Mastercam "action" history?

[Metallic]

This week I am working on a complex part that is a scaled down version of a part I have made in the past. I needed to reprogram the thing from scratch and there are some complex surfaces that I had generated on the original part that I need to generate on the smaller one. I know I know, I can just scale it down like I did to the solid model.

However, I was just curious about something. In a program like Adobe Photoshop, the programmer has the complete "action history"  or "history tree" at his or her disposal, which means they can pick a specific action and revert the history of the photo to that point. Obviously Solidworks has a similar thing with the feature tree.

Can you guys see a benefit to having something like this in Mastercam? I think it would be kind of a good addition to be able to see all the actions that have been taken in the graphics window, for example if a new employee is looking at a program and wants to know what the previous programmer may have done as far as wireframe or surface generation.

Unless I am totally ignorant, I don't think this is a thing in Mastercam.

Thoughts?

 

-CM

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, Metallic said:

This week I am working on a complex part that is a scaled down version of a part I have made in the past. I needed to reprogram the thing from scratch and there are some complex surfaces that I had generated on the original part that I need to generate on the smaller one. I know I know, I can just scale it down like I did to the solid model.

However, I was just curious about something. In a program like Adobe Photoshop, the programmer has the complete "action history"  or "history tree" at his or her disposal, which means they can pick a specific action and revert the history of the photo to that point. Obviously Solidworks has a similar thing with the feature tree.

Can you guys see a benefit to having something like this in Mastercam? I think it would be kind of a good addition to be able to see all the actions that have been taken in the graphics window, for example if a new employee is looking at a program and wants to know what the previous programmer may have done as far as wireframe or surface generation.

Unless I am totally ignorant, I don't think this is a thing in Mastercam.

Thoughts?

 

-CM

Kind of like solid history?

[JParis]

11 minutes ago, Metallic said:

This week I am working on a complex part that is a scaled down version of a part I have made in the past. I needed to reprogram the thing from scratch and there are some complex surfaces that I had generated on the original part that I need to generate on the smaller one. I know I know, I can just scale it down like I did to the solid model.

However, I was just curious about something. In a program like Adobe Photoshop, the programmer has the complete "action history"  or "history tree" at his or her disposal, which means they can pick a specific action and revert the history of the photo to that point. Obviously Solidworks has a similar thing with the feature tree.

Can you guys see a benefit to having something like this in Mastercam? I think it would be kind of a good addition to be able to see all the actions that have been taken in the graphics window, for example if a new employee is looking at a program and wants to know what the previous programmer may have done as far as wireframe or surface generation.

Unless I am totally ignorant, I don't think this is a thing in Mastercam.

Thoughts?

 

-CM

Might it be a worthy idea...maybe

To implement something like this though I imaging the entire structure of how things are built and maintained would need to be rewritten. When you throw on top that memory management is already spotty at best, if you work with large files you know what I mean, keep all of that work would suffocate the software at this point.

[Metallic]

8 minutes ago, JParis said:

Might it be a worthy idea...maybe

To implement something like this though I imaging the entire structure of how things are built and maintained would need to be rewritten. When you throw on top that memory management is already spotty at best, if you work with large files you know what I mean, keep all of that work would suffocate the software at this point.

As I am not a software dev I honestly have no idea so you might be correct. It is a big program already

11 minutes ago, byte me said:

Kind of like solid history?

yes but for actions taken in the Gwindow like divide/delete etc.

[JParis]

You do have access to a MRU(Most Recently Used) commands but I believe it's limited to 20 back

[Metallic]

Just now, JParis said:

You do have access to a MRU(Most Recently Used) commands but I believe it's limited to 20 back

where is that?

[JParis]

If you go to the View Tab...there's a Recently Functions  click on that you'll get another tab on the Operations Manager

[crazy^millman]

11 minutes ago, JParis said:

If you go to the View Tab...there's a Recently Functions  click on that you'll get another tab on the Operations Manager

That would only be for the current file not for older files that had a history of work.

Operations can be imported in from a different file and the new geometry picked to take that history and apply it to a smaller part. Might be best to save a copy of the old file and merge the new model into it and then just re pick geometry where you need in the existing operation to the smaller scale version of the part.

[JParis]

27 minutes ago, crazy^millman said:

That would only be for the current file not for older files that had a history of work.

Operations can be imported in from a different file and the new geometry picked to take that history and apply it to a smaller part. Might be best to save a copy of the old file and merge the new model into it and then just re pick geometry where you need in the existing operation to the smaller scale version of the part.

True, it doesn't survive once you close the file

[Frank Caudillo]

Even with the Solidworks design tree, it still doesn't remember every single click or piece of geometry that was ever in each feature of the design. I can't imagine how many tens of thousands of clicks and iteration of geometry Mastercam would need to keep in a part file's history.

[Guest]

6 hours ago, Metallic said:

6 hours ago, JParis said:

Might it be a worthy idea...maybe

To implement something like this though I imaging the entire structure of how things are built and maintained would need to be rewritten. When you throw on top that memory management is already spotty at best, if you work with large files you know what I mean, keep all of that work would suffocate the software at this point.

As I am not a software dev I honestly have no idea so you might be correct. It is a big program already

I don't think it would necessarily suffocate the software, the undo function already maps user activity, for the most part, we would just need a record of that activity to be saved along with the file(or separately).

[crazy^millman]

3 minutes ago, byte me said:

I don't think it would necessarily suffocate the software, the undo function already maps user activity, for the most part, we would just need a record of that activity to be saved along with the file(or separately).

I have done some repair files with the database was 10gb for that file. I cannot imagine how much some of my files would be if everything I ever did was saved. One projects folder is 76gb for one part. Granted that is 26 operation across 26 Mastercam files and been on it off and on for 11 months with all the CAV, NC code, Tool List Setup sheets and such, but wow saving all of that work and history with a Mastercam file I would need several TB of hard drives to keep all that data is what I am thinking. Maybe I am over thinking it, but I have file that always pushing 400mb to 1gb all the time. That is the final product what would all that stored key strokes and mouse clicks and toolpath I didn't use take up for space in some files. I sometimes use 10 different toolpaths in an area before deciding on the one I like. 

[Guest]

4 hours ago, crazy^millman said:

I sometimes use 10 different toolpaths in an area before deciding on the one I like.  

That' y we call you crazy millman.