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Hello everyone, i am new, and I just purchased Dolphin Partmaster, I am trying to do my first part, and I am getting an error when i try to do a custom contour off my drawing from Partmaster Cad, this is the error that i get, under User Defined for anything, contour, drilling, etc.
The external command file "ContourCustom.dll" exists but could not be loaded. Dcam is unable to run the command.
Anyone have any experience with this, or am i doing something wrong?
I haven't seen that before. Maybe a computer boot will help. If not, then try a repair or modify installation from the Control Panel. That usually helps with little glitches in various software.
I like Partmaster and think it has a lot of potential but I just received my license to Partmaster yesterday and it crashed the program. Demo ran fine but when I installed my activation license it crashed the "cam" side of things. The cad side still works and seems to be activated but the cam side will not work. Two calls to Dolphin support but they haven't returned any calls yet. Right now I'm out of the money I spent and have software that no longer works. I feel like the software has a lot of bugs. The simulator wouldn't work in the demo for several days then all of a sudden started working fine. Go figure........
Rest assured Jim you are definitely being taken care of. We are just waiting from the licensing tech who happened to be out the past few days. You are by no means being ignored.
I just received my new license file this AM. I copied it from the email to the folder that it normally looks for it at. That is in your documents under Partmaster.
Then I clicked on Help in Cam. License manager.
Then top left, License. Then install license file.
I haven't had any issues with it.
I find that the email support is good and my preferred method of communication. That way I have a record of the conversation for future use if needed.
I am certain they will get you fixed up though. Support has always been good from them for me.
What kind of setup are you running. Mine is Win 7 64 Bit.
Thanks for the response. I have contacted your reseller, "TL" who asked me to resend another license request. I think he is helping from his end. Seems that I screwed it up when I did a reinstall when the cam side crashed. Trying to fix the problem myself and didn't know you couldn't do that. At least I have a fully working demo to play with until the license comes again. I am running Partmaster on a Win 7 Home Edition system. Do I possibly need to be running it in a "compatibility mode" for XP?
I am running Win 7 64 bit Home Edition. Are you running in a compatibility mode for XP? Saw something somewhere else in the forum about that.
That is actually what it was set for. I had it set that way for my old version 10 and I guess the new installation of V13 kept it that way. I may revert back to no compat mode. Do Run as Administrator though, regardless. That can save some headaches. :)
Just noticed that the simulator isn't working again since I reloaded the demo. Don't know why it suddenly started working before (see previous post). I am attaching screenshots of the errors. Anyone have any ideas?
Does your part simulate correctly in 2D on the Cam side?
Support is working on a different error in 3D sim for me now. Mine is likely a setting somewhere. I'll let you know what they find out. I would send them an email at support and include your Cam file.
This 3D sim software is Moduleworks. The same used for other High End CAM software.
The parts simulate perfectly in the 2D side. Files that were simulating perfectly in 3D two days ago also do not work now. It's got to be a setting somewhere. I must have accidentally hit the correct button when the simulator was working but lost it since my re-install. FRUSTRATING! Tried administrator mode, no help there.
I'll keep you posted when I get a reply. I just emailed them around lunch. They usually reply within a day.
One Guy did reply and he sent it on to the programmer to get an answer, so they are working on it. :)
Got the simulator working perfectly! For me it was in the settings on my graphics control card. I have an Intel 4 series graphics controller. I went into the graphics options, "3d control" and set the "vertex processing" option from "default" to "Application" control. Instantly started working! You may want to check your controller options....
Glad to hear you have it resolved. :)
Mine is an Nvidia Geforce 210. It was already set that way in the settings.
This is my actual error.
"Profile tolerance larger than toolradius"
I do think this is just a setting somewhere.
It does it for all my files, so has to be something I am overlooking.
No real rush on it for me. They will get it sorted out.
I am used to using just the 2D sim. ;)
I ran in to something like that. Had to choose a smaller, or was it larger tool diameter
I am using 3/16" and 1/4" drill bits and a .0625 width carbide parting tool.
The bar is 3/8" and 9/16 up to 3/4". It should be able to simulate that. Not everything is as big as a railroad wheel. ;)
There is apparently an issue with small tools in ModuleWorks on the inch side. I did change the sizes of the bits and got them to simulate a time or two.
Received word back from support. They suggest to immediately change it to metric right before 3D simulation. Everything still works the same in the simulation. Save your CAM and Gcode files first though. Then simulate. Works fine that way.
They mentioned that ModuleWorks is working on a solution.
Kind of buggy isn't it. Wish I'd went with cambam
Sometimes it's a matter of a few PC settings. Unfortunately, we have tried the last couple of days to contact you and do a teamviewer and sort out your issues, but reached you at bad times. We're willing to help early Monday morning if you are available.
Yeh, well some people have a job and can't be in front of their computers all day. I'll be at work again Monday. Why are we having this discussion here in a public forum? You have my phone number and email address. There shouldn't even be a need for this discussion period! Nuff said.......
I can tell you that even top shelf software can have glitches and issues with installations. You do not get immediate answers from the support with them either. A few weeks back, I installed SolidWorks or attempted to. It would not complete the install. Tried for days. Gave up. Sent a trouble ticket the first day. One week later I get an email that says they need the install log. Decided to take one more stab at it and then it worked for some reason. So, no need to contact them back. I found out that I wasn't the only one that experienced similar issues. Of course, not everyone does.
I have other software that is supported well and I count Dolphin as one of the better ones in this area. They have always taken care of any issues I have had. What more can you really ask for.
The bug in the sim software isn't in the Dolphin side I don't think, but in the ModuleWorks side of it. That is how I understood it. With a one button work around, I am satisfied with it. You can't tell by looking at the simulation or seeing any crashes whether it is inches or metric.
If it were in the Module Works side of things within the simulator, the same bug would be showing up on 90% of the rest of the CAM industry as well, and I haven't heard of or experienced anything wrong with the MW simulator in a very long time. I work in metric mostly on a different system that also uses Module Works so I have not had any issues at all, but when I try to get the sim to glitch using small inches based tools, I don't get any problems either. I'm fairly certain there is something wrong with the implementation.Quote:
Originally Posted by LeeWay
What can happen is any number of issues with passing information between the CAM package and the simulation that aren't quite meshing right. It will probably be some growing pains for Dolphin to get it set up seamlessly, but it should be worth it in the end. It may be on the MW end of things if they have been contracted to integrate the system for Dolphin, but the simulator itself appears to be working fine elsewhere, which really seems to point to the specific integration here.
I do really like the "Surfaces Defined by Two Curves" strategy and have considered buying a Dolphin license just for that, but have not tested it enough to know if it will quite do what I'm hoping (I really want to machine a surface I've already generated using the two curves as guides, but it may not work that way). If they continue to work with Module Works beyond the simulation and bring some of what are really at this point industry standard toolpath strategies into the system, I think they'll develop Dolphin into an even more competitive CAM system with a different take on the interface and some proprietary approaches that make it unique. They may not plan on taking it that far, but I hope they do.
They could have meant that the integration was not as seamless as it should be, but someone was looking into it. :) That is how bugs get fixed. Dolphin can do very simple parts or very complex ones. I haven't tried any threading yet, but that will come. The newer import features are getting better too. I think they are moving in the right direction. :)