Level Subgroups

[JB7280]

I don't think so, but is there any way to create level subgroups?  If not, how does one create an MC feature request?  It seems like that would be a huge advance in the ability to organize bigger files.  

[Chris In-House Solutions]

Mastercam gives you 999,999 levels.  I understand what your thinking but I don't think its really needed.   

[JB7280]

1 minute ago, Chris In-House Solutions said:

Mastercam gives you 999,999 levels.  I understand what your thinking but I don't think its really needed.   

Needed, maybe/maybe not.  But it really would be nice to be able to turn off/on say, all of your levels for the rough op, or whatever, it would be a big help.  But maybe I'm the only one.

[crazy^millman]

14 minutes ago, JB7280 said:

I don't think so, but is there any way to create level subgroups?  If not, how does one create an MC feature request?  It seems like that would be a huge advance in the ability to organize bigger files.  

Go look on the official forum. Has been requested and beat like a dead horse for close to 7 years. The orignal request was to treat the plane and levels manager like the Toolpaths Operations manger to allow grouping like that. Solids got it, but not Levels or Planes.

Link to Original Topic

7 minutes ago, Chris In-House Solutions said:

Mastercam gives you 999,999 levels.  I understand what your thinking but I don't think its really needed.   

When working with assemblies and other larger projects it is nice to be able to hide unneeded level groups verse having to sort through 999,999 levels.

[JB7280]

4 minutes ago, crazy^millman said:

Go look on the official forum. Has been requested and beat like a dead horse for close to 7 years. The orignal request was to treat the plane and levels manager like the Toolpaths Operations manger to allow grouping like that. Solids got it, but not Levels or Planes.

Link to Original Topic

When working with assemblies and other larger projects it is nice to be able to hide unneeded level groups verse having to sort through 999,999 levels.

Well, I'll consider this a win, if, for no other reason than I had the same idea as you did!

 

Esprit has a nice feature, where in addition to levels (layers in their case) you can also turn off/on all solids, wire, chains, stl, etc etc.    However I still think subgroups would be a simpler, better solution.

[Chally72]

Right now, the only thing that approximates subgroup versatility is properly set up viewsheet groups. 

[Colin Gilchrist]

Umm, use Level Set.

This gives you the ability to name "groups" of related levels.

> OP10 Rough

> OP10 Finish

> OP10 Fixture

> OP20 Rough

> OP20 Drill

> OP20 Fixture

Then you can right-click > All Level Set on/off.

[JB7280]

2 minutes ago, Colin Gilchrist said:

Umm, use Level Set.

This gives you the ability to name "groups" of related levels.

> OP10 Rough

> OP10 Finish

> OP10 Fixture

> OP20 Rough

> OP20 Drill

> OP20 Fixture

Then you can right-click > All Level Set on/off.

Never used that Colin.  I'll give it a shot.

[Colin Gilchrist]

It would be awesome to be able to selectively turn on the visibility of "all solids"  or "all wireframe", without having to change the visibility of your regular level scheme.

Currently; you can do something like this:

> Turn on all levels (visible)

> Use the Quick Mask "all" option to select solids, wireframe, or whatever combination of geometry you want to filter, and then press "ALT + E", to temporarily hide everything else.

When you are done > Press ALT + E to bring everything back on the screen.

 

[Guest]

27 minutes ago, JB7280 said:

Needed, maybe/maybe not. 

Here is a tip from my APT programming days.

Never construct your levels sequentially, start on a number greater than 1 and never immediately call up the sequential L# next.

So I tend to organize with L1000s for OP1, with specific Line number groups for similar geometry.

So WCS is always on L1000 OP1, L2000 OP2 etc.

Between some sort of "consistently spaced levels" and Level Sets you can get pretty good control of even complicated files.

This also allows you to go back and add levels into pre existing groups as you should always have space.

[crazy^millman]

4 minutes ago, nickbe10 said:

Here is a tip from my APT programming days.

Never construct your levels sequentially, start on a number greater than 1 and never immediately call up the sequential L# next.

So I tend to organize with L1000s for OP1, with specific Line number groups for similar geometry.

So WCS is always on L1000 OP1, L2000 OP2 etc.

Between some sort of "consistently spaced levels" and Level Sets you can get pretty good control of even complicated files.

This also allows you to go back and add levels into pre existing groups as you should always have space.

Yes agreed what I have done for years and what I teach to people also. Not the 1000 method, but like the 100 method for operations.

[JParis]

Give yourself room to adapt to changes

 

[Colin Gilchrist]

Also, you can Right-click > Renumber Level! This is especially useful when opening up existing Mastercam Files that someone else programmed.

Also, turn on "All Levels" then select "All Operations" in the Toolpaths Manager. Then enable the 'Only display associative geometry' button in the Toolpaths Manager. Now, you can go through the list of Operations, and pick them individually, or in some type of 'group of ops', and Mastercam will only show you the geometry that is associated with the selected operations.

Also, now if you select a Solid (or any geometry), and press F4 (Analyze Entity), there is a I Button, if that surface/solid has Toolpaths attached. Press the button, and you get a list of Ops that reference that geometry. 

[Newbeeee™]

While y'all talking levels....the ability to freeze levels (to stop accidental move or deletion) would be excellent...(for those of us with fat sausage fingers )

[Guest]

16 hours ago, crazy^millman said:

Yes agreed what I have done for years and what I teach to people also. Not the 1000 method, but like the 100 method for operations.

Here's where the suits your work factor comes in, the key is consistency.

I confess to incrementing in 100s too. Usually depends if I am doing tooling and want to keep everything associated with the op together.

There are 999,999 after all, seems a shame to waste too many.

[Colin Gilchrist]

3 hours ago, nickbe10 said:

Here's where the suits your work factor comes in, the key is consistency.

I confess to incrementing in 100s too. Usually depends if I am doing tooling and want to keep everything associated with the op together.

There are 999,999 after all, seems a shame to waste too many.

I think there are over 2 billion levels available Nick... (just sayin').

2 billion, 147 million, 483 thousand, 647 total levels. [Your level must be between 1 and 2,147,483,647]

[#Rekd™]

37 minutes ago, Colin Gilchrist said:

Your level must be between 1 and 2,147,483,647

Dang I hate to be that restricted!!! 

[Colin Gilchrist]

3 minutes ago, #Rekd™ said:

Dang I hate to be that restricted!!! 

I know, right? I mean, I've gotten pretty close to needing 0.00001% of the limit before, and I was really sweating! 

To be fair, there was a limit of 256 many moons past, and I routinely used several hundred levels. It was really a pain when you could only move/copy geometry, so I liked the addition of "renumber level" immensely. 

[Newbeeee™]

57 minutes ago, Colin Gilchrist said:

[Your level must be between 1 and 2,147,483,647]

That 2147 blah blah number isn't cool for my OCD.

I think an enhancement request to round it down to 2000000000 is in order!

[So not a Guru]

21 hours ago, Colin Gilchrist said:

Umm, use Level Set.

This is one of my favorite organizational tools.

[Colin Gilchrist]

2 hours ago, Newbeeee™ said:

That 2147 blah blah number isn't cool for my OCD.

I think an enhancement request to round it down to 2000000000 is in order!

Lol. But then you'd actually have to type a 10-digit number, to even get close.

If anyone is using over Level 123456789, I think they might have issues.

 

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Colin Gilchrist said:

I think there are over 2 billion levels available Nick... (just sayin').

Looks like you can only type in up to 999,999,999....

That's a style cramping glitch....

[JParis]

10 minutes ago, nickbe10 said:

Looks like you can only type in up to 999,999,999....

 

That's ALL????

Jeez' Mastercam really bites   

 

[Guest]

16 minutes ago, JParis said:

That's ALL????

Jeez' Mastercam really bites   

Well quite.....

[Colin Gilchrist]

48 minutes ago, nickbe10 said:

Looks like you can only type in up to 999,999,999....

That's a style cramping glitch....

With "9's", yes; you are limited to 9 digits. [2.146 Billion, is 10 digits.)

If you use "2,109,999,999", it works.

If you use "1,999,999,999", it also works.

 

If you type in 9,999,999,999, you should get a "Tool Tip", which shows you the exact integer limit.