Safety Zone

[So not a Guru]

Can anyone point me to some info on how to use this? The help is pretty vague and I've been unable to figure out how to do what I want.

I want to create a cylinder shaped zone, with it's axis along Y, and a 5" radius.

[crazy^millman]

Need to start off by picking the shape you want to use the safety zone on. Then it will decide based off the radio buttons which one to start you off with. It will remember the last one used in a session, but not between sessions. More of the little things I wish we had defaults for. I will normally star in one direction to trick it in. Then once I have something close I then adjust the placement of where it is going to be manually. If I know in advance a shape or way I want to do then I will create that exact shape on a separate level nd then grab it when picking the safety zone and wrap. Now it is exactly what I was thinking every time without even having to fight the safety zone. Pick wrap and done have a nice day. 
 

Example is on mill turn using Lathe as the base not the MT since even in the latest Beta we still don’t have 5 Axis linking is a Cylinder for clearance. Then I have a good safety zone for 5 Axis linking when a tool is doing work on more than one face. This process also works great on a HMC or even VMC with a 4th Axis. Going home is safe, but on bigger slower machines wastes a lot of time. Using the safety cylinder then life is good. 

[So not a Guru]

29 minutes ago, crazy^millman said:

Need to start off by picking the shape you want to use the safety zone on. Then it will decide based off the radio buttons which one to start you off with. It will remember the last one used in a session, but not between sessions. More of the little things I wish we had defaults for. I will normally star in one direction to trick it in. Then once I have something close I then adjust the placement of where it is going to be manually. If I know in advance a shape or way I want to do then I will create that exact shape on a separate level nd then grab it when picking the safety zone and wrap. Now it is exactly what I was thinking every time without even having to fight the safety zone. Pick wrap and done have a nice day. 
 

Example is on mill turn using Lathe as the base not the MT since even in the latest Beta we still don’t have 5 Axis linking is a Cylinder for clearance. Then I have a good safety zone for 5 Axis linking when a tool is doing work on more than one face. This process also works great on a HMC or even VMC with a 4th Axis. Going home is safe, but on bigger slower machines wastes a lot of time. Using the safety cylinder then life is good. 

I can't do anything after selecting the solid cylinder, that I created on a layer by itself. The dialog locks up, I can't use the radio buttons select the ok or exit, nothing. All I can do is hit the escape key to get out of it.

Just another frustration to deal with. In this case I can create 3+2 ops to get the job done. But it sure would be nice to be able to use this function.

[Chally72]

4 hours ago, So not a Guru said:

I can't do anything after selecting the solid cylinder, that I created on a layer by itself. The dialog locks up, I can't use the radio buttons select the ok or exit, nothing. All I can do is hit the escape key to get out of it.

Just another frustration to deal with. In this case I can create 3+2 ops to get the job done. But it sure would be nice to be able to use this function.

I guess the first thing to note would be- In Safety Zone, the solid you're selecting is the solid you want to create the safety zone around- so you would be picking your part. There's no need to pre-create the safety zone by building a solid. Once the solid is selected, you'll use the safety zone panel to edit the shape of the zone created around that solid.

The next thing to note is that the safety zone dialog creates a temporary entity on the currently active level so that it can display that entity on the graphics screen and you can interact with it and do things like push/pull the cylinder or box around. BUT this means that if you have turned off visibility of your active level, you'll also never see the safety zone shape as you're creating it and can't interact with it. I frequently like to toggle my active level visibility on and off as I work through a part, and occasionally I go into safety zone and wonder what's gone wrong before I remember to turn my active level on.

If you're only having trouble with one specific file, feel free to shoot me a PM and I can work up an example and video for you.

[crazy^millman]

On 11/20/2021 at 10:11 AM, So not a Guru said:

I can't do anything after selecting the solid cylinder, that I created on a layer by itself. The dialog locks up, I can't use the radio buttons select the ok or exit, nothing. All I can do is hit the escape key to get out of it.

Just another frustration to deal with. In this case I can create 3+2 ops to get the job done. But it sure would be nice to be able to use this function.

What Version of Mastercam? Only 2021 and newer allows you to do certain things with Safety Zone, before that time it was a real pain to do anything with Safety Zone after the fact in an operation. Also the Moduleworks toolpaths don't work the same way as the Mastercam toolpaths. There is no shape visibility in them like there is in 5 Axis linking and any of the Mastercam toolpaths with Safety Zone.

On 11/20/2021 at 2:50 PM, Chally72 said:

I guess the first thing to note would be- In Safety Zone, the solid you're selecting is the solid you want to create the safety zone around- so you would be picking your part. There's no need to pre-create the safety zone by building a solid. Once the solid is selected, you'll use the safety zone panel to edit the shape of the zone created around that solid.

The next thing to note is that the safety zone dialog creates a temporary entity on the currently active level so that it can display that entity on the graphics screen and you can interact with it and do things like push/pull the cylinder or box around. BUT this means that if you have turned off visibility of your active level, you'll also never see the safety zone shape as you're creating it and can't interact with it. I frequently like to toggle my active level visibility on and off as I work through a part, and occasionally I go into safety zone and wonder what's gone wrong before I remember to turn my active level on.

If you're only having trouble with one specific file, feel free to shoot me a PM and I can work up an example and video for you.

Dylan, a few things to note about your process. The temporary level thing is not that if you use wrap they are permanent levels and if you erase the entities created on those temporary levels the toolpaths that are using them will go dirty. Why I asked for them to not be hidden or unnamed. but shown and named since we see a blank unnamed level with entities and our first thought is to delete those empty levels thinking it is just blanked entities we don't need when in fact we do.

There may seem like there is no need to pre create solids for Safety Zone, but when certain functionality is not ported through the whole software and users are forced into corners using MT then you learn real fast a standard methods that works cleanly across the whole package of Mastercam. One of them is what I mentioned. Maybe by 2030 all the toolpaths will be allowed in MT. Until that time those using MT don't have much choices to link their 5 Axis toolpaths, but brute force.

[So not a Guru]

6 hours ago, crazy^millman said:

What Version of Mastercam? Only 2021 and newer allows you to do certain things with Safety Zone, before that time it was a real pain to do anything with Safety Zone after the fact in an operation. Also the Moduleworks toolpaths don't work the same way as the Mastercam toolpaths. There is no shape visibility in them like there is in 5 Axis linking and any of the Mastercam toolpaths with Safety Zone.

I'm using 2022. But it appears I am unable to use safety zone at all. I tried Dylan's way, but it locks up that way too. When I have the time, I'll try getting a video share with my reseller, and see if he can figure out what's happening.

[crazy^millman]

1 hour ago, So not a Guru said:

I'm using 2022. But it appears I am unable to use safety zone at all. I tried Dylan's way, but it locks up that way too. When I have the time, I'll try getting a video share with my reseller, and see if he can figure out what's happening.

2022 has been about the best with Safety Zone for me so odd you having an issue with it. Please throw something together so maybe Dylan can review it also.

[So not a Guru]

Just now, crazy^millman said:

2022 has been about the best with Safety Zone for me so odd you having an issue with it. Please throw something together so maybe Dylan can review it also.

I will, as soon as I get a free minute. November & December are hectic, in my neck of the woods. We always get a large volume of rush orders from our biggest customer now, they have to have a bunch of stuff complete before end of year.

[Chally72]

Yep, anytime you get a moment I'd love a video or example. We want to make sure Safety Zone is solid going forwards, as it'll be integrated into more and more areas of the software. TP users have probably already seen glimpses of this in the new Job Setup for 2023....

 

Ron, there's a couple scenarios with things like Safety Zone and feature recognition tools where we have entities appearing on levels that may or may not be blanked, and perhaps there's a different way to implement these in the future. For now, as a power user, you just need to be aware of where that data is if you're wiping levels/etc.

[So not a Guru]

I got it figured out. My MC seat has been doing some pretty screwy stuff lately. I may need to do a full reinstall.

[[email protected]]

not sure if I should ask this here or make a new post but my last job had these levels named TempSafeZoneSurface that I didn't name or create and I am not sure why or how they were created?