| The X+ setup sheet for Mastercam |
 |
 |
 |
| Setup Reduction |
| Written by Derek Goodwin |
 Communication is one of the most important aspects of a CNC programmer’s work. It is absolutely critical that you be able to document setup instructions, and maintain tooling and fixturing data. The most important variable that determines success in a CNC Machining enterprise is the reduction of setup time. It is very expensive to implement a component manufacturing process the first time out. You must develop CNC Programs, work holding techniques, purchase tooling, prove out the production method and integrate a quality plan. The key to success is capturing and storing that knowledge, so that you do not have to re-invent the wheel on future runs of the component. Senior Programmers spend as much as half of their time on documentation and maintaining accurate production data, as you develop your skills you will look for ways to streamline and automate the process, as much as possible. One of the most important factors is having a setup sheet that can be customized to fit your needs. In this article, part of our series on documentation and quality control, we will look at the X+ setup sheet for Mastercam. The X+ setup sheet for Mastercam is developed and distributed free of charge by Gunther Massimo of GMCCS, a Mastercam and Solidworks reseller in Germany, the X+ setup sheet is fully configurable and used by many senior Mastercam Programmers. To access the X+ setup sheet in English, click a link below. X3 X4 also download the language.dll for X4 and copy to your chooks/X+/folder For previous versions, navigate to emastercam.com and search the Mastercam forum for X+ Once you have downloaded the file, you will need to unzip it, using your preferred zip utility. Then double click on the executable file.  Accept the licensing agreement and follow the installation prompts. Start up Mastercam and select, settings/toolbar states  Scroll down to the bottom of the toolbar menu and check the X+ box, the X+ toolbar will appear on your graphics screen  You can click and drag the handle to place the toolbar anywhere on your graphics screen.  You are now ready to use your X+ setup sheet. Open a file and select the operations that you want to output.  The first icon creates a setup sheet.  Click the dropdown arrows in the header section to organize the order, in which the data displays.  The available parameters page is at the left and the selected parameters page is at the right. Use the right and left arrows to place the data that you need from the left to the right, use the up and down arrows to change the order, in which the data displays. The setup sheet is a list of operations, click on OK to accept the parameters; the setup sheet produces a screen shot of the part and a list of operations and the tools used, you can set it up to communicate data, such as speeds and feeds, to help the setup person debug the program.  Many times you just need a tool list, this can be a accomplished by clicking the second icon.  Check the additional info box and sort the data, if you want to include that information. Drag columns to the left and right to close, if you don’t want to see the information in that column.  Click HTML when you are ready to publish the data, this opens the tool list in your internet browser. You can save the page as a Microsoft Word document, in this example, I am using the Firefox browser, so I click, file, “save as” and then name the file with a .doc extension to save it as a word document.  The next icon over is the gradient, you can click on this to get a cool visual background.  Here is a good tip for how to use gradient to quickly set your screen background to white for grabbing screen shots. Click on settings/configuration,  Scroll to the colors menu and set the gradient background start and end to color white. This helps for printing out screenshots, so you are not printing out color backgrounds and is mainly used when grabbing screenshots on the fly with capture software such as snagit   Click on the gradient button again to set your screen back to your normal color. The camera icon is the X+ screenshot tool, you can set this to a white background and capture a screenshot to your clipboard and then paste the picture into a document, such as Word or Power Point.  All in all, X+ is a powerful tool, easy to use and works straight from the toolbar, without requiring you to setup set files for different Machine Groups, I highly recommend it. I just noticed a Thread on emastercam that has some additional tips for customization Thanks Gunther and GMCCS    |
I wanted to say thanks for this product add-on to my mastercam... I did install successfuly this X+ set-up sheet for my CAD System. However, the
language .DLL File shows to be corrupted. So I am unable to change the language script that shows on the set-up sheet.
Would you be able to please provide me with a better file? I'm looking for an English Language of course....
Thanks for any help you can provide me with.... I would really like to start using this program.
I now am able to work the program, and I know that I will be using this on a daily basis for all my set-up sheets. GREAT WORK, on this Awesome Program!
Thanks again,
Ruben Gutierrez :0)
I don't have a lot of experience in troubleshooting the setup sheet. I would recommend asking first on the emastercam forum. please comment here, if you find a fix that should be documented.
Derek
Thanks a lot