Ellstrom Manufacturing - Making Boats Fly

5 Axis Industries, a professional race team that turned into a manufacturing company, specializes not only in parts for the marine industry, but also the aerospace. Their famous boat propellers are used by just about every top finisher in the sport and Mastercam programs every product they produce.

Defining Reference Points in Machine Definition

Did you know that in the machine definition, you can define default reference points for both ID and OD operations?

1.       In the Machine Definition Manager, click the Edit axis combinations button.

2.       If necessary, select the desired axis combination.
3.       Click Reference Points.

4.       Set default reference positions for ID and OD work, for either approach or retract moves.

Because these are specific to the axis combination, you can even define different locations for main spindle/subspindle, and upper/lower turrets. Important—because you are in the machine definition, the coordinates in the above dialog box are in world X-Y-Z coordinates, not lathe X-Z coordinates.

Moldplus Products – Continuing to Make a Difference

Moldplus V10.5 MR2 SP1 is the first release for Mastercam X6. The Moldplus Service Pack is a radical improvement of the previous Maintenance release by offering new tools for managing your curves and vectors for 5-axis machining and toolpaths. Moldplus has also enhanced the Electrode maker collision detection with a new graphical method that automatically detects collisions with cloned electrodes.

The new release gives you the ability to easily:

• Create curves and vectors on complex parts with a few clicks
• Rotate/manipulate the vectors
• Move curves and vectors as needed
• Simulate the trajectory using a tool (standard or custom tools with spindle/machine head, etc.) and simultaneously check for collisions

These allow the end-user to prepare the geometry in a fraction of the time previously required.

The Moldplus 5-axis toolkit also offers other powerful functions, such as:

• Automatically align/set all the surface normals outwards or inwards in 1-click
• Easily split exterior and interior shells of Solid models in 1-click (independent of plane direction)
• Create tangent and draft extensions on the exterior edges of parts and perform advanced radius analysis on complex parts.

Moldplus is continuing to add new functionality and efficiencies based on market demand and are improving the existing features with enhancements and interface changes. Please visit www.moldplus.com/5axiskit.html to review all the features and contact your local Mastercam Reseller for more information.

Stock Model with Opti-Rest Toolpath

Mastercam’s Opti-Rest toolpath uses the new stock model feature to create efficient toolpaths without wasted tool motion. The constant engagement ensures consistent chip load and the programmed side step is never exceeded as this video illustrates.

Getting Started Tutorials

The Getting Started Series of tutorials introduce basic Mastercam X6 features and functions. Available from your Mastercam Reseller as printable PDF tutorials and video tutorial EXE files, these introductory tutorials guide students step-by-step through a series of lessons. The lessons are divided into short exercises so they’re easy to complete. The tutorials are best used in sequence, but they can also be used independently.

The PDF versions include the sample parts you need to go through each tutorial exercise. The video versions are fully interactive, multimedia training lessons that let you experience each Mastercam function without needing Mastercam installed on your system. Here is an example of one of the videos:



The Getting Started Series tutorials that have been updated for Mastercam X6 include:

• Preparing for a Tutorial (video only)
• Welcome to Mastercam (print and video)
• Files and Mastercam (print and video)
• Working in the Graphics Window (print and video)
• Basic 2D Design (print and video)
• Basic 2D Machining (print and video)
• Basic 3D Design (print and video)
• Basic 3D Machining (print and video)
• Intro to Multiaxis (print only – video coming soon!)

In addition to the Getting Started Series, CNC Software, Inc. provides a Focus Series of tutorials, each focusing on a specific Mastercam feature—for example, Setup Sheets or FBM Drill, and teaches basic and advanced skills.

The Mastercam tutorial series is in continual development, and we will add modules as we complete them. For more information, please contact your local Mastercam Reseller.

Leaner, Greener Mastercam X6 Documentation

With the release of Mastercam X6, you may notice some changes to the documentation. In our ongoing commitment to energy conservation and environmental awareness, we streamlined the documentation. In addition, based on customer feedback, we enhanced our deliverables to provide an interactive interface and more video.

Installed X6 Documentation
While we continue to deliver robust Mastercam Help for all Mastercam X6 features and functions, we install fewer documents. The Mastercam X6 release version will include only the following documents:

 

These documents are installed in the …\Documentation folder. This change removes over 250MB from the Mastercam X6 installation, greatly simplifying file maintenance, and optimizing your download and installation processes!

Retired Documentation
Due to redundancy or limited audience, we’ve “retired” the following documents as of Mastercam X6:

• Reference Guide (redundant to Help)
• Quick Start Guide (redundant to the Getting Started Series of tutorials and tutorial videos, and to the Mastercam U Intro to Mastercam course)
• Wire Getting Started Guide (redundant to Help, limited audience)
• V92XFunctions (sunsetted, limited audience)

The retired documents are still available from your local Mastercam Reseller in their X5 format. However, we will not update them with future Mastercam releases.

What’s New DVD
Perhaps the most significant change is to the design and delivery of the Mastercam X6 What’s New information. We’ve transformed this information from a static printed document to an interactive HTML application that will ship on a separate DVD with the Mastercam X6 packaging. It is also available as a self-installing EXE download from http://www.mastercam.com.

This change removes the What’s New dialog box from the Mastercam interface and eliminates the printed document from the packaging. When choosing Help > What’s New from the Mastercam X6 menu, the following dialog displays:

The What’s New in Mastercam X6 DVD offers a menu-driven interface and a rich graphical design. The explanatory videos invite Mastercam users to explore new features in a contemporary and engaging manner. An option to print a digest from the What’s New in Mastercam X6 application is also available.
 

Mastercam's 2D Production Machining

The following video showcases Mastercam's production machining functionality, including the Dynamic toolpaths. The part was programmed and machined in our in-house machine shop using Mastercam Mill Level 1 functionality.