Custom Tooling

[tarnold]

Hello all, 

I am new to mastercam and have made custom tools on solidworks and am trying to import them into mastercam but am running into some issues. When I import the part into the custom import field as a step file the part looks nothing like it does when I open it in mastercam or solidworks. The tools I use are custom tooling special made so there are no files I can just download. Any help would be appreciated.

 

What I made --->

What mastercam produced--->

 

Thank you

 

[crazy^millman]

Need to align it correctly with the axis Mastercam is expecting to see it. That doesn't look like the correct plane. Top looking down the center line of the part in Mastercam is what the ISO standard is and what Mastercam is looking for. SolidWorks is Front looking through the center line in respect to Mastercam Top. Try making it in a different view that aligns it correctly and then you will see if comes in correctly with no issues.

[tarnold]

So I have to build the part from the top down in SolidWorks 

[crazy^millman]

4 minutes ago, tarnold said:

So I have to build the part from the top down in SolidWorks 

I cannot be sure I don't have SolidWorks. You give it a try and see if that solves the issue if not then figure out which one is the correct orientation to work and save it from. Make it your template file for building tools. I have many different template files for building tools and holders. 

[Colin Gilchrist]

43 minutes ago, tarnold said:

So I have to build the part from the top down in SolidWorks 

No, you need to rotate the sketch plane 90 degrees.

[Brad St.]

Solidworks standard top view is equivalent to Mastercam's front view ( it's a cad world vs cam world thing, Creo is the same way )

You can either rotate the part when you bring it into Mastercam or create another coordinate system inside Solidworks and use that one upon import or opening inside Mastercam. When you open the solidworks file inside Mastercam if you have alternate coordinate systems available in the SW file you should be prompted which one you'd like to use.

Hope that makes sense

 

[tarnold]

So when I make it in solidworks what plane should I work off of then then in order to make the parts correct

[Rstewart]

Create in front plane in SW, or just take the 7 seconds to translate it within Mastercam when you open it up

[chip2chip]

Something you can consider is a tool management software. I know TDM has a feature to help with custom tooling and shows recommended parameters.