Rotate Planes M-Cam 2017

[lucas257]

I've used rotate planes for years and all of a sudden, either it functions under a totally different command name, or I just can't find it. It used to be as easy as planes, rotate planes, rotate the amount needed, and you would name the plane and wouldn't you know there would be a new named planed in my plane selection under named views...Hopefully someone uses that function as much as I do and can help me out...not a fan of the new level manager...AT ALL

 

Luke

[Reko]

Right click over the plane in the Plane Manager... "Rotate Inremental"

[lucas257]

What do I need to do to be able to not have that option grayed out so I can rotate the plane? This is a little different from how I've utilized it before this version.

[crazy^millman]

Is it a base plane? They cannot be changed like earlier versions. You must create a copy of a base plane and rotate it.

 

TOP

FRONT

BACK

BOTTOM

RIGHT

LEFT

ISO

 

These are base planes and cannot be changed anymore.

 

Also to get dynamic planes you click on the Gnomon in the lower left hand corner and now have quick access to it there. I still have it on my right click so if I am all the way in the upper right hand corner of my wide screen I don't have to go through so much real estate to use it. I am even looking to add the function to my 3D Mouse.

[lucas257]

Thank you sir! I was just right clicking on the plane i wanted to rotate assuming it was just going to make a copy and ask me what I wanted the view to be named like in past versions...definitely some different changes in this version.

[JoshC]

I like that in 2017 I can just use the Dynamic Planes to accomplish this, Next time you need to do a rotate planes try this and see if you like it better. Just make the plane that you want to rotate active, then in the lower left of Mastercam2017's gfx area click on that XYZ gnomen (this should instantly put you into Dynamic planes without having to even go into the plane manager). You can then just place the gnomen into position and rotate the gnomen however many degrees you want, all done.

 

Not only is this exceptionally fast but you can rotate, move, create a viewsheet, and much more just with a click of the gnomen in the lower left.

I have been processing almost all of my planes using the Dynamic planes and the lower left gnomen for a while in 2017 now and that is almost all I use now, with the exception to planes by Geometry that I still find useful over dynamic planes for certain things (like when I want to use Hole axis then Planes by Geo in order to build a plane off a hole or off a radius.

[crazy^millman]

I like that in 2017 I can just use the Dynamic Planes to accomplish this, Next time you need to do a rotate planes try this and see if you like it better. Just make the plane that you want to rotate active, then in the lower left of Mastercam2017's gfx area click on that XYZ gnomen (this should instantly put you into Dynamic planes without having to even go into the plane manager). You can then just place the gnomen into position and rotate the gnomen however many degrees you want, all done.

 

Not only is this exceptionally fast but you can rotate, move, create a viewsheet, and much more just with a click of the gnomen in the lower left.

I have been processing almost all of my planes using the Dynamic planes and the lower left gnomen for a while in 2017 now and that is almost all I use now, with the exception to planes by Geometry that I still find useful over dynamic planes for certain things (like when I want to use Hole axis then Planes by Geo in order to build a plane off a hole or off a radius.

 

Just need to pay attention to all the dialogs and make sure you are using the correct process to get the desired out come. Set as Cplane is the default check, but if you are looking for that to be your new WCS the programmer will need to pay attention and check that box. They also have to understand how the plans manager is the driving force behind a lot of behavior that is was not before. I also don't like the Automatic workoffsets default wish it would remember the last used and keep it stuck. There is nothing I see that allows that. I may have 20-100 planes for a 5 Axis project and most times they all share the same workoffset. The Automatic method is not intuitive enough for me and having to into the planes manager and control it is just like copying a base plane that has already been set up the way I want and then dynamically rotate it where I need.

 

I use Hole Axis also, but you must use the hole to use Dynamic planes to their fullest. If you just have the point not very easy.

[Gracjan aka Pullo]

Rotate Incremental is the totally wrong way to go about.  

I have looked at this in depth and also as a result been banned from communicating with QC forever and ever amen.

 

I have also been an avid user of this function and when I could not find it  I was told to use rotate incremental. THIS IS NOT A NEW WORK FLOW. This function has been there before and my guess

that you have like I never used before as there was no need , create "Planes by rotate" was there and that was it.

 ROTATE INCREMENTAL rotates an already created plane , which BTW has been put in place and utilized in some fashion. So by rotating in this fashion you are inviting a major screwup , just like I did. My lesson here cost me two hours in welding + remachining as I rotated  a WCS without realizing this.

 

In my opinion it's an omission and the workaround for it is to  install Verisurf Tools and use  the WCS XYZ-ABC command , which does exactly what Rotate Planes does. (Creates a NEW plane by rotations)

Couple this info with the fact that you can now map keyboard shortcuts which are letters only (this is really great ) , you can map this Verisurf command as say "R" for rotate and you are better off then before. Map "S" for solid face , "N" for normal to line etc... and fast just got quicker.

 

A small warning here with these single letter shortcuts . Take care as to not use letters which are used in Autocursor functions like M - midpoint , C - center. You are not warned that they are "in use"

 

Gracjan

[Reko]

Rotate Incremental is the totally wrong way to go about.  

I have looked at this in depth...

Interesting.

 

One thing I have always liked about Mastercam is that there are so many alternative ways to go about doing something.

We all think differently, so it stands to reason that within Mastercam's matrix, we can all get the most out of skills in the simplest way as an individual.

 

Personally, I use all of them...

 

"From Geometry" is the one I have used most over the years, so it is familiar and a decent way to create a plane

"From Solid Face" is very useful when I bring a model in and it is sitting at an odd angle in space

"Relative to WCS"... for me, it's easy to picture the way the machine will rotate, so this mimic's that for me, in my mind's eye

"Create Relative to" is similar to the above plane creation... I use this for a quick plane when I'm programming a 4th axis and need the left plane to toolpath/transform/rotate around 

"Rotate Incremental" is great too, and I use it a lot in conjunction with a duplicated plane... again, it's just easy to picture how the machine moves and this one helps by not changing the origin

"Dynamic Planes" is a most powerful tool that I find myself going to most often... study this one... and you'll find it can do most everything the others do... and a few things they can't

 

suum cuique pulchrum est

[Gracjan aka Pullo]

My main point was about the destruction potentials of serving rotate incremental as a "new worflow " for the previous create planes by rotate function .  It is not a new worflow if both functions were in X9 and now there is only one of them present. It's an old  functions that's beem left in place.

 

Gracjan

 

 

A chaque oisean son nid est beau.

[crazy^millman]

This the same topic I just posted up here sorry I didn't put them together.

 

http://www.emastercam.com/board/topic/88619-2017-rotate-dynamic-gone-from-planes-manager/

 

Yes we are all different and do different things, but in 3+2 and 5 Axis programming you may not like the plane you have setup. In none of the methods mentioned can a programmer use them for a already created plane with operations already programming to that plane except Rotate Increment. In prevuos versions before Rotate Dynamic's existence the user had to go about rotating planes hoping for the best. In Previous versions it would create a copy of the plane not update the current one. When Dynamic Planes came into the software they didn't have Rotate Dynamic. You still had to do it the current way in 2017 which was Rotate Increment which brings up the dialog box going back to the 1st release of X. Or how 2017 now makes you go create a new one every time losing the seed planes you started with. With Rotate Dynamic you get the interactive cutting edge of technology interface users have come to expect with Dynamic technology. Not the old school throw a value in and hope that is what you wanted to clear that tool going into that very tight space that you cannot see. It is not as interactive and visual as the Dynamic process. You have to go to the Gview of that plane and hope you rolled the dice correctly and went in the correct direction with your increment amount you just typed in. The whole concept of dynamic is to engage the programmer to visually see what is going on. It was introduced and those who embraced this revolutionary method for working with planes already created that need some tweaking seen the immediate benefits of this jump of how a user interface is meant to engage a programmer in ways only dreamed of. Take one project that had over 2000 operation and 4 months of programming between 3 programmers. There were over 200 different planes to create the NC code for that project. 50% of the planes are not how they originally stated out. All changed using Rotate Dynamic. Now the programmer who has programmed operations assigned to that plane had a way to use Dynamic technology to make adjustments. They have to revert back to a non interactive process with Rotate Increment that doesn't allow the user to use Geometry from the part.

 

In my other topic I feel it is 3 times the work in my opinion to do what I was doing with Rotate Dynamic. I will adapt and do what I have always done which is get the job done, but the removal of Rotate Dynamic may have solved some issues, but for me it create many more than it ever solved and feel like a big step backwards. I have to go back and un-train customers and concede points back to NX programmers who always mnetioned this ability in NX that made it superior to Mastercam. X9 showed many NX programmers Mastercam had arrived in their opinion. We will see how much ground I loose.

[crazy^millman]

Mystery Solved and I was wrong and I for one and glad I missed it. :ouch:

 

Right Click on a plane and Edit is now the Rotate Dynamic.