creating surfaces from toolpaths

[art mart]

hello ,i am a self taught masterCAM user ive been programming for about 4 years,my question is ,is there a way to create a solid surface after you have ran a toolpath on a exsisting surface?

thank you all for all your feed back most helpfull

[This message has been edited by art mart (edited 07-21-2001).]

[cadcam]

Well my thought would be to back plot and save the back plot as geo and then use the geo to create a surface.

But if you all ready have it.

I have to ask would you want to do this.

Unless you are talking about the gcode after and you know longer have that geo.

Then "no" not from mastercam.

I can take the code and get a 3d dxf file from the Verify of the code but this will be the center of the path.

But I can offset it the difference of the ball.

Then create a surface from that.

After I import that back in to mastercam.

Here is my .002

 

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jay/ aka cadcam

Precision Programming

email: [email protected]

web: www.ppcadcam.com

[This message has been edited by cadcam (edited 07-19-2001).]

[Bill]

Jay is right.

Although, if the tool path was written with a ball at the tip it would a diificult task to offset specific tangent points to all the surfaces.

But ,on the other hand, if it is a flat bottom cutter you could easily the way Jay stated minus the Z offset.

That's my nickel, Jay you have account for inflation.

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B. Henderson

OMEGA PlASTICS

[email protected]

opinc.com

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

quote:

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....my question is ,is there a way to create a solid surface after you have ran a toolpath on a exsisting surface?

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Do you want that is leftover? If so, Verify all (or part for that matter) of your toolpaths. Go into Verify (True Solid Mode) after it is finished, a little folder with "STL" on it appear on the bar. Select it after your verification session is complete and you can save that as an STL file. Not surfaces or solids though. It strictly a mesh.

"Solid Surface" is an Oxy-Moron. They are different things. Solids are bodies and surfaces are skins even though they may appear the same on the screen when in shaded mode.

It is possible to create surfaces from toolpath though. Very tedious and you have to know all the tool information so you can get your surface offsets correct. JMHO.

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James M.

Mastercam Enthusiast

[Scott Bond]

if surfs are still required after jame's fix works for an stl. solid veiw in valencia has a converter for stl to iges surfs.

hardway