L E S S O N 7

7

Post Output

Posting refers to the process by which the toolpaths in your Mastercam for SOLID-

WORKS part files are converted by a specialized processing program to a format that can be understood by your machine tool’s control.

Tool numbers that are output to your NC file come from the Toolpath parameters tab or Tool page for each operation. When you select a tool for an operation, Mastercam for SOLIDWORKS generates a default tool number and default tool offsets. If your machine only accepts a limited range of tool numbers, Mastercam for SOLIDWORKS lets you reassign tool numbers for operations in a machine group.

In the final lesson of this tutorial, you renumber the tools used in the operations you created, and then post the entire set to the NC file.

Lesson Goals



Renumber all tools used to cut the part



Post your work for inspection

Exercise 1: Renumbering Tools

In this exercise, you renumber the tools for each operation.

1

Select all operations in the

Toolpaths Manager.

2

Right-click the machine group.

132 MASTERCAM 2017 FOR SOLIDWORKS / Post Output

3

Select Edit selected operations, Renumber tools from the menu.

4

The Renumber tools dialog box displays.

Clear the last option to renumber tools that are not used in any operation.

5

Click OK.

The tools in the Toolpaths Manager are renumbered relative to the current order of the operations.

MCFSW LATHE TUTORIAL

POSTING 133

TIP: Use the procedure above to reassign tool numbers after you have already created toolpaths. To number tools in the machine group by operation before you create toolpaths, select the option on the Tool

Settings tab in the Machine Group Properties dialog box.

Exercise 2: Posting

In this exercise, you post the operations in the machine group.

1

2

If necessary, select all operations in the Toolpaths Manager.

Click the Post selected operations button in the Toolpaths Manager.

If you have not selected all the operations in a machine group, Mastercam for

SOLIDWORKS will ask if you want to post all the operations.

The Post processing dialog box displays. Mastercam for

SOLIDWORKS uses these settings to handle the files that are generated when posting.

3

Click OK.

MCFSW LATHE TUTORIAL