Converting Solids to Surfaces - BEST WAYS

[Consultant]

Hello

 

I would like to get some ideas/suggestions/best methods to convert Solids to Surfaces and minimize / eliminate gaps between the surfaces.

 

Information such as tolerances to use when creating Solids / converting solids to Surfaces would be greatly appreciated.

 

Currently, creating Surfaces from Solids created in Mastercam itself sometimes end up having gaps between surfaces.

 

Regards.

[cuttingedge]

I don't know exactly what gaps you are getting. However, it may be a problem with your video card. I was getting gaps on my surfaces when I would view them on the computer and I replaced my videocard which allows for higher quality and the gaps are gone.

[cadcam]

Consultant There should be no gaps do to solids are water tight models in the first place.

[P_Scott]

Consultant,

 

Why would you want to go from Solids to Surfaces anyway? All surface toolpaths in Mastercam can be performed against a solid part just like with surfaces, including Check Faces instead of Check Surfaces in V9. If the surfaces look like there are gaps between them, check the Chord Height value in the Shading dialog. If this number is large, the surfaces will appear more faceted and look as if there are gaps between the edges. HTH

[ProductDevelopmentGuy]

The "gaps" you see may be simply due to the default "Maximum Surface Deviation" (in Screen/Config/Tolerances) being too big for your parts. When making a trimmed surface, we use this value to determine the linearity of the trimmed surface boundary(s) since they are stored as polylines. Likewise, if you're shading the surface model, you may be seeing "gaps" due to the tolerance of the shading algorithms. The surfaces are actually broken up into triangles which are then shaded. Maybe the shading tolerance is too big for the part

PDG

[Slick]

How about "The Opposite"...

I've noticed quite a few times when converting a solid model in from CATIA, which of course gets translated in to surfaces, the surfaces end up with gaps in them. When I then use the "Ghost Solid" feature I end up with gaps in my solid. Any suggestions on this problem, say tips on my Catread settings, or the Solid from Surfaces settings?

Oh, and don't bother with suggestions on how to get a better model created from an engineer, that's a lost cause