MCX posting zero feedrate for drills

[Matt@RFR]

The programmers at work are getting a feedrate of "F0." on some drill cycles. They are entering the feedrate in the appropriate box, and it doesn't seem to have any consistency; It will do it on peck cycles, tapping cycles and regular drill cycles, but not every time. It also shows up in backplot when they try to get cycle times as "Invalid feedrate". Any ideas? I rarely use MasterCAM at work, but I had a look in the settings area and couldn't find anything relevant.

[Superman]

Are they setting the feed and speeds on the tool page or the operations page ?

If they wish to take the feed and speed for the tool, then the tool muat be set-up correctly, and the "use tool's speed,feed,coolant" checkbox must be ticked.

This way, the operation will take the settings that you set for that tool at that moment, if you change any part of the tool parameters, you must reselect that tool again for it to update in other operations using the same tool.
You can modify parameters (speed, feed, etc ) in your operation after you select your tool,but if you reselect a tool, your modified parameters will be reset to the tool's parameters

Another good way of not getting F0. is to have an "Warning" error pop-up on the screen when posting that F0's exist, same goes for S0, or cutter comp take-up on arcs, that some machines don't like.

[Matt@RFR]

Thanks for the reply. These guys are pretty new to MCX and they have not set up any tool libraries at all, so they are entering all speed/feed/H and D numbers by hand. I personally checked that when it posts a F0., the feedrate is, in fact, entered in the correct box.

[PhoenixMetal]

Ensure that the feed calculations are set to "From Tool" in Tool Settings (properties->tool settings on the tree on the left of the screen). "From Tool" means it will use your numbers, while "From Material" means it will calculate the feeds and speeds on its own based on your tool parameters and the workpiece material. "From Tool" has worked out better for me.

Also, instead of just entering the numbers on the Toolpath Parameters screen, enter them into the tools themselves. By that, I mean that from within the Toolpath Parameters tab, they should right click on the tool, click "edit tool" and enter the parameters there. This also makes available some parameters that are grayed out and unavailable for editing on the toolpath parameters screen - such as plunge rate and retract rate. This also removes the annoyance of having to re-enter the data if you click on the tool again.

[Matt@RFR]

Great, thanks guys. I'll have them try this out. One question though: Say you've got T2 doing a lot of roughing and can't use the same feed rates on different features of the part. If inputing feed rates at the tool level, would changing a feedrate at the operation level effect T2 globaly?

[tobyaxis]

Originally Posted by Matt@RFR Great, thanks guys. I'll have them try this out. One question though: Say you've got T2 doing a lot of roughing and can't use the same feed rates on different features of the part. If inputing feed rates at the tool level, would changing a feedrate at the operation level effect T2 globaly?

I would assume "yes", but wait for someone else to chime in.

[Mike Mattera]

Each operation can have it's own feedrate. In the OP you have Feed (XY cutting) and Plunge Feed (Z cutting. Mastercam will average that for 3 axis cutting.

Where did you get your post?

Did you just update to X3?

There was a known problem with the MPMaster post outputting zero's for feedrates when it was updated to X3. Search this forum for additional information.

Mike Mattera