "right click, create, copy current c-plane" and give it a name. I then toolpath using the named plane as my c-plane/tool plane. This works, tho I am always checking to make sure that my c-plane & tool plane are equal in the operations parameters...and on occasion when I call up a old file the c-plane will default to the top plane & the tool plane will remain the same. Scary part about this is backplot looks great, but in verify & in real life on the machine this a big crash waiting to happen. Am I missing something with the WCS?? Is it possable to use all of my named WCS's in 5ax programming? One would think that if I have a named WCS, toolpath with that WCS active, and have the t-plane & c-plane as "top" it should work.... any comments??

this is one thing that I like about the Siemens 840di control that is on one of our machines....the program does not come up as a number, but uses a file name. So typically on that control I use the drawing number & revision number/letter for the program/file name

so its wrong to point out the faults of the software & the company who makes it. Thanks for the heads up

quote: Code optimization was always MC strong point ,but speed of calculation was a different matter . I was speaking of the code written to calculate the toolpath....NOT the actual .nc code. Speed of calculation is dependedent on well written program code as well as a fast processor. It is obvious that CNC has developed better code for constant z cutting.....but it is far from a new feature. quote: OK OK, now for the dumb question. Where do I find this FZT thing? I have MR0304 mill level 1 with solids, do I have this added functionality with mill level 1, there is no "added fuctionality" as you cannot do surface machining. added fuctionality = enhanced fuctionality

quote: Hence the name: Fast Z-cut "Technology" sounds like a fancy name for "our first code was not optimized very well, so we came up with new code that works better"

quote: If you do any 3d work at all you'd see the speed at which FZT processes. FZT is an improvement, but not exactally added fuctionality. I think FZT is more of a bug fix, the original code for figuring z depth cutting must of been poorly written (tho very fuctional)

quote: I know the delay in X has frustrated many users but let me assure you that you can be thankful for the delay.yes, I am sure than MANY people are thankful for CNC software not living up to their promises. Only in the software business can you be 9 months behind schedule and have people thanking you for the delay. I know lots of people laid out $$$ for the maintence, for what?? Minor improvements and when X is released, they will get it. Problem is, when X is finally put out the door, you are really going to have to be on maintence to get all of the bug fixes (ummm improvements) that are sure to be released, which means laying out more $$$. I am glad that I recommended to stay off of maintence till now.