[mountaindew]

OK that has got me thinking thanks. I have had a quick play with "fixture" in SC but my fixture plate in this has not been configured as a fixture in SC.

Jon

I did not think it could be a fixture problem!!! If you can place and use fixtures in your cam models your experience is well above beginner and setting the most basic values in water line operations. As I mentioned above if you change bottom level value it will go to that depth! Not clear why you cant. I would need picture of setup and ucs defined and where. If ucs is set to bottom of part then the value would be different then top of part! Many factors, I would watch all the tormach videos as many times as it takes to learn setup and basic operations. Then build on those skills a little at a time. This is complex powerful software that can run a large verity of machines, kludges and bodges as you mention above are not required and its more a function of understanding cam software. As drutort mentions there are a number of ways to do the same thing or control what your doing or what the software is doing.
md

[JonS]

I did not think it could be a fixture problem!!! If you can place and use fixtures in your cam models your experience is well above beginner and setting the most basic values in water line operations. As I mentioned above if you change bottom level value it will go to that depth! Not clear why you cant. I would need picture of setup and ucs defined and where. If ucs is set to bottom of part then the value would be different then top of part! Many factors, I would watch all the tormach videos as many times as it takes to learn setup and basic operations. Then build on those skills a little at a time. This is complex powerful software that can run a large verity of machines, kludges and bodges as you mention above are not required and its more a function of understanding cam software. As drutort mentions there are a number of ways to do the same thing or control what your doing or what the software is doing.
md

thanks, having my "fixture plate" not as a "fixture" was what was stopping waterline working as it should and being able to cut below the lowest point in the parts, I had left it in place as initially i was having to align the fixture plate to X0,Y0 in SC, but now I am a bit more confident in not having that there.. SO much to learn, it can be frustrating when you are trying something that should be easy..

[mountaindew]

thanks, having my "fixture plate" not as a "fixture" was what was stopping waterline working as it should and being able to cut below the lowest point in the parts, I had left it in place as initially i was having to align the fixture plate to X0,Y0 in SC, but now I am a bit more confident in not having that there.. SO much to learn, it can be frustrating when you are trying something that should be easy..

I would have to agree!
If you need to learn and use this as fast as possible would be a major pain. Fast results for a job or a client would be very frustrating. I call it dog fooding! Learning as much as I can. Dedicating time and effort to master skills and tools that are not clearly defined, understanding in the future this will help make the complex achievable. One of the main reasons for choosing the most powerful cam tools I could afford. Not because it was easy to get results but because I would not find the limits of the tool in a few weeks. I can only encourage you to spend time learning your cam software. Imho this has paid off big time and is now straight forward effort to cam up and mill complex parts.
Also in this case the software runs other machines like a sbl15 lathe and the effort I put into learning and setting up mill operations will also speed my learning curve on lathe operations. Ah and I explore advanced concepts all the time like parametric designs where I can change the size of a constricted object like a o-ring and the entire model and all its parts change. While sprut cant update all the cam operations on all the new parts automatically I have found ways or methods to make this a very fast process and you end up with a design in hand in hours. That was a few months ago, my latest work is in nesting of parts or designs this is another nice concept and skill to have
Always learning new stuff "Knowledge is compounding"
Hang in there, a year ago I struggled all the time now I get results with little effort.
md