Do you prefer Stock Models or .STLs for use in Mastercam.

[#Rekd™]

There is a drop down where you select to create the Stock Model. There is an option for Pmesh there.

[[email protected]]

Do I use Convert to Mesh I'm guessing...There is also Export to File under that drop down. You're talking about the dropdown inside [Toopaths]>[Stock]>

[Stock Model]>Stock Model, Export to File, Convert to Mesh, Viewer. ?

[[email protected]]

I think it worked it created a mesh on the level I was on. So now that Mesh is stored within the Mastercam File and can't get lost like an external .STL. Is that basically the whole purpose or are there other benefits to this as well? Also I imagine using Stock Models that generate from Toolpaths Are more accurate than Stock Models that come from an external .STL? I noticed you can create a Mesh out of either one but I just want to double check.

[byte]

32 minutes ago, [email protected] said:

I think it worked it created a mesh on the level I was on. So now that Mesh is stored within the Mastercam File and can't get lost like an external .STL. Is that basically the whole purpose or are there other benefits to this as well?

 

32 minutes ago, [email protected] said:

Also I imagine using Stock Models that generate from Toolpaths Are more accurate than Stock Models that come from an external .STL? I noticed you can create a Mesh out of either one but I just want to double check.

One wouldn't be more precise than the other, they should be more or less the same, the precision is based on your settings,

 

Rather than create a mesh at all, you can point to a solid body with your stock model operation that can be a good asset, if your stock needs to change you can edit it using the model prep features or other solid modelling tools

One of my big issues with meshes is that the wireframe mode doesn't have an option to show the tessellated surfaces outline instead of the triangular facets, 

I found when importing geometry on the other hand, meshes are very fast to load, while solid bodies take a long time, I had wanted to use it for toolpath nesting to improve time, but the visualization is not nice, and snapshots of the wireframe are often used for setup sheets etc...

[gcode]

Most of the parts I do are too big to generate a stock model

I run them through verify, save them as STL files and use those to make stock models

It would be nice to maintain the associativity you get from a stock model, but in most cases

It just doesn't work for me. The files become too big, too cumbersome and too slow.