Solids Move w/o solids

[woodcutter]

Today i tried Xform translate to a solid and I don't have the solids package. A dialog box pops up and says you need the solids package. I spoke with my mastercam support tech and he said the only way to work around it is to move the WCS. I am completely new to mastercam and am not sure how to do this effectivly. I understand that w/o the solids package you shouldn't be able to make solids but you should be able to at least move them around. I personally think that's a load of crap. So i have to either move the solid in my CAD package or go wireframe. I'm only trieng to move my part to a known vise locating point. Any hints or pointers would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!!!

Alex

[chip]

quote:

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I understand that w/o the solids package you shouldn't be able to make solids but you should be able to at least move them around. I personally think that's a load of crap

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Well WoodCutter... Hell'of a post... You can make surfaces from your solid. Then ditch, delete, hide, blank, edit, destroy, make it fubar, change transparency, or change color of your solid then move your new geometry (wireframe and surfaces) with out having to purchase solids. or Use your WCS. There's probably a couple other ways of doing things also.

[Guest]

What version of MCAM woodcutter?

[woodcutter]

Version X sp1

[Guest]

You need to create 2 lines at the point where you want your new origin, 1 representing the x axis facing right and 1 representing the y axis pointing away from you.

 

Then click the WCS button at the bottom of your screen, click on view manager, then click geometry button, pick the 2 lines, the x axis first, the y second. The system will show you available axis combination, when you see the one you are looking for click the green arrow. Click asscoiative and set new origin and set as WCS and give it a name you will recognize. Then when the view manager come back up click in the C and T boxes on your new view, this will make you Tool and construction places top active for your new view.

 

 

When you hit F9, if you did everything correctly you should see a secondary origin at the point you created it.

 

 

You could also pick the solid face you want to use as your top surface and scroll thru until you find the axis combination you need.

HTH

[woodcutter]

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

[Guest]

Hardmill did a terrific WCS tutorial it is done for V9 but the concept is the same if you want to check it out

 

Hardmills WCS tutorial

[woodcutter]

I got the new orgin to appear in the correct place. Thanks. Is "file merge/pattern" similar to import in other CAM systems. Another thing i'm tring to do is draw out the vise as a solid and position it in the CAD sys, then open that in mastercam x and then import other solid on to it. (that was allot of "thens") That's how we did it in our old CAD/CAM package, alphaCAM.

Thanks for your time.

[Guest]

I don't know what kind of vises you use but you can download solid models of vises from Kurt and Chick.

 

 

Check out their respective websites.

 

Merging a file will bring the only the geometry contents, AFAIK, of the file into the file with which you are working.

[woodcutter]

Do you know a way to import the entire file with associated tool paths? Thanks ours are kurts,

thanks

[Guest]

You can import operations and bring in the geometry too.

 

Right click in your operations manager>import, be sure to click on include geometry.

 

HTH

[woodcutter]

Thanks again for all your help!!