Detect flats

[TREV]

thad,

i played with your file for about an hour last night.i agree if you tell it to leave .025/side it will leave it every where. i tried to move the big bottom surf you created down .03 to make sure it got to the 2.43081 level. still no change. i did come closser by setting your max depth to 2.4308 ( notice i left of the.0001) and selecting detect flats. youll notice if you leave that.0001 on your max depth the detect flats will NOT pick up the 2.43081 level.i have found this to be the case on several occasions.

IMO if you tell MC to leave stock it will that is what it was designed to do. maybe cnc could shed some more light on this subject.however i think youll find if you want to leave stock on walls and not the floor it will require 2 operations.

sorry not the answer your looking for,just my take on the subject.but anyhow try setting the max depth like i said and youll see an improve ment in the detect flats pull down.

trevor

[Thad]

Since the popular opinion seems to be that if I tell it to leave stock, then it's going to...then tell me this. What is the function of the check box "Adjust for stock to leave on drive surfaces?" For your conveniece, here is the quick help for that box.

 

quote:

---

Modifies the depth cuts to include the stock to leave on drive surfaces set on the surface parameters tab. When cleared, Mastercam ignores the stock to leave and only uses the depths you have selected.

---

Notice the last sentence. I want MC to ignore the stock to leave and cut to my numbers. If anyone would like to dispute that that description is EXACTLY what I want to do, I'm all ears.

 

 

Detect flats or no detect flats, it's not hitting my numbers. The below example proves how this feature works.

 

-----------------------------------

Given: +.025 on drive surfaces

Min depth 4.000

Max depth 2.500

Adjust for drive surf stock UNCHECKED

 

Result:

NC file starts at Z4.000 (didn't adjust for stock)

NC file finishes at Z2.500 (didn't adjust for stock)

Everything worked perfectly!

-----------------------------------

 

Given: +.025 on drive surfaces

Min depth 4.000

Max depth 2.500

Adjust for drive surf stock CHECKED

 

Result:

NC file starts at Z4.025 (adjusted for stock)

NC file finishes at Z2.525 (adjusted for stock)

 

Everything worked perfectly!

-----------------------------------

 

Now the exact numbers in my file:

 

Given: +.025 on drive surfaces

Min depth 4.000

Max depth 2.4308

Adjust for drive surf stock UNCHECKED

 

Result:

NC file starts at Z4.000 (didn't adjust for stock)

NC file finishes at Z2.4608 (stayed up .030, which is my depth of cut ???) This is where my problem is.

-----------------------------------

 

Given: +.025 on drive surfaces

Min depth 4.000

Max depth 2.4308

Adjust for drive surf stock CHECKED

 

Result:

NC file starts at Z4.025 (adjusted for stock)

NC file finishes at Z2.4558 (adjusted for stock)

 

Everything worked perfectly!

-----------------------------------

 

 

Thank you all for your time. I hope this isn't too difficult to follow.

 

Thad

[richardtraver]

deselect the bottom surface and in cut depths give it a abs min and max depth as long as your bottom surface is flat and normal to your tplane the tool will just pocket out to that depth

[Rick Damiani]

Thad:

 

Not sure this is worth much, but I'm seeing the behavor too. The lowest cut seems to be the actual cut depth above the flat selected. i.e. if I spec a max cut depth of .027 and I end up with an actual cut depth of .02673, the last cut above a flat will be .02673 above the geometry. i.e. I think it's missing the last cut, not adding your material to leave to the flat.

 

Don't know why that is though. I'm gonna submit it to [email protected] and see what they think of it.

[Rick Damiani]

Thad:

 

Check yer e-mail.

[Eazy]

The way I see it, master cam will create cuts at the depths you specify, If Possible. If you had selected a depth half way down your part and didn't have the 'Adjust' selected, it would create a pass at that depth, but not actually run over the flat surface that you used to select your critical depth. I would run around it.

 

Thad, I do agree, the quick help description is not very clear, possibly even missleading. Maybe something they need to change for X.

 

[Thad]

Thank you all for your input. It has been logged by CNC Software as bug #3990. Thanks Rick.

 

Thad

[Saultspics]

Good job Thad. I have had problem with surface rough pocket. I us it to rough them out then us 2d pocket for the flat surface.

 

Old school

 

Stephen