Just got my Tormach up and running and having a problem, need some help

[mike@newera]

So, bare with me, I used to be a mold maker but I have been out of the trade for 8 years so I am quite a bit rusty. Anyway, just got my machine set up, and I sketched up a quick design of the top of a piston with Mastercam V.9.0 to cut my first shape with my Tormach. I used a parallel rough surface program and it would stop cutting (just pause in place) at the same point every time I ran the program, then I did a parallel surface finish program and it would do the same thing, when it got to a certain point it would just stop.

I am using the MPFAN (I believe this is for Fanuc) post processor, is this part of the problem? I tried doing a copy/paste of the Mach3 post processor on Tormach's website and this did not work for me.

I rememember years ago when I was in the trade, using Dynapath controls we would have to buffer programs through the control if it ws too long, maybe this is the case? The first program was 80 kb and the second was 697 kb. Just looking for some assistance from those of you who are more experienced with this set up.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[philbur]

I think you can get a MasterCam post processor for Mach3/Tormach here.

http://www.tormach.com/documents.htm

Phil

So, bare with me, I used to be a mold maker but I have been out of the trade for 8 years so I am quite a bit rusty. Anyway, just got my machine set up, and I sketched up a quick design of the top of a piston with Mastercam V.9.0 to cut my first shape with my Tormach. I used a parallel rough surface program and it would stop cutting (just pause in place) at the same point every time I ran the program, then I did a parallel surface finish program and it would do the same thing, when it got to a certain point it would just stop.

I am using the MPFAN (I believe this is for Fanuc) post processor, is this part of the problem? I tried doing a copy/paste of the Mach3 post processor on Tormach's website and this did not work for me.

I rememember years ago when I was in the trade, using Dynapath controls we would have to buffer programs through the control if it ws too long, maybe this is the case? The first program was 80 kb and the second was 697 kb. Just looking for some assistance from those of you who are more experienced with this set up.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[mike@newera]

That is what I tried to do, when you click on it, it just goes to a text file online. So, I copied and pasted it into a notepad text file and when I used it to post process my toolpath, it didn't work. Any tips? Maybe I am doing something wrong?

[BlueFin]

Right click and choose "save as", the file is supposed to be mach3.pst, but if you are copying the text to a notepad file and saving it then it will become mach3.txt

[R.DesJardin]

I was having problems when I first fired my mill up too, then I reloaded Mach on the PC and all is good since. I fought this for two days before I did the proper IT thing and reload. I am using SprutCam but was getting weird radius' on some corners.

[mike@newera]

When you right click it, these are the options I have:

"Open"
"Open in new window"
"Save target as..."
"Print target"
"Copy shortcut"
"Add to favorites"
"Properties"

I tried using the "save target as..." and doing this you can still only save it as a text file, and when I post process a program I get an "Error during posting" with Mastercam, and it states that it is a combined mill and lathe post processor and there is an illegal character $ on the left side of the equation, program execution halted due to error.

Any ideas?

[philbur]

I think manually editing the file extension to pst after you have saved it may work.

Phil

When you right click it, these are the options I have:

"Open"
"Open in new window"
"Save target as..."
"Print target"
"Copy shortcut"
"Add to favorites"
"Properties"

I tried using the "save target as..." and doing this you can still only save it as a text file, and when I post process a program I get an "Error during posting" with Mastercam, and it states that it is a combined mill and lathe post processor and there is an illegal character $ on the left side of the equation, program execution halted due to error.

Any ideas?

[philbur]

"Save target as" gives me a pst file!

Phil

I tried using the "save target as..." and doing this you can still only save it as a text file, and when I post process a program I get an "Error during posting" with Mastercam, and it states that it is a combined mill and lathe post processor and there is an illegal character $ on the left side of the equation, program execution halted due to error.

Any ideas?

[mike@newera]

Ok, I redid it and I was incorrect, it did give me a PST file, but it still has the same error when attempting to post process the toolpath. Are you guys using mastercam? Can you try post processing a parallel surface toolpath to see if it works? Does the issue that I am having even sound like something to do with the post processor I am using? Thanks!

[keithorr]

what line does the file stop on? how about a code snippet?

[wvines]

Did you install the Mach license? If it's running without a license, Mach will stop cutting after several hundred lines. It doesn't give any sort of error message, it just stops cutting.

[wvines]

Did you install the Mach license? If it's running without a license, Mach will stop cutting after several hundred lines. It doesn't give any sort of error message, it just stops cutting.