Surfacing help

[Marlowe Bright]

I have a part that i need to split down the middle. It's a comlpex shaped surface, looks like a bent pipe, any idea's? I did it once and now i ca't remember how. And how do you project a sketch on to a surface? I find my self trying to use SolidWorks commands, still trying to get use to MasterCam commands.

[Cuda84]

Will it be a planer cut, or are you trying to creat a mold parting line?

 

 

Also what version of MC are you useing?

[Marlowe Bright]

A mold parting line.

[Marlowe Bright]

I'm using MCX

[Cuda84]

You will need to creat Your mold plane first. (construction plane)

 

Then just use creat part line curve.

[Cuda84]

You will need to cut the surfaces after you creat the curves. I usually use trim surface to curves. This has a feature that allows you to keep both halfs of the surface being cut. This feature dose not always work for me, when it dose not work on a particular surface I just copy that surface and trim it twice.

[Marlowe Bright]

How do you get the plane to follow the part? It's not a straight or flat part.

[Cuda84]

The plane just needs to be flat, (mold pull direction) The creat part line curve will creat curves on the surface normal to this plane.

 

 

Deciding mold pull is sometimes just gusetimating what would work good. If you rotate your part to a position that you like you can use creat plane equals Gview. Then go ahead and creat part line curves to see if this will work for you.

 

If you want some sugestions you can put your file on the FTP site and I will take a look at it.

[New Job]

If you do this a lot you might want to check out MoldPlus. I use this all the time. Makes parting lines a breeze.

 

[Marlowe Bright]

Want to make sure im doing this right. What are the steps to creating a construction plane.

[Marlowe Bright]

Im trying to create a parting line cradle for the part.

[Cuda84]

Go to planes. You have a number of options either use =Gview or pick geometry. If you use the geometry option you will need some form of geometry to pick. either curves, points or a flat surface. all of your options are under the planes menu at the bottom of your screen.

 

When creating a plane with curves, pick the X-axis first, then the Y-axis. You will be given a number of axis combinations to chose from. When useing points pick the center, then the X point, then the Y point. THis is the option that I use the most, it useally gives the correct orientation first try.

[Marlowe Bright]

I created one =Gview. Just not getting the part line curve right.

[Cuda84]

A quick way to get some geometry to start with is creat bounding box. This probably will not sit correctly. You will need to rotate this to get desired result.

[Cuda84]

How big is the file? Can you E:mail it to me, or put on the FTP site?

[Marlowe Bright]

I could probably e-mail it

[Marlowe Bright]

9 megs

[Cuda84]

Zip it up and give it a try.

[Cuda84]

You say you are trying to creat a cradle. Is this going to be a support nest of some kind? Dose it need any particular face pointing up?