questions about squash

[Dave anderson]

Hi how does this function work and what are its uses etc.. have never used this function before thanks ?Also is there a way to do a pocket tool path lets say i want to put a 1" wide groove in a 2" block with a half inch endmill with haveing the endmill go off the ends of block ? ive tried all the functions in this and i know in my books i had to draw lines outside of the geomtry to get it to work but is there another way without having to draw in the extra lines?I dont want to do the contour tool path as that just goes down the geometry .

[crazy^millman]

Squash is just what it soubds like. The thing with squash is that it is C-plane driven. What I mean by this what ever c-plane you are in is the one that will make the squash work. If in top then they will squash alone the Zplane if they are in front they will squash along the Y plane and if in Side they will squash in the X plane now you are not limited to that you are limited ni the way you can squash by the limits of time or your imignation becuase every possible millions upon million of different ways you can move the c-plane is the ways you can squash. I use it alot for Solids or 3d stuff or even for doing 5 axis toolpaths where I want to squash 3d curves to a plane at a spefic c-plane to create a boundary.

 

Look at open pockets for what you are asking ti does what I think you are trying to do very well, I will also use Multipass and a U contour ot do the same thing you are talking about for the pocket.

 

HTH

[CAM-mando]

Millmans explaination was very thorough. Basically squash "Projects" The selected geometry onto the current cplane at the specified Z depth.

 

Another use is if you accidentally draw geometry on the wrong Z level or have 3d cplane set when snapped to existing geometry and then find the geometry you have drawn looks good in the top view, but in iso view you see that the end points are at different Z levels and therefore not connected. You can use squash to project them back onto the plane you want them on and the endpoints will now be connected because they are in the same plane. (Of course I never make those kinds of mistakes )

[Dave anderson]

i guess i will try it so what you are saying is if you draw something at wrong z level then by squashing it will move it?My other question is when using solids to draw i guess you cant add any geometry to the solid lines only the oringinal line drawing before clicking over to solids am i mistaken in this or am i missing something I havent used solids much so still learning on this i sorta have the basics . I guess when you extrude a lets say a 2"x2" square and you have your zero in upper left hand corner and your in a front view lets say cplane front and you extrude the block 2" you cannot create geometry on back side of part without using front side as lines to click on? Like I say im new to this so forgive my ignorance . thanks for the help guys.

[Dave anderson]

Ps when you do squash geometry how do u get it to unsquash?

[Brian Scullion]

If you don't clear the result colour (purple)

then you can undo but after this tough.

[Dave anderson]

IM not sure i understand what you mean by this sorry by clearing are you meaning clear colors can you pls explain thanks.

[John Summers]

The opposite of SQUASH would be CREATE-CURVE-PROJECT.... (to a surface).

[cadist]

I believe by saying clearing he meant screen --»clear color.

In all the operations of xform you get the output usually in magenta color or color#13 and your original entity becomes red or color #12 It indicates that they are now part of system groups. YOu can always select them by selecting result.

 

As far as undoing is concern, once you have come out of xform menu you can't undo it. and projecting curve will also only help if the original curve were on the surface. It is rather advisable to select copy in xform so that your original entities are as it is.

HTH

BTW welcome to the forum.

[Matt Berube at Ferron Mold]

Dave,

 

Squash is not only for moving geometry. You're only thinking in 2-d. Sometimes in 3-d work, you'll have all kinds of curves, lines, etc. going every which way. It can be really helpful to squash all that 3-d onto a single flat plane sometimes...

 

result... yes, clear colors is related to result. but you only want to clear colors after you are done working with the result group. Lets say you just squashed something but then you want to change colors of all the entities you squashed. Screen, chg colors, result, and all the result entities will change to the active color. Then after you're all done you could "clear colors"...

[Fred @ Slate Industries]

I use Squash all the time for making a Boundry

From Multiple Surfaces

Then It chains in one pick.

[Dave anderson]

Thanks for your courteous replies .