Oh No! Everything on one level.

[mcpgmr]

Anyone know of a quick trick to isolate drive geometry and move it to it's own level? I'm following a guy who uses the same color and level for everything. MC V8.1.1

[Storkman]

Damn, I hate that!

[Thee Starry™]

No, no I don't. But I can tell you a great way to hide the body so he can't continue with those antics!

[edmBosto]

In a case like that I go into the side or front view and window the geometry as much as possible. It can be tedious.

Then I start changing the colors of what's leftover.

 

When possible I chase down the original file.

 

Levels are important and need to be utilized by our co-workers.

 

Can you tell the co-worker to fix it?

Good luck

[Span]

You could use the only display associative geometry button in the operations manager to narrow it down by toolpath.

[Span]

MC V8.1.1 nevermind. DUH

[Thad]

Try showing the geometry only used in that operation (one of the icons in the ops manager). Then select it and move it. You may to pick away at it like that. It *might* be quicker.

 

Thad

[Guest]

quote:

---

I'm following a guy who uses the same color and level for everything. MC V8.1.1

---

Been there, done that.

 

I did ALOT of File New

 

It was faster for me than digging through a mess of geometry

[gcode]

Its about 3 mouse clicks in X2>MR2

[Kannon]

quote:

---

Its about 3 mouse clicks in X2>MR2

---

Sorry G...got ya beat...its only 2 in version 9

 

 

file

new

[Steve Arteman]

I use this method in 8,9 an X. Screen next menu hide, select only surfaces or use mask, select surfaces then get more detailed selection. after you have what you want on the screen go to screen change levels. I use screen hide on one of the videos on www.cad2cam.blogspot.net

Steve

www.cad2cam.net

[crazy^millman]

Best way I have found to do this is do each toolpath and save the geometry to a level. Then you can most times offset that geometry to give you your chains for contours and stuff like that. Some what of a pain, but sometimes easier than trying to sort a lot of geometry out on the screen.

 

HTH

[Dan@home]

Then go back and slap the guy that did it.

[pip]

I am also taking over from someone elses programming, where he did everything on 1 layer. We are lucky as we have mcx mr2. I choose show associated geometry, then with quick mask select all the geo, and move it to a diferent layer. Comes in very handy when cleaning up my solids. He had mc set to create curves on solids import.

[kenfromlodi]

Of course the new features in X2 make it a lot easier but before I would press alt+E and select only the geometry I want and then once I have what I want on the screen I move it to another level. Still very tedious on a complex part but better than fighting it,

[Programinator]

I remember i used to do everything on one level because the guy that showed me how to use mcam did it that way. Then i figured out levels and wcs and i said to myself that guy was nuts.

[Thad]

Sorry, didn't see V8.

 

Thad

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Since you guys are taking over, institute a new standard.

 

Levels 1-9 are for this...

Levels 10-19 are for that, and levels 20-19 are for the other thing, so on and so forth.

 

Paste it up on a board next to your computer.

 

JM2C

 

Create yourself a VB script or better yet copy and paste this one...

 

save it as "CSV2Levels.vbs"

 

code:

---

'//   Title:        CSV2Levels.vbs

'//

'// Props: Chris Bellini

'//

'//

'//

'// Description: Allows for a CSV File to dictate level numbers and names

'//

'//

'//

'// Comments:

'//

'//

'//

'//

'//

'//

' -----------------

' | Constants |

' ------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Const DEF_CSV_FILE = "C:McamxVBCSV2Levels.csv"

Const DEF_FSO_FORREADING = 1

Const DEF_UNNAMED_LVL = """""""."""""""

 

' Kick off our script

Call Main()

 

' Purpose: The main subroutine

Sub Main()

Dim objFSO

Dim objTS

Dim strInLine

Dim arrTokLine

 

 

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

 

' Make sure the file is actually there and bail if it isn't.

If Not (objFSO.FileExists(DEF_CSV_FILE)) Then

objFSO = Nothing

ShowString("File not found!" & vbLf & vbLf & DEF_CSV_FILE)

Exit Sub

End If

 

Set objTS = objFSO.OpenTextFile(DEF_CSV_FILE, DEF_FSO_FORREADING, False)

 

' Read the CSV file line by line. For each line, make sure that it

' contains a comma. If it does, tokenize on the comma into an array.

' The first element is the level number and the second element is

' the level name. Set the named levels based on what's in the array.

Do While(objTS.AtEndOfStream <> True)

strInLine = Trim(objTS.ReadLine)

 

If (InStr(1, strInLine, ",")) Then

arrTokLine = Split(strInLine, ",")

 

If Not (arrTokLine(1) = DEF_UNNAMED_LVL) Then

Call SetLevelName(arrTokLine(0), Trim(arrTokLine(1)))

End If

End If

Loop

 

' Close the CSV file. We're done with it.

objTS.Close

 

' Cleanup

Set objFSO = Nothing

Set objTS = Nothing

 

' All done!

'// ShowString ("All done!")

End Sub

---

then use the code below to create a file and name it "CSV2Levels.csv"

 

code:

---

1,Original Solid

2,Original Solid Edge Curves

3,OP01 Material

4,OP02 Material

5,OP03 Material

6,Top Solid Extrusion Geometry

7,Front Solid Extrusion Geometry

8,Side Solid Extrusion Geometry

10,OP01 Toolpath Geometry 1

11,OP01 Toolpath Geometry 2

20,OP02 Toolpath Geometry 1

21,OP02 Toolpath Geometry 2

30,OP03 Toolpath Geometry 1

31,OP03 Toolpath Geometry 2

110,OP01 Fixture Solid

111,OP01 Fixture Wireframe 1

112,OP01 Fixture Wireframe 2

113,OP01 Fixture Wireframe 3

120,OP02 Fixture Solid

121,OP02 Fixture Wireframe 1

122,OP02 Fixture Wireframe 2

123,OP02 Fixture Wireframe 3

130,OP03 Fixture Solid

131,OP03 Fixture Wireframe 1

132,OP03 Fixture Wireframe 2

133,OP03 Fixture Wireframe 3

201,Form Tool #1

202,Form Tool #2

203,Form Tool #3

204,Form Tool #4

205,Form Tool #5

206,Form Tool #6

207,Form Tool #7

231,OP01 Tombstone Orientetion

232,OP02 Tombstone Orientation

233,OP03 Tombstone Orientation

241,OP01 WCS Lines

242,OP02 WCS Lines

243,OP03 WCS Lines

255,Blanked Entities

---

HTH

[mcpgmr]

Thanks guys. Wow, what a pain in the butt. First of all we don't have solids so when I bring in the model as a parasolid it converts it to a surface model with edge curvs. That's ok but the programmer just leaves everything on one level and starts programming from the curvs that came in. I personally don't like bringing in edge curvs from the get go. I like to extract the ones that I need from a solid and then create any custom geometry as I need it. I'm hoping that in the coming weeks I can convince the powers to be that we need to upgrade to "X" level 3 and move away from this way of working.

[Justin Beebe at Folsom Tool]

Paul,

 

It must be hard to work like that. I know how organized you keep you mastercam files. I still do it the same way you showed me. Bring in the solid with no edge curves, then create needed toolpath geometry on a seperate levels and name them. It's so much easier when you have to refer back to a job you did along time ago when the file is organized. Best of luck over there. Keep me posted

[mcpgmr]

James, What exactly will this vbscript do for me? I appreciate you sharing this with me but I don't understand it. Thanks again!

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

It will automatically create and name levels for you. The first step in proper file organization.

[90rsgnuguy42]

How do I use it? I put both files in my VB directory, I ran the VBS file but I get:

 

Microsoft VBScript runtime error

Object variable not set

IActiveScriptSite::OnScriptError()

Line:

[3R!< W3NG3R]

Paul, you can bring parasolid files in as a solid or surface with or without edge curves.

 

Go settings>config>converters>solid import.

There you can choose. All your old files will still be surfaces if saved that way in MCX, but new files would come in the way you like.

 

Also, you don't need solids to bring one in. You can work with them, toolpath them (including WCS). You cannot modify it though (xform). I use WCS so I don't need to move it around. You can also create surfaces from the solid if you like.

 

HTH

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Make sure this is your Mastercam path...

 

Const DEF_CSV_FILE = "C:McamxVBCSV2Levels.csv"

 

If not, modify that line to reflect your actual Mastercam path.

 

HTH