What will SOLIDS do for me?

[Chuck K.]

I am new to Mastercam. I am just starting to learn MCX. I have purchased Route and Art. I do not have Solids. In reading the official literature, I only have notions of what Solids will do. But nothing I read really gave me any idea if this would help me.

 

My purpose for buying Mastercam Route and Art, is to make wooden carvings, both architectural, and artistic. I will be making both directly cut objects (paneling, signs, etc) and molds for casting products.

 

With this background, can someone, or several people, please provide me with a layman's understanding of how Solids would benefit me as I use MCX and Art in the above listed applications?

 

Thank you for your assistance! Chuck

[Gary]

Getting solids is like an old guy getting viagra for the first time. Its that good. Are you doing your own designs or are you importing from others?

[Guest]

Solids will open toolpaths that you do not otherwsie have access to use.

 

Solids allows you to model an exact replica of what you want to machine and then machine to those features.

[Gary]

solids is awesome for doing subtractions from blocks ect. It will make signs easy this way. Can have a raised letter sign. Need one with but only with impressions all is needed is to sink it in a block remove it and the impressions are ready to cut.

[Hardmill]

Much easier to create/manipulate solids vs surfaces.

 

PEACE

[Jay M]

Chuck,

 

Several great points have already been made. The flexibility to modify solids "on the fly" is something you will really appreciate. By using the "Combine Ops" feature, you can link individual letters, graphics, words, sentences, etc. to a single operation. Just a couple of clicks and you can change all of the linked elements together. Go from 2mm raised letters to 1mm embossed with a drafted angle in just three or four clicks.

 

I find solids to be particularly useful when designing "live" or when you may want to prototype several different variations. There are definitely some limitations to Mastercam's solids, but if you can make it work, I highly recommend solids whenever possible.

 

Take care,

 

Jay

[Fred @ Slate Industries]

Chuck

I can answer some of your questions.
Fred

 

[Chris Flint Two Ft Pty Ltd]

Jeez, I have been using router and art for about a year and I know Zip about solids.

All I can say is when I got a 2 minute demo on solids it made my pulse race, I actually do not know why I have not got it, and from the above posts I feel ( and look) like a dinosaur.

chris f

[Chuck K.]

Hello Everyone!

 

Thank you for your helpful and well explained views on Solids! I will have to add Solids to my shopping list.

 

Hopefully for other people's benefits, MC can explain this better in their advertising literature. You guys gave me a much better feeling for what my benefits would be in purchasing this software....

 

Thanks again everyone!!!!!!!! Chuck

[within a thou]

Is solids really that much of a time saver I have been surfacing for 6 years with "surfaces" never made a solid in my life

[kkominiarek]

once you go solids....you'll never go back

[Guest]

They will expand you horizons, you will only use surfaces for some really funky things that seem to work better in surfaces.

[within a thou]

Just as a programmer I have always liked seing edge points like starts and ends of rads and think it makes it easier for the operator while the part is on the machine to do quick measurments so I have always stuck with surfaces forthat reason. Guess I better quit spending my days on here and get up to date with X and solids efore I am left in the dark.

[P_Scott]

concepttool,

 

quote:

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quick measurments so I have always stuck with surfaces forthat reason

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How do you measure points from just surfaces? You must have had wireframe geometry along with surfaces. The only data that you can get with Analyze and surfaces is when you Analyze-Dynamic to find the radius of a fillet or draft angle on a wall surface. With Solids, you can measure points directly from the solid part without having any other geometry. That's just one advantage. The ability to quickly generate a core from a cavity, or vice versa, using solid parts truly makes the job of making an electrode enjoyable. I love working with solids. If I had my choice it would be solids all the way. Forget about any other form of geometry.

[Greg VN]

With solids you can send a profile along any path and all the square corners in the profile will be square. If you use surfaces there will be no square corners. You can create edge curves on any of these square corners.

It make it easy to create boundarys within the part to do whatever is necessary to machine.

I use solids more than I use surfaces. There are places where surfaces work better so it is an advantage to be able to choose which to use depending on the circumstances.

[within a thou]

Yes I ment with edge curves. and with being able to use different colours within your surfaces instead of being stuck with one colour for one solid model I find that small intricate features are a lot easier to spot now I know ya can up your density in your wire frame to make it easier to decipher.

 

I do a lot of core cavity surfacing to my customer will give me a wireframe of the part on say the coe side with a material width so I create the surfaces for the core save it then use create surface offset cycle norms set my material thickness and that comes out pretty good there is problem areas tht ned to be touched up every once in a while but mcam does a pretty good job with this. Now granted this can be lil time consuming if your model has a couple thousand surfaces in it.

 

Now with surface creation do you have to make a complete 3D model of the part (sorta like a coons surface with 100's of cross sections to bring in all the features or can you can create areas like you would with say a swept surface and keep building around it til everything is filled in

[RandyN]

Solids are nice when your designing parts, but designing a mold or forming die around customer data takes surfaces.

[P_Scott]

I came across this topic again as I was searching for a forum member.

 

concepttool,

 

Solid models are built a little at a time. You start with a base feature and build from there. Contact your reseller to see if they offer any instruction for Solids.

 

 

RandyN,

 

quote:

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but designing a mold or forming die around customer data takes surfaces.

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I couldn't disagree more. I find working with surfaces to be quite tedious and frustrating in comparison to Solids. I can generate a mold cavity from a solid customer supplied part in far less time than if I had to do it with surfaces. Just read through all the steps concepttool did for offsetting surfaces for a mold. And there are still "problem areas". Solids a "watertight" and anything generated with them is generally error free. All the complex mathematics involved with solids is done in the background. Mastercam just performs better with Solids. Try changing the size of a fillet on surfaces. Changing a fillet on a solid is only a matter of a few seconds. Even toolpaths are easier with Solids. All the data about the part is contained within one entity, no matter how complex it gets. There are many advantages to solid parts over any other form of geometry.

 

All,

 

Ask your reseller for a demonstration. You'll be glad you did.

[crazy^millman]

quote:

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Even toolpaths are easier with Solids.

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I could not agree more. Solids is the olny way to fly with Mastercam whenever possible. I like the on the fly ability to change details and the boolen ability alone making cavities for molds using your scale factors also makes it kick some serious but IMHO. X with Solids is just freaking awsome. Like soilds hate solids like said before once you see the true power and ease of suing soilds you wil wonder how you ever did without using them. Soildworks, and many other Cad Software use what Soilds and there is a reason for it.