X3 Tip - Customizing Express Installations

X3 introduced a new "Express" installation method.  This installation bypasses all of the usual prompts that exist during an install and automatically makes the selections for the user.  The only screen that has to be accepted is the license agreement.  IT professionals may appreciate the ability to configure the Express installation for deployment across multiple computers.

The method used to customize the installation is to simply edit the mastercam.ini file which exists in the/data/Mastercam X3/ folder that Mastercam is installed from.  Make sure to use an ANSI editor such as Notepad and not MS Word.

Note: You won't be able to edit the mastercam.ini file directly on a cd that has already been created due to the cd being Read Only.  First copy the contents to your local or network drive, then edit the mastercam.ini file and either run the installation from there or burn it to a cd.

X3 - Change NC Filename Issue

Who is affected: This particular issue is isolated to Milling Level 2 users.

Issue: When accessing the right-click menu in the operations manager, selecting the "Change NC Filename" option does not bring open the dialog box to change the NC filename.

Solution: In the right-click menu access "Edit selected operations" and then "Edit Common Parameters".  Inside the edit common parameters dialog you can change the NC filename.

X3 Auto Highlight Issue

How to Fix the Auto Highlight Issue

After exiting the Verify in X3, the Auto Highlight function may stop working properly. There are a couple workarounds and one fix for the problem that you can use until the issue is addressed in the next Maintenance Update.

Toggle Shading On/Off

• Use the key combination Alt+S twice to toggle the shading on/off
  
• If this procedure does not work, proceed to the next
  
• Use the "Regenerate Display List" function
  
• From the Screen menu, choose Regenerate Display List
  
• Optionally you can click the toolbar icon for Regenerate Display List
  
• If neither of the above procedures help, proceed to the fix below
  

Fix: Disabling the hardware acceleration in Verify

• From the Settings menu select Configuration
  
• In the topics list select expand out the Verify Interface topic and select Verify Settings
  
• On the Verify Settings page check the Disable Hardware Acceleration option
  
• Save your configuration changes and restart Mastercam for the changes to take effect
  

While the Fix is a more permanent solution than the first two workarounds, it is important to note that X3 introduced some speed improvements to the Verify. Disabling this hardware acceleration will disable the new changes and will cause the Verify to act as it did in X2. If the speed of Verify is important to you, our recommendation is to use one of the workarounds until this issue has been resolved in a Maintenance Update.

Browser Issues - Additional Streamingteacher Testing

We have been doing additional testing for IE6 and IE8 beta today. We have had some problems reported, and are working very hard to resolve these issues. Most of our testing was done in IE7 and the latest Firefox. We are now set up to check IE6, IE7, Firefox, Safari and Chrome. So far, IE7, Firefox and Safari seem to work the best. We will continue to work hard on solving mostly what seems to be cosmetic issues. If you run into any problems and would like to report it, please leave you comment on this post or email Support


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New Streamingteacher Launched!

Today 9/4/08 we launched the new Streamingteacher site, it went up at 1:55pm PST. It now includes the Mastercam X3 courseware and many new features. Enjoy! Please feel free to post comments here regarding the changes.

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Watch for the new Streamingteacher!

On September 2nd 2008, you will notice quite a change at Streamingteacher. Below is a screen shot of the new website.

This upgrade will include much faster page loading, easier navigation and many new features. If you you have any questions, please email us at Support

Key Stroking Mastercam X~X3

If you want to navigate Mastercam with keystrokes, you will possibly need to make an adjustment to Windows itself. In Mastercam, if you type ALT you will see the characters on the main menu become underscored. Those characters are what you type to access that particular menu. When that menu drops down, if you no longer see any of the menu choices underscored, then you may need to make the change outlined below:

(1) Minimize Mastercam and Right-Click on your desktop

(2) Select properties, appearance and click on effects

(3) Make sure "Hide underlined letters for keyboard navigation until I press the Alt key" is unchecked. (See image below)

(4) Click on OK, then close and re-start Mastercam.

Now you are ready to be a power user, happy key stroking in Mastercam.