Hello everyone, I am new here.

[quickform]

Hello everyone I am new to this forum as well as being new to mastercam, I seem to be picking it up quickly but need help with a couple of things.

 

I work for Aquatic Leisure Technologies based in Western Australia which manufacture fibreglass pools and spas. The moulds have always been made by hand which is very time comsuming. We now have a large 5axis router to machine the moulds mostly from wood, foam and resin type materials.

 

I am having a problem with using 'check surfaces' with multiaxis toolpaths, when mastercam tries to generate the toolpath it comes up with an error saying "message 28 [msurfax] not found. The toolpath still works except it cuts into the check surfaces, If there are no check surfaces then it dosent come up with any errors. All check surfaces are fillets. I am using Mastercam Router V9.1 SP2

 

Cheers for any help

[Coynle]

Hi,

 

Is it a particular surface toolpath that it ignores check surfaces on, or does it do it on all toolpaths?

[Dan_AKA_ROY]

New to mastercam and cad/cam technology? And going right into multi-axis programming. That's a toughie! But there's a lot of help out there. Buy the multi-axis books from In House Solutions and also the Machinist Handbooks from Charles Davis... I think his 5 axis book has come out by now. I'm behind the times and don't do much 5 axis stuff. I would recommend learning 3 axis programming first and cad designing also. Tell your company this will take some time to grasp. Sorry, I know all about check surfaces in 3 axis but 5 axis I'm not sure. Make sure you set up your 'safety zone' and check your 'stock to leave' parameters.

[quickform]

Cheers for quick response

 

Coynle - check surface dosent seem to work for any toolpaths (same error message for all)

 

Roy_23 - Yeah I have taken a big bite, I always seem to take big bites and manage to chew my way through it though. I have been using CAD and 3D solid modeling programs for a while now. I will take your advice on the books for sure, Cheers

[Shady]

Quickform, sorry I cant help with your problem but I do want to welcome you to the forum.Wonderful 1st post your politeness is much appreciated, I think you will fit in here just fine. Enjoy your stay here and remember the search feature when you are having trouble, there have been many many topics covered over here therefore you can find some interesting reading on nearly any subject. ~~~~~~~Shady

[Storkman]

quickform

 

try setting stock on for check surfaces a thou or two more than what you have set for drive surfaces and set edge settings to only between surfaces. HTH.

[Slick]

Hello Quck form, and welcome to the forum!

 

I have run in to this problem a number of times doing 5-axis toolpath. I have a few tips, no gauruntees, but it's worth a shot.

 

1. If you can, avoid using 5-axis surfacing. What I've learned is, there is no sense constantly rotating your 4th and 5th axis if you don't have to. Just create a new "Toolplane" (rotate your construction plane) for the surface that makes it the easiest to machine in a 3-axis toolpath. The bonus of this is, you get more than two surface toolpath options, and your feed isn't restricted by how slow your 5th axis is.

2. Re-create the surfaces in MasterCAM. A lot of times, you will convert a model and get parametric, or NURB surfaces. MasterCAM doesn't usually like these.

3. Have the habit of doing what you've found out on your own... Don't select check surfaces if you don't have to. Most of the time, this "short cut" ends up working.

 

Anyhow's good luck, ROY_23 is right though, the 5-axis book is an excellent tool, I must say I learned quite a bit faster having that at my disposal.

[MATT Q]

I agree with slick 3+2 programming works all the time for me and I do avoid using the constant axis machining. Tool containment boundaries are the key.

[quickform]

Thanks for all the help everyone its much appreciated, I just wish I knew more about Mastercam so I can return the help...hopefully in the not too distant future.