Display which operation is simulating?

[neurosis]

I have a part file that has allot of tool path in it. There were some drawing changes so some of the path needs to be modified. There are "allot" of operations so its hard to figure out which need changed easily. Is there a way to display which operation is simulating? I can see where the changes need to be made during simulation but I cant tell which operation is simulating. Maybe there is a better way to figure this out?? Thanks.

[Guest]

Icons in the Op manager, last one on the bottom on the right end is "Display Associative geometry, it will show which geometry is driving a particular tool path

[Justin Beebe at Folsom Tool]

John,

 

Thanks for that info. Thats a great feature that will really help me out.

[neurosis]

I figured out how to do that. My problem is, that there are almost 100 operations (and this is not a part that I programmed) so it takes forever to go through them all and as you can imagine it is a bit of a mess. With only the associated geometry shown (all construction geometry projected from a 3d model) its difficult to tell what is really going on. When you run the simulation on the part with stock it is very easy to tell what is going on if only there was a way to tell which operation was running so you could write it down and then go back and edit it. All of this construction geometry required to create the tool path is also another question that I have for the future. Is this all really necessary?

[crazy^millman]

Another thing you can do it Backplot the geometry and use that to show you what toolpaths are doing what as well once you turn off the backplot. I would do it like 1001 for 1st and so forth for operations where I was just not sure.

 

HTH

[Thad]

If you know the area that needs to be changed, you could delete a few of lines and see what ops go dirty. Then either undelete or File-Open without saving on exit. Kinda goofy, but might be the quickest.

 

Thad

[Dan@home]

Or the icon to the left of where John said, It will show the tool path associated with that operation only. You might have to mess with the (ALT-T) a little, works great.

[3R!< W3NG3R]

How much geom has changed?

Would change recognition work for that file?

[Mike-T]

Analyze-Analyze/database-click on geo, select toolpaths box and it will put a green mark on each op that is tied to that geo. Love this feature.

[cobra95kev]

Mike T,

Thanks for that nugget of info. I will make good use of it.

 

[Thee Starry™]

That is freakin awesome!

 

Thanks Mike-T

[neurosis]

Thanks for that tip Mike! good one. One more question and i'll leave it alone for a weekend. With importing allot of the models using iges they tend to be a little sloppy around the edges. I notice that when I create the surface curves allot of times it will create splines instead of arcs or lines. Sometimes even both depending on how the edges of the surfaces meet. Is there an easy way to clean all of this mess up into workable geometry. Right now im having to recreate allot of geometry just to be able to create a chain.

[Dan@home]

Mike-T, can't wait to try that one...

Dan.

[Mike-T]

Solids work much better for creating curves from but even so alot of times you get splines. I only create curves on the stuff I want to cut. After the creation, do a edit simplify on the geo. If it still doesnt clean up, I might up the tolerance, but usually end up re-creating the parts of it that didn't convert. Slice geo works better then edge curves. Hth.

[Mike-T]

by the way, you can create slice geo even on a surface model. (iges)

[doyleg]

Cool Mike-T.

Neurosis, try using a step file or a sat file instead of an iges file. They are better models to use than iges - less mistakes with model.

[Santa Fe]

Mike-T, do you mean >create curve slice< on the create menu.

 

By the way thanks for the analize/database/geometry/toolpats tip

I don't know for how long I was trying to figure an easy way to debugg programs from other guys.

[neurosis]

These are all things that are very aggravating for me moving over from cimatron. Chaining is much much easier. You can chain in a 3-d environment using curves that arent even connected or even on the same level for that matter. As long as they intersect somewhere. There is almost no need for construction geometry what so ever. I have to stick to my guns and learn this system so im not giving up! Ive already seen some things that I like allot more than cimatron. Take the good with the bad. I just have to get used to the routines and see what happens. I didnt know what the simplify did but i'll try it. I'll look in to the slice geo as well.

 

Thank you.

[doyleg]

Neurosis, I used to run smartcam that could do the same thing in chaining. Prob is is that the other programmers would not check to see which line they were grabbing and parts would get scrapped because of it. If you have a tapered wall - which all molds do - and the programmer picked the top of one side of a pocket and the bottom of the other side the pocket/part would be scrap. This way of chaining is by far safer and less confusing. When I first started there - before I became programmer - I would spend 4-6 hours a day trying to figure out where the programmers went wrong and it was the top/bottom geometry thing in their chaining. Then I would get yelled at about what I did all night (night shift). I would leave a book for the programmers about what was wrong.

[Thad]

I nominate Mike-T for eMastercam Forum Member of the Week.

 

I'm pretty sure that used to be standard info in V9 (or was it V8?) Analyze. I thought they did away with it in X.

 

 

quote:

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You can chain in a 3-d environment using curves that arent even connected or even on the same level for that matter. As long as they intersect somewhere.

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Try playing with "Ignore Z depths in chaining" (or somesuch) in the "All" dropdown. I'm not sure how it works with swoopy XYZ up and down curves, but I was able to chain a straight line that consisted of 3 consecutive straight lines, that shared endpoints in X and Y, but all resided at different Z heights.

 

Thad

[neurosis]

doyleg: I agree a little about the selection process, but you can make the same mistake selecting geometry to project for tool path in mastercam. If you are not paying attention then you just arent paying attention. You have to go through the selection process either way only "I havent used smartcam since v7" in smartcam?/cimatron, you select the geometry to drive the path and your done. No projecting, trimming, breaking, cleaning up, to be done.

[shazam/TPP]

Mike-T great tip with the analyze/database

[Mike-T]

I can't take credit, I'm sure I got the tip right here on the Forum shortly after X came out. Just passing info forward.

[chipman]

quote:

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Analyze-Analyze/database-click on geo, select toolpaths box and it will put a green mark on each op that is tied to that geo. Love this feature.

---

Very nice tip Mike!

 

I have always used a right click in the "Operation Manager" choose "Select..." then the "select options" window comes up like below. Here you can use the cursor button to select geometry, or use one of the many other options. I use the "tool#" quite often.

 

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

One thing you can do that might help sort out what needs to be changed is run the whole thing in verify with "Stop after each operation" checked.