Extrude Solid From Face

[Todd Wertz]

I have searched the forum high and low and can’t find the answer to my dilemma. More often than not, we receive files from our customers; from programs other than Mastercam. My job then is to extend the outside edges of these parts to create a mold. So far I have been fortunate to have flat surfaces and planes to work from, however, that has just changed. I have a part which has very few flat surfaces and thus no plane to work off of. The part is shelled to .100". I’m wondering if there is a way to extrude solids from the .100” wide faces to keep the integrity of the part. Also, you should know the .100” wide faces are not 90 degrees to the sides.

[Dan_AKA_ROY]

maybe you could send your file to the ftp site so we can have a looksie.

 

sounds like a job for mold plus [do you have the mold plus software?]. at least it would make life more easy.

 

it seems you need parting lines or parting surfs from which you can construct your mold from. perhaps a flat bndy surf can be made, then trim that surf using curves. just a guess. need to see your file to be sure but there is a way. I have created several molds such as you describe by building parting surfs using mastercam and/or mold plus. Let me know how your progressing.

[Todd Wertz]

I have posted the file on the FTP. It is BD122 MOLD LAYOUT. Because of it’s size I zipped it up. I need to extend out the .100 faces and cut it off flat.

Thanks for your help!!!

[Dan_AKA_ROY]

grand, i'm having problems downloading your file. I'll try again later.

[pip]

Where on the FTP have you put this file.

[Dan_AKA_ROY]

pip, its in the mc9 folder.

[Todd Wertz]

Sorry I had not checked in yet this morning. You are correct it is in the Mc9 folder. Let me know if I need to upload it again or if you would like any more info.

[Hardmill]

I dowmloaded it yesterday, no problem.

I'll take a look this morning.

 

PEACE

[Dan_AKA_ROY]

i got it now. had to re-boot computer, then was able to grab your file computers!

 

got a question. can you move the part?

 

not sure exactly how you want this mold made. an odd shape for a mold it would seem. never made molds such as that part's shape. think i got an idea on how to approach this. i'll resend file to ftp site after i give it a shot.

[Todd Wertz]

I should have clarified that a little. This is a part drawing not a mold drawing. I need to make a mold out of it by extending the faces on the cut off side and trimming them flat. They need to extend at least 1/2". Then I will need to move the mold faces to a female or male position. At this point I can determine weather we will form off the outside or inside faces. This is will be a thermoformed part.

[Dan_AKA_ROY]

grand, i uploaded 2 files BD122 MOLD LAYOUT2.zip and BD122 MOLD LAYOUTmplus.zip

 

not sure if thats what your going after. take a look.

 

the edges around the solid part were a little tricky. on 2 file i swept a horz. line around the edges. on mplus file i created the parting surfs using Mold Plus. had to convert to surfs before mold plus did its thing. let me know if this helps or maybe i'm way off track?

[Hardmill]

Take a look at:

BD122 MOLD LAYOUT_hardmill.

I gave it a look also.

 

PEACE

[Dan_AKA_ROY]

hardmill, looks very similiar to my file.

 

i sweep along the edges for creating parting surfs sometimes, and use mold plus most of the time.

 

one point to make hardmill. in one section the surfs looked bulky [is that the word i'm looking for]? compare to the file i made [same name]2.zip

 

when i get to that last section [swept alond part using horz. line] i create curves and spline blend the outer curves then do a coons surface.

[Todd Wertz]

I really appreciate what you guys did and it was somewhat correct. I will need that flange at some point, but first the faces need to be moved out. In other words, the flange would sit ½” farther from the part and the part would extend to it. This would add the ½” that I will need for a router operation later. I thought I might have been unclear when I first posted and I think I was right…sorry.

[Hardmill]

quote:

---

one point to make hardmill. in one section the surfs looked bulky

---

It comes out that way, because the surfs need to

come out flat and parallel to the .1 faces.

Compare them again the surfs I created come straight

off the existing faces..

 

PEACE

[MATT Q]

Grand,

I goofed around with your file a little and if I was to make a male thermoforming tool with 1/2" run out I would do it like the file on the ftp site in the .mc9 file as BD122 moldmatt.mc9 forgot to zip it sorry webby.

[Dan_AKA_ROY]

hardmill, got it. know what you mean. my bad, i apologize. peace, brother

 

matt, your file looks cool, indeed! i don't work with thermoform parts. learned something new - though i don't fully understand. nonetheless, nice design!

[Todd Wertz]

Matt, that is exactly what I have been trying to do. How did you do it? I’ve tried to extend, stretch, scale, extrude, trim, … and everything els I could think of. Also, I tried with both surfaces and solids.

[MATT Q]

I did that all with surfaces you create a curve on the edges and then extend the amount of the run out in the direction you want to go, then trim to the edge of the part and create sweep surfaces or coons depends on if you have 3 (sweep) or 4 (coons) curves to construct the surfaces with. I don't have solids so I don't know if there would be another way of doing that with solids but like anything else there is probably an easier way of doing it. That file took me about 15 minutes to construct keep in mind I have been doing that for about 6 years though.

[Todd Wertz]

Matt, I really appreciate this. I should have been able to get this done on my own. I have the knowledge to do it, but sometimes I need a little kick in the right direction. I extended the lines and curves as you did and created curves along the outside edge of the part. Then I broke them where the faces ended. Next I created Swept surfaces along the curves and lines. Again, thank you and a big thanks to all who contributed!

[Hardmill]

Thats why we're here.

 

PEACE

[MATT Q]

Glad to help it makes me feel good to help someone out and contribute to this great communitiy effort.

 

Where are you at Grand? And what company do you work for? I'm originally from Joplin, MO moved up here and am working for TPI.

[Todd Wertz]

I work for Formation Plastics out of Quinter, KS. We only have one CNC at this point, but are ever growing. Our CNC is a 5 axis Motionmaster: Coupled with mastercam it does fairly well for me.