Projecting Onto a Surface

[n23x]

Hey guys, I've been on this one for a while, so I thought I'd ask on here. We got a new desktop mill here at school, so I'm shooting to make a fancy demo piece to show off some basic 3d capabilites. I've uploaded it here:

 

ftp://mastercam:[email protected]/Ma..._DEMO_PIECE.MC9

 

The general surface cutting I've got down, but my goal is to get this logo projected onto and then milled into the face with a small ball endmill:

 

http://egweb.mines.edu/images/shield.gif

 

I am assuming that I can just draw the shield on a plane parallel with the face of the piece that I want to draw it on, and then use the Project to Surface feature, but I'm having some problems with it. Can I create a plane parallel to this face to work on in Mastercam, or should I just orient the piece's face to one of the main planes in Mastercam?

 

I was also just planning on redrawing the shield in mastercam, which is not a big deal, but I am curious as to if there's a way to use the graphic of the shield to simplify this?

 

Thanks a lot guys!

 

.jim

[Chris Rizzo]

Raster2Vector add-on will allow you to import an image.

Do you have a copy of the image with higher resolution, I'll try converting it for you.

 

don't have time to look at the file now though. I'll try later tonite.

[n23x]

Yes, I will see if I can find a higher quality version of the shield. Is the Raster2Vector add-on free?

 

Much thanks!

.jim

[Joseph]

Hi Jim,

 

Try schoolofmines.mc9 in the mc9_files folder.

It's just geometry, see if that's close enough for what you need.

 

In Mastercam go to help project geometry.

 

Joe

[n23x]

Joe,

 

schoolofmines.mc9 is awesome! Were you able to generate that from the graphic I linked to above?

 

That is really cool.

 

Thanks a million man.

.jim

[Joseph]

Hi Jim,

You're welcome. I started by cleaning it up with Corel Photo Paint,then MasterCam raster to vector.

It is almost always still rough with raster to vector, so I ususlly just reconstruct it using the conversion as a guide.

 

Took about 20 minutes.

 

Have fun.

 

Joe

[Chris Rizzo]

Thanks Joseph, ya beat me to it.

 

n23x, Raster to Vector is an add-in that does cost a few bucks. You usually have to do some clean-up on the image still.

 

I also have the best results using a photo editing program first, and then bringing it into mcam alot cleaner. The .eps/.ai converter works fantastically with adobe based image files, and seldom require any further cleanup.

hth

[Todd Tracey from Fastech]

n32x,

Ask your MAstercam Educational Dealer about Quickpart 2D, it includes Raster to Vector

[n23x]

Joe, CMR, and Todd,

 

Thanks very much for all the info, this has definately been a place of great knowledge and good people.

 

If the Raster to Vector add-in costs a fair amount, I'm not sure if I'll be able to add that to our setup, as we don't really do much graphic conversion. However, this has been a really interesting experience, and I am amazed at how quickly the geometry was generated from the included graphic.

 

Thanks guys, your help is invaluable.

.jim