why are solids so slow

[KCollins]

I definaetly prefer to model using solids as it seems to be a hundred times faster for me to do so but why are they so slow when toolpathing. I have a valve body that i machined using one solid model and one surface model. The solid slows the pc as if it had a boat anchor attached to it. The surfaces dont seem to cause this problem. why is that?

[Guest]

What are the specs on your computer system?

[KCollins]

i'm running an xp pro station with 3ghz processor and 2 gig of ram. using the Nvidia Geforce 6800 card.

 

The model rotates great on screen, its just toolpathing is slow. And running a comparison between programming with solids vs surfaces...the lag only occurs with solids.

[Guest]

Are you using the surface high speed toolpaths?

 

These can be painfully slow to generate larger toolpaths.

 

Also when using the solid as geometry if you do not need to use the entire solid, you might try using faces instead, so it does not have to compute for the entire solid

[KCollins]

i actually am using faces. And no high speed paths. Just simple surface rough pocket. The odd thing is it appears to slow the whole file down. Even opening the parameters pages seems to take forever. I've resorted to converting all my solids to surface models now.

[Guest]

Without seeing it, I am left to think either your solid has a problem or there is something running on your system that drags performance down.

 

I machine to solids almost always and have not experienced what you are seeing.

[KCollins]

alright thanks for the help. I'm going to check some memory meters and see if theres somethign that pops out

[Müřlıń®]

quote:

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Even opening the parameters pages seems to take forever. I've resorted to converting all my solids to surface models now.

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Welcome to X2:)

 

But ya, that is what I do also...

 

The more complex your solid is, the more lag you will see...

 

But it seems the longer the file is open, the slower your machine will get also.

 

Most of the guys who machine parts and use solids, don't have complex NURBS draft on every wall of the part. A file with only lines and arcs as a building foundation will process way faster

than a file that has 25,000 nurbs entities.

 

When you get into compound curves, Mastercam will use NURBS. Then that is where the problem is I am thinking. I think it is video related, but no one can nail it down.

 

The tighter your system tolerances are, the more points and patches there are in the NURBS equasion.

 

 

I just convert to surfs like you do and everything is fine and I don't have to buy a 10k Quad core puter...

[Dave-Newcastle]

From what i understand Mastercam does not generate toolpaths from a solid. So when you toolpath a solid model MC converts solids to surfaces in the background and creates surface toolpaths.

This is what i was told years back when i used version 7/8, dont know if this still applies with X2 though.

[Ken Chase CNC Software]

Can you upload a file that exhibits this behaviour for me to look at?