Before we start milling away our stock we first need to get down to the required depth.

This is not a problem with external features when we can plunge outside.

When machining closed pockets, however, we need to find a way to get down to the machining depth first.

As usual there are several ways to get the job done. The plunging methods listed here are not ordered by their preference.

For various machining operations on different materials some may be more preferable than others.

Straight Plunging into a larger Pre-Drilled hole

This is one the best ones in my opinion.
Very few machining modes can compete in effectiveness with drilling and this method will get you the best combined tool life on most materials and (in case of many deep pockets) the least machining time, even when tool change time is factored in.

I have just uploaded the latest update to HSMAdvisor hook for MasterCam x9 and 2017.
This is a catch-up update to the latest HSMAdvisor improvements.

Additionally i promised few guys a tutorial on how to easily install the hook into MasterCam 2017

So here it is:

Please excuse my lack of artistic prowess.
Hey, You can be ANYTHING but you can not be EVERYTHING

And i am more of a technical guy who, perhaps, lacks the hypnotizing narrating skills of a salesman :)

Tool Inventory Advisor is now included into all HSMAdvisor License types!

This feature is absolutely free for HSMAdvisor customers. No special login is required. It is already built in!

Please download the latest update to enjoy the latest update!
Some video tutorials will be published this weekend.

Also in the this update:

• Changed the look of Material and Tool drop-downs
• Added search to Tool list drop-down
• Uploaded new machines to the HSMAdvisor Cloud
• Improved function of Tool Library
  Fixed small bugs
  "Shared Database" flag is now set in the database file itself

One of the latest additions to HSMAdvisor speed and feed calculator is the ability to set manufacturer-recommended speeds and feeds for work-piece materials and groups of materials.

Here is a YouTube video walk-through showing how to add S&F tables into the program https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJOgWfgy99U

HSMAdvisor uses Brand Name and Series Name to assign speed and chipload tables to tools.

A new "Speed and Feed Source" (S&F Source) indicator has been added to quickly tell user which speed and feed table is being used right now.

Plugins Tab now has functionality to Download and Save webpages to your computer, so they are always available offline.

There is now an address bar on the bottom of the screen.
If you enter URL address and click go, you can load website in a new tab.

You can save it as one page by right-clicking on corresponding tab and selecting "Save Page on Disk":

Alternatively you can save your webpage in ".mht" format using Internet Explorer into HSMAdvisor\plugins\ folder.

Next time you launch HSMAdvisor, your saved web page will show up in Plugins Tab.

This is where all plugins are saved:

You can use *.HTML, *.HTM, *.MHT and *.TXT files.

If you have any Microsoft Word documents you would like to keep there as well, you can save them "As Web Page" and copy to the plugins folder.

More goodies for our HSMAdvisor users!

I have just uploaded an update that allows several computers running HSMAdvisor to share the same database.
Please check out Tutorials section for more info on how it works and how to turn it on.

I have been bearing this idea for quite some time, but HSMAdvisor user Kevin E. (koodos!) sent me an email and suggested that i finally implement it.
He has almost a dozen CAM computers in his shop and he and his co-workers frequently change workstations.
Obviousy in this kind of setting it would be hard to keep importing/exporting yout tooling data without loosing anything.

Before you go ahead, however, please make sure you create a backup copy of your database yto prevent possible data loss should anything go wrong.

Also several things were improved and fixed.

First of all, Automatic Registration that allows users with multiple purchased seats request and receive their license key online on-demand has been fixed.
All 2 accounts with keys wrongfully issued this way were fixed :)

I also improved the way Tools and Cuts are loaded into the calculator.
Before there was a bit of confusion when loading tools from myCutDB page- speed and feed overrides would pick up wrong values - now it is fixed.

Thank you to everyone who has helped me with their suggestions and feedback.

In HSMAdvisor starting from version 0.750 it is possible for sevaral HSMAdvisor seats to share the same tool and cut library (myCutDB).

All you need to do is tell all HSMAdvisor seats where the shared database file is located. And then check "Shared Database" option in settings page.
This will make all seats use this file in synchronous mode.

Which means changes to the DB made on one computer will automatically propagate to other computers as well.

This is how it looks in a more schematic way:

HSMAdvisor has got a brand new CAD/CAM integration profiles manager.

It is now possible to import/export profiles to and from HSMAdvisor.

For now i only had time to add SurfCAM 5.2 to the list. MasterCAM x2 is coming a little later.

While using Capture Wizard yields very satisfactory results in most cases, it does not take a long time to set up either.
The whole procedure of creating a brand new profile takes just about 30 minutes.

If you created your own profile for a CAM system that is not already in the lest, please send it to my e-mail address: cnc@zero-divide.net or create a thread on the support forums. There you can upload XML files directly.

I would like to add it to the next release for everyone to enjoy.

Very good things happen to those who contribute!

If you need any help figuring out CAD/CAM integration. please refer to "HSMAdvisor Tutorials" category of this site, create a thread on support forums, or send me an email!

Please check out this tutorial i made for calculating speeds, feeds and engagement when pocketing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=qctpiDWiF34