converting

[mbuckingham]

This is the first time in my carrer that I started to use master cam. I have always used Autocad for many years and I find the transition from Autocad to Mastercam to be very difficult. Is there any way to adjust a series of arcs and line segments by picking on pick points and draging them around like you can in Autocad. I am have no luck in finding an easier way to do it.

 

Thanks,

Mike

[Mike Whitten CAD/CAM Contractors]

Here is a few things to try:

 

 

Modify > Drag

 

and

 

Analyze > Then change edit to yes. This will allow you to change some parameters.

[Mike Whitten CAD/CAM Contractors]

Mike,

 

On second thought:

 

There are many other ways but I am not sure what you mean by "adjust".

 

If you you want to adjust them as a whole, you may want to make a spline out of them first, then you can break back into lines and arcs depending?

 

Let me know and I will reply back.

 

I have to leave for about 1-1/2 hours, but I will check for an answer then.

 

Mike

[mbuckingham]

thanks but still difficult.

[Mike Whitten CAD/CAM Contractors]

You can make a spline from existing curves( lines and arcs) and then modify the Control points.

 

You kind of got me because I do not know Autocad.

 

Mike

[mbuckingham]

What I am trying to do is match a mold from a piece of wood to creat a template. What has happend in most cases the knife that formed the mold was ground out by hand. so to match it exactly I need to be able to pick, say the intersection of the two arcs and move them around in any direction.

 

Mike

[Mike Whitten CAD/CAM Contractors]

Modify> Drag will not work?

[mbuckingham]

well drag works to move the whole arc but to move just the stat and end points thats were it fails. Is there a way to manual enter in a new start point under analyze, edit without trying to pick a new point?

[mold100]

Remember I love Mastercam, but it is not Mastercad, unfortuntely it can not do everything all other packages do.I do alot of stuff in solidworks and impot it to mastercam. Sorry I can not help, but I dont want you to get frustrated and quit using MC because of design characteristics.

[Scott Bond]

Create/Arc/Circ 2 pts?

[JAMMAN]

I think xform/translate is what he's talking about. You can move polar any distance at any angle, or between points picking a start point and an end point.

 

I have converted a few people from acad to mcam, it is an easy transition after the first few days and the hardest part for the people I'm speaking of is the trim functions, select is opposite of acad.

[Rob Dusenbury CAD/CAM CONSULTING]

Try this select analyze then select your arc entity on the main menu you can turn on edit. This will allow you to change start and end angles, radius, center point, or any attributes. It sounds like this is what you are looking for. Hope it helps. By the way with the edit on you can do this with any entity.

[Rob Dusenbury CAD/CAM CONSULTING]

I'm sorry I did not see your second post. Looks like you tried analyze edit. You should be able to just type in start and end angles. Also if you right click in the input fields you get options that will allow you to pick of the screen.

[Gorn]

mbuckingham,

 

I am a 10 plus year autocad user. If you are looking for a command in Mastercam like the Grips command you are out of luck. There is a stretch command much like that in autocad but nothing like grips. You are going to have a real tuff time finding any program that draws as well in 2d as Autocad. I have been using Mastercam now for 6 years and find I use completely different drawing construction strategies when in Mastercam to match the tools available.

 

In simple 2d drawings Its just as fast to draw it in Mastercam. On Tuff 2d stuff I use Autocad. On simple 3d stuff I use Mastercam and tuff 3d stuff I use Solidworks.

 

Just my 2 cents

[Mike Whitten CAD/CAM Contractors]

Mike,

 

I hope that you got all of this Info that was posted.

 

I just learned something too! Thanks Rob, I did not know that you could right click in the input fields!

 

That's way Cool!

 

Thanks,

 

Mike

[mbuckingham]

Thanks guys. I will give it a try.

 

Mike