Mastercam Graphics Questions

[Müřlıń®]

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Edges, lines, chaining arrow, are not as sharp or as clear as entities in Solidworks. Why is this?

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JJ if you want to render up some good models without all the little zigs and zags, set the tolerance tighter and your screen will look real purdy...no holes...

 

I think the default tolerance is set to .002"...and that is big enough to drive a truck through...you will see fauceted edges and holes in the model...

 

But I use the lower end video cards and just leave it loose......less video crashes that way...

[JJ_8]

Hey, Murlin. System Configuration, Tolerances, which tolerance effects how entities are drawn on the screen?

 

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:squawk:

Got try HOOPS, Gotta try HOOPS

:squawk:

Gotta try HOOPS, Gotta try HOOPS

:squawk:

 

 

[mold100]

JJ your somewhat correct, how does better apperance help with your Camming ability? a chain is a chain unless your resolution is REAL xxxxty and your circles are stop signs, I guess the majority of programmers dont have an issue with a few VISUAL flaws, if you like Solidworks display so much maybe you could look into Camworks, I did for the heck of it, and like I said I am actually a primarily Surfcam programmer, and I am effiecient (not used for a short time and 4got about) but can sit down behind 4 differant CAM systems, and none can do what you are looking for. Also #4# Mcam hands down is the best to "Show up and Cut it".

[JJ_8]

mold100 I can not remember the last time I had to refresh the screen in Solidworks. I waste time regenerating the display in Mastercam X2 all the time. With a decent graphics engine in Mastercam this would not be necessary.

 

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:squawk:

Got try HOOPS, Gotta try HOOPS

:squawk:

Gotta try HOOPS, Gotta try HOOPS

:squawk:

 

 

[Lee.]

JJ,

 

you still didn't answer about your graphics card.

 

It sounds like it is the culprit.

 

It wouldn't be ATI would it?

[mold100]

K. back to some of James questions, what card are you using? Are you getting fragments, or just poor resolution? Murlins idea to tighten geo in display will drastically improve shading and chain geo, but as with every software sacrifice performance. in V9 it was the shading icon.

[jeff]

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I waste time regenerating the display in Mastercam X2 all the time.

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Whatever, so you're telling me that the .002 seconds it takes to refresh your screen takes too long?

[Thee Starry™]

quote:

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mold100 I can not remember the last time I had to refresh the screen in Solidworks. I waste time regenerating the display in Mastercam X2 all the time. With a decent graphics engine in Mastercam this would not be necessary.

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Really? I very, very, very rarely ever have to refresh or regenerate the screen in MCam. I am a little perplexed. I run a fairly crappy system, with a mediocre, at best, video card and don't have any issue like that at all.

[JJ_8]

Video card is an NVIDIA G-Force. 256 Megs of RAM. I do not get any fragments just very poor resolution in Mastercam X2. No problems at all with SolidWorks 2007. Still do not know what setting to change in Mastercam X2 to tighten things up.

 

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:squawk:

Got try HOOPS, Gotta try HOOPS

:squawk:

Gotta try HOOPS, Gotta try HOOPS

:squawk:

 

 

[Lee.]

Config/Tolerances.

[Müřlıń®]

JJ, it's just a render tolerance..but I think that is what you are looking for...

 

I will point you to it when I get home, I left my key at the house since I wasn't going to use MC today...

 

It is in the shading section...and is purley cosmetic and does not actually change anything, just the way it looks on the screen...

 

But there is also another memory allocation tolerance for RAM allocation.

 

If you have tight tolerances, sometimes there is not enough RAM to go around. I think the system default is 50% you can bump that up and you will not have to regen so often..

[JJ_8]

Murlin, I was looking in the wrong place. System Configuration / Tolerances rather than System Configuration / Shading. Very noticeable difference already! Thanks

 

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:squawk:

Got try HOOPS, Gotta try HOOPS

:squawk:

Gotta try HOOPS, Gotta try HOOPS

:squawk:

 

 

[Müřlıń®]

np dude

[Guest]

it only took 35 responses to get it figured out huh

[iowajim62]

quote:

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New to Mastercam

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pretty much says it all del

not the first nor the last

glad he got it figured out tho

teh magician does his magic

[Guest]

quote:

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teh magician does his magic

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teh wizard

[Müřlıń®]

Well there ya'll went and done it...meh hat was already to tight.....

 

Now it just keeps falling off....

 

LOL...

 

and it is not a pretty sight...

 

[ 11-14-2007, 04:57 PM: Message edited by: Murlin ]

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Dude does not even know what kind of video card he has...

 

Banging on Mastercam because he does not know what to do... AND did not give a straight answer. Prolly cuz I proved him wrong.

[Zoober]

Think I got it fer ya.

Right mouse click on an empty space on the desktop. Make sure to avoid clicking any icons.

Click properties in the little menu thingy.

 

When Display properties box comes up:

Click settings tab.

See the slider (the thingy that goes back and forth) that says "Screen resolution"? Good.

Drag the slider from "800 by 600 pixels" to something more reasonable for your video setup. Perhaps "1280 by 1024 pixels" if yer ballsy....

 

Enjoy. Oh ya... and what the above guys said.

[Müřlıń®]

quote:

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Video card is an NVIDIA G-Force

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There is the problem right there man. I missed that earlier....

 

For some reason the G-force cards have a LOT of stupid glitches when running Mastercam.

Don't ask me why cause all the other CAD packages use that card just fine.

 

But on my home PC the grafix problems are terible... with the G-force...

 

The best thing you can do with that card to make it work somewhat OK with Mastercam is a setting in the NVidia driver...

 

G-code pointed me to it and it did the trick.

 

I think it is the Unified Front Buffer...disable it...

 

You will have to make a new user profile and name it Mastercam or something.

 

Because the default setting is greyed out and will not let you turn it off.

 

Once you do that, make sure in the screen section of MC Configuration, you don't have hardware acelleration turned off.

 

If the field is checked, uncheck it.

 

Also, make sure you have open GL turned on and not GUI.

 

That ought to make that card work the best it is going to be.

 

I finally broke down and got a Quadro chipset for my work PC and it was well worth it.

 

P.S......the guys around here are real defensive about Mastercam if you hadn't noticed.

 

But I will agree and say Mastercam is lightyears ahead of the competition...

 

It is just a PITA sometimes .....

[jeff]

I have the Ge-Force 7300-LE with V9 and rarely have problems or glitches.

[Müřlıń®]

quote:

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I have the Ge-Force 7300-LE with V9 and rarely have problems or glitches.

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Thats because you are running Ver 9

 

[Jayson Kramer]

Murlin these setting (I think it is the Unified Front Buffer...disable it...

 

You will have to make a new user profile and name it Mastercam or something.) are only on the Quodro cards but there is no mastercam settings so set it for SW that works well.

[Müřlıń®]

Hrm only on the Quad eh? Brain fart...

 

Musta been something else then. I will have to check it when I get home...

 

I coulda swore I turned off something to make it work better on that PC...

 

I have the PNY G-force at home...

[JJ_8]

Not having any problems since lowering the .002 shading setting to .0005. Not as good as Solidworks but good enough. (The Mastercam chaining arrow could be a lot clearer. I think this chaining arrow should be shaded just like the Solidworks Triad is rather than a wireframe .) Before making this change it was a major PITA. I really appreciate your help on changing this setting.

 

P.S......the guys around here are real defensive about Mastercam if you hadn't noticed. But I will agree and say Mastercam is lightyears ahead of the competition...

 

Does not help Mastercam get improved. For sure the Mastercam X2 UI needs a lot of work.

 

On another subject I wish that the backplot could be clicked on in the graphics area and the machining operations parameter that created that part of the backplot would get highlighted in the Mastercam operations manager tree. The cam program I use to use did this and it was a nice feature to have.

 

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:squawk:

Got try HOOPS, Gotta try HOOPS

:squawk:

Gotta try HOOPS, Gotta try HOOPS

:squawk: