Problem chaining rectangles

[jonathan joseph]

Hi all

Novice self taught user here. I'm finding that sometimes when I create a rectangle then in a contour toolpath I go to chain it it will only chain one line/side of the rectangle at a time. I have to select each side individually to get the whole piece of geometry toolpathed. I create the geometry in "create- "rectangle" then just input the dimensions I want. 

Interestingly when I create the rectangle off to the side of my main drawing and try to toolpath it there it chain all four sides together in one chain but when I attempt to "translate" "move" that geometry into my main drawing it will no longer recognize it as one chain. Whats happening? 

Thanks in advance for any help. 

Jonathan 

[nickbe10]

On 9/18/2020 at 8:23 AM, jonathan joseph said:

Whats happening? 

You might be creating duplicate entities.

Mastercam has a tendency to do this. You can easily deal with them using the "delete duplicates" button.

Analyze  chain will also check for duplicates.

[jonathan joseph]

Thought I replied to this. Thanks alot this was the answer. Lots of duplicates. 

 

[Colin Gilchrist]

On 10/6/2020 at 11:33 AM, jonathan joseph said:

Thought I replied to this. Thanks alot this was the answer. Lots of duplicates. 

 

The "Delete Duplicates" command is great for getting rid of true duplicate entities, as you've discovered. However, occasionally you can run into a situation where there are multiple entities that lay "on top of each other" in the same Z plane, but they only share a single endpoint connection. Imagine a 2" long line, starting at 0,0,0, and extending along the X-Axis to 2,0,0. Now, place another line along the X-Axis, but make it a little shorter. Say; from 0,0,0, to 1.75, 0, 0. So you've got two lines, laying on top of each other, but not true "duplicates".

There is a C-Hook (add-in program that ships with Mastercam), called "Find Overlap". When you run this C-Hook, it will cycle through the entities and it will delete the extra geometry.

The only caveat is that Find Overlap only works on Lines and Arcs. It won't work on Splines.

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, Colin Gilchrist said:

The only caveat is that Find Overlap only works on Lines and Arcs. It won't work on Splines.

The break many command would be useful in that case, I wrapped the functionality in a chook for 2021 using gcodes parameter.

https://www.emastercam.com/forums/topic/101613-is-there-a-way/

[nickbe10]

On 10/19/2020 at 5:25 AM, Colin Gilchrist said:

There is a C-Hook (add-in program that ships with Mastercam), called "Find Overlap". When you run this C-Hook, it will cycle through the entities and it will delete the extra geometry.

I think analyze chain shows overlaps too, doesn't it? Doesn't delete them tho'...

[Colin Gilchrist]

12 minutes ago, nickbe10 said:

I think analyze chain shows overlaps too, doesn't it? Doesn't delete them tho'...

The real issue with Analyze Chain, is that the Chaining mechanism will stop at each branch point, when you try and select the chain. If you have one, and only one overlap, then your start/end point of the chain will jump to that location.

If you've got a chain with say, 3 separate overlaps, the Analyze Chain will stop multiple times, as you attempt to select a Full Chain.

FindOverlap is the quick way to just take care of the issue, when Delete Duplicates doesn't fix the problem...