With the licensed version of Lazycam Pro & Mach3, I'm trying to get offsets with a 1/8 in diameter tool for a clock wheel where there are 6 sections to cut out. When I click on offsets, I get crazy blue straight lines and curved green lines, not lines parallel to the lines in the drawing. The attached PDF has 5 pages: (1) the original DXF, (2) the Lazycam image of the imported DXF, (3) one of the cutouts highlighted, (4) the result of clicking the offset button for the one section and (5) the result of setting offsets for all 6 sections. An offset starts as a dark blue line within the section but extends beyond it with faint green round lines. The last page shows some of the faint green lines actually appear to be an offset but most are way off.

What am I doing wrong?

dbvogt,
Haven't read your posted PDF, yet.
I suggest you take a look at the LazyCam Manual in Members Docs.
Think most of what you want to know is in it.

RICH

Post your DXF.

In the mean time:
Check your loading options
1. Import drawing
2. Select mill module
3.clean and optimize
4. turn the rapids off
5. select the items you want to offset  ( try one chain for simplicity to see if there are any problems )
6. use the offset menu
7. use the layer menu to define the tool and cut depth
8. Magic ( i hope  )

RICH

DBVOGT
See attached for a way to do it. Of course you should think about how you want to actualy machine
it since you can do an offset  with or with out lead ins /outs, or remove the area instead of milling a contour inside to remove the material, or change the order / sequence of machining.....whatever you want to do.

RICH

Thanks for the replies. I can DL the manual without trouble but get an error trying to open the PDF in Acrobat (or Reader) 9. Opening "Homing_A_Lathe" as a test is no problem. I'll have to play with Lcam more.

I can open it with 5 to 8 something, can't speak for version 9.
RICH

Got it today on the third try. The DL process stops for a while and probably caused some sort of corruption yesterday. BTW, thank you very much for the PDF steps to create a toolpath - and doing it overnight!

I was brought up in the DOS world where it was easier to learn software by using it. Docs were often poor, especially with shareware and freeware for running a BBS. Years ago, we would buy an Asian-made piece of furniture that had instructions in Japanglish so it was easier to figure out how it went together from the parts. Can't do that with CNC.

Glad i could help. 
RCIH