Difference betwen CAM commands and toolbar?

[cboyce]

In the PartMaster CAM, there's a Command tab on the right which has methods like Countouring and Area Clear. Also, under the Machining menu, there are many of the same methods. However they appear to bring up different dialogs, and I'm a bit unsure as to which I should use when and what the difference between the command's contouring and the Maching->Goround is. Any pointers when to use which?

[Dolphin USA]

Hi Cboyce,

These are Partmaster Standard (Level 2 Commands), they are also
available to Partmaster Pro (Level 3 Customers).

The Level 2 commands have less options than
the Level 3 commands and are designed to be simpler to use.

The Level 3 commands have more powerfull options and are more versatile.

[windy_miller]

If you have level 3 / pro version, ignore the commands tab on the right, leave the status tab displayed instead.

Just use the machining ops & misc ops toolbar. You will have access to more features and have far greater contol. Trying to use the 'level 2' commands tab and the 'level 3' toolbars will just confuse.

I actually think the command window is more confusing anyway, for example, when you define a drill bit using the command drill window you cannot set the lead value of the drill bit. The 'use existing' actually means use one of your pre-defined tools from the 'tooling definitions' pane, where you can define the lead value. So you might was well use the machining toolbar 'select tool' and then the machining toolbar 'drill' in the first place. In this way you can see each operation clearly build up in the operations window. You can also save your toolfile thus once defined you do not need to keep setting the parameters as you have to in L2 command window. You can even save this as a template file, so when going from cad into cam your prefered setup and tool file are there ready and waiting.

I could never understand why Dolphin went to the level 1,2,3 system. Before this they did a mach only version aimed at hobbyists and the industrial version where different post processors could be used. All other features were identical.

BR,
Windy.