[WoodMizer]

Please bare with me, I have no official training (except for a SolidWorks course) and I bought all of my machinery used and don't have the disks (so I don't think I can transfer MasterCam onto my machine computer) or manuals.

I have been frustrated with LazyCam lately and decided to try MasterCam since there is a copy of it on my design computer. I don't think I can get it onto my machine computer.

My question is this: Can I import a dxf file from SolidWorks, open it in MasterCam, clean up the tool path and then post to.....some where. Take the G-Code and transfer it to my machine computer to get it into Mach3???

I've been fooling around on MasterCam (X3) and it looks like more of a design tool??? It doesn't want to open dxf files.

Thanks for your help,

WM.

[sibbles]

Hi

I´m no expert in MasterCam and use primarily Mastercam8, but it is possible to import dxf files into MasterCam.
In M8 it is under the file button, I choose Converters and dxf.

The path in X3 should be similar, somebody is bound to comment on it.

You´re going to need the post processor file for your machine and then you can transfer the code as a file to the machine computer.

Atli

[WoodMizer]

A seperate post? LazyCam had the post already in. Or, would it have been installed later?

[Shanghyd]

Here's how I get the code to my machine.
I use Autocad to create my drawing.
I save it as a .dxf file.
I open the dxf in sheetcam and tweak the cutting paths etc.
I run the post processor for my machine (selected in Sheetcam)
I upload to my machine.
The file created by sheetcam can be opened directly in Mach3. This is for my mill though. If your talking about a lathe, that I don't know.

I would like to use Mastercam for all my machining projects. Big learning curve though.

[WoodMizer]

That's bout how I did it with SolidWorks, LazyCam and Mach3 until LazyCam stopped recognizing circles and turned them into 20 sided objects with a whole lot more code.

[jeff 888]

The way described for V8 is no longer the current way to do it you should just be able to go file> open and change the file type to dxf and it should open right up.

[lasermanbob]

Mastercam will open DXF files no problem. Keep in mind that you need more than Mastercam design though in order to do actual programming. A DXF file is no more than a two dimensional geometry file. You need Mastercam mill level 2 to program/create actual machine code.