| Coolant on in Mastercam |
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| tip of the month text |
| Written by Administrator |
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Mastercam has been releasing its software with the coolant defaults set to off since switching to the X platform in 2005. This is true through X3, we will have to wait and see how it shakes out in X4.
I have always taught people to set up each tool, the way you want it with all of the parameters optimized, including coolant turned on, however, this means editing every tool in your library, so if you want the quick fix, read on.
In this tutorial we will show you how to set your defaults to turn the coolant on automatically.
Before beginning the process you will need to make a decision: do you want to use X style “new coolant settings” or legacy “old style coolant” if you have only been using Mastercam since version X, just leave the settings to “new”
The new X coolant settings allow for ten coolant options for newer Machine Tools that may have these options. The problem is that if you are using post processors that were upgrades from version 9 or older, the new style coolant will not work with them and you will receive an error: coolant settings not compatible with this Machine Definition
Now, follow these steps and we will show you how to choose “old” or “new” coolant and to set the defaults so that the coolant is always on.
Use Window Explorer and navigate to your main Mastercam folder: I am using X3, your version may be mcamx 2, 3, 4 etc…
 Once in the folder select mill and then Ops
 Make a backup of your mill_inch.defaults file by copying and pasting the file in the same directory
  Rename your original mill_inch.defaults file to mill_inch.mcx
 In Mastercam open the mill_inch.mcx file, expand the properties tab and click “files”
 Select “edit”
 And then “edit general machine parameters”
 If you are using post processors from earlier versions (pre X) of Mastercam check the box titled “Support coolant using coolant value in post processor” if you are not using old post processors, leave the box unchecked.
 Note: many power users are using any number of post processors and so they leave the box checked and use the “old coolant options”
Close all
In the operations manager; select all operations and then right mouse click in the white area, select “edit selected operations” and then “edit common parameters”
 Check the coolant box, click on the tab and select on from the drop down menu
 Expand the properties tab and click on tool settings, make sure the box; “use tool’s step, peck and coolant is un-checked, otherwise the tool’s settings will override the default we have just setup.
 Now, since we have just unchecked, use tool’s step peck and coolant, where will the operation pull the step and peck numbers from? Good question.
Answer: from right here in the operation defaults, make the changes here or read the tutorial “operation defaults” here in the tips and tricks section.
Close everything and don’t forget the last step, go back into your Ops file, you will notice that the system created a file called mill_inch.defaults, delete the file.
 Then rename the file mill_inch.mcx to mill_inch.defaults
  If you decided to use “old style coolant” there is still one more step: You will need to set all of your machine Definitions to use old style. Select settings and then machine Definition Manager.
 Edit general machine parameters
 Check the box under coolant commands.
 That’s it, all done.
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