Why Does MasterCam Approximate Curves With Lines Instead Of Circles?

[byou66]

If it's a Curvature Continuous it produces lines instead of radii. Is it just never circular at any point?

[JParis]

What are you trying to do?

 

 

[#Rekd™]

You could be linearizing your arcs?

 

 

[byou66]

We see the Faceting that occurs when it produces lines and we were trying to figure out what was up and why it only happened sometimes.

When you create a fillet in solidworks using curvature continuous as opposed to circular, mastercam posts lines. We were just trying to research why. Thank you all for any help.

[#Rekd™]

Sounds like a graphics issue. Do you have a sample file?

 

[byou66]

Yes, hold on. Here it is. We have MC embedded in SW. 

Constant Curvature-Radius.SLDPRT

[#Rekd™]

Your curve is a spline, it is not a curve.

[Colin Gilchrist]

The curve type in Solidworks dictates the type of geometry. 

Circular = Arc output in the G-Code

Continuous  = Spline in the G-code.

The Filter in the Operation can be enabled, and used to "fit arcs" to a Spline (when your Spline is the input geometry.

Why are you using Continuous instead of Circular? 

[JoshC]

https://youtu.be/EqVDy_xKv44?t=170

that vid above may help you a bit.  there is a lot more to it than what he shows in that short video but without getting overly complicated and overly involved into this subject this would be a great place to start and from there once you learn the basics with arc filtering if you have more specific questions on this topic let us know.

but if you don't have any special reason that you are using that fillet type in solid works then I would do what Collin suggested above and start using the type of fillet that is an actual arc. Spline geo is broken into lines unless arc filtering is used. Using the best geometry possible should always be the first place to start and arc filtering should be common practice for the toolpath settings, proper use of arc filters will make a much cleaner nc code file. 

 

[byou66]

Thank you all very much for the help! It's not that I'm using Curvature Continuous, it's just that some of our models coming from the engineers would be that way and I was trying to figure out what exactly was going on and all the info from you guys really helped a lot. I wanted to respond the other day and say thank you but right after Collins' post came in I tried to respond but it said I had posted all I was allowed to post for one day? But then it continued to show that message and not allow me to post until today so who knows. More computer junk I don't understand. Collin I believe I had saved but now have lost a post from you about how to set your default settings so when you update your MC it doesn't reset back to the wrong Configurations. I tried to follow it but got kind of lost, but that is something I would like to figure out. It seems I'm just a bit too ignorant about computers to get that rolling yet but I really appreciate the fact that there are smart people like you guys rolling around on here to help. It's really awesome, thank you again.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, byou66 said:

 But then it continued to show that message and not allow me to post until today so who knows

There is a posting limit on new user to prevent spambots and such.

[byou66]

Oh, ok I get it, thanmks. Do you know how long that lasts? 

[gcode]

56 minutes ago, byou66 said:

I tried to respond but it said I had posted all I was allowed to post for one day? But then it continued to show that message and not allow me to post until today so who knows. More computer junk I don't understand.

New members are restricted to a certain number of posts per day as an anti spamming measure.

In the past we had Korean bots that joined the forum then flood the forum with hundreds of posts per hour advertising Korean night clubs.

The solution was to restrict the number of posts new users can make, until they have proven they are a human and not a spamming bot

I don't know what the number of posts required is, but it's not too many.

Once you've reached it, there will be no limits to the number of posts your can make per day. 

[So not a Guru]

1 hour ago, byou66 said:

Collin I believe I had saved but now have lost a post from you about how to set your default settings

Colin's post on this is pinned to the top of this forum. The 5th one down from the top.