27 replies to this topic

[RayHolt]

Alright... I made it happen finally! For some reason, when I went to Surface rough -> pocket and just selected the whole top surface as the drive surface, it cuts every pocket. The only problem was that it cut everything with a 1/4 flat end mill, so I put a surface finish pass on the curved pocket and it smoothed it out.

The only annoying thing is that I tried doing separate toolpaths (so the square&circle would cut with the flat bottom and the curved pocket would just use the ball end) but when I do surface rough-> pocket and select the square and circle individually, choose a 1/4 flat end mill, set the stepover to half the tool diameter, it says "No cut found- check tool, etc." every time. When I do this, I select the bottom face of the square and round pockets as the drive surface. Is this the problem? Whenever I try to select just the top edge, it selects the entire surface which leads to it cutting all of the pockets in one shot.

But, overall, just really psyched that I got this piece to cut!

Thanks to all for your help, and more importantly your patience!

[Jay Kramer @ Precision Programming]

Ray do you want my X6 file?

[Jay Kramer @ Precision Programming]

the two other pocket should be done as 2d pockets not a surfacing paths as they are standard 2d profiles.
when you use the surface rough pocket pick the hole model.and you will get the picture.

Attached Files

•  6-19-2012 6-54-41 AM.jpg   169.09K   14 downloads

[RayHolt]

Thanks so much Jay. I got the two pockets to cut as 2D pockets.

When I try to do surface rough for the curved pocket, I'm not sure what to select as the containment. No matter what edge or face I pick, it just doesn't create a toolpath.

The odd thing is that if I choose Surface FINISH -> parallel, and don't even choose a containment, it makes a toolpath for the curved bottom no problem.


Thanks again for all the help. Monster computer rig you're running!

[Jay Kramer @ Precision Programming]

Ray I will post the file with the boundry I MADE so you can see it.give me a min please.

[Jay Kramer @ Precision Programming]

sORRY ABOUT THE DELAY WAS BUSY HERE YOU GO IT IS A x6 FILE

Attached Files

•  SPACECLAIM_TEST-CADCAM.zip   111.52K   1 downloads

[Mariana Lendel]

You can do the followings:
Option 1.
You just need to make a boundary around the pocket (use create curve all edges first to make the wireframe and the project the curves needed using project to the top plane z above the solid). In the toolpath pick the entire solid and then select as containment the projected boundary.


Option 2.
Use the general selection and click on Activate solid selection icon and then enable only the Select face icon.
Make sure that you select all necesary faces include the side walls.

Attached Files

•  solid sele.png   2.64K   8 downloads

[Rich Thomas 4D Engineering]

+1 to Mariana... if you are using Surface Rough Pocket and just select the bottom curved surface by itself, you're not really selecting a full pocket... you're just selecting the floor of the pocket and Mcam wouldn't know anything about the walls (i.e how high they were).  So you either you select the wall faces too, or create/use a tool containment boudary as decribed above (which does away with the need to select the walls on a relatively simple job like this).

Seperately, when you selected the top face and the tool went down into the three holes, the Pocket operation basically dropped the tool into them, creating its own boundraries on the fly.  But as you found that might have not been ideal with the 1/4" end mill.  Plus if you hadn't physically selected the curved surface at the same time, the result would have been a three flat-bottomed pockets  
(Also if that top surface happened to have no holes in it at all, you would have got the same "no cut found" message as you did with the curved surface since again Mastercam wouldn't find any pocket shaped areas to cut out.)

It's worth knowing that if your curved surface was round in section (like a dish) rather than having parallel sides, Rough Pocket probably would have been fine. Once the toolpath got below the top of the dish shape it would see a "wall" all around the tool and decide it was indeed inside a pocket

Hope that all makes sense!