Surfaces Question

[barrybaker]

Check this hole out that breaks into the fillet of the lower Z level. I want to fill it in and create a single surface for machining. I have tried create - surface - extend, but enjoyed little success. How about walking me through it?

 

ftp://www.mastercam-cadcam.com/Mastercam_forum/MCX_Files/

 

The file is named "Detail 5 Opposite".

 

Would have been nice to post a direct link. Maybe a little help there too?

 

Barry Baker

[Colin Gilchrist]

Use the surfaces you created from the solid faces, then use Create | Surface | 2 surface blend...

 

Mastercam will prompt you to select a surface. Click on the upper wall surface and drag the dynamic arrow to the edge, then click. Mastercam will preview the blend direction. If it is "highlighting" the edge where the gap is, then press the "reverse" button to flip direction on the surface. Then pick the second wall surface and repeat. This will bridge the upper wall.

 

Next, repeat this on the fillet surfaces. When you drag the dynamic arrow on the surface, move it to the very bottom corner of the first fillet. When you click you should see a temporary blend curve that slices up the fillet. If you don't see it, press the "reverse" button. Same for the other side of the fillet.

 

I did this and got a perfect fillet blend surface between the newly trimmed fillet surfaces on either side.

 

For the floor I selected just the floor surface and created curves (wireframe) on "all edges" then I untrimmed the surface (which just makes it a big rectangle), deleted the arc where the hole is, then used "Blended Spline" to close the gap.

 

Finally I used "Flat boundary" surface to create a new floor surface, minus the hole...

[barrybaker]

Thanks, worked like a champ. Learned a few new techniques in that lesson.

 

Barry

[Slydman]

Also, i create a temporary solid filling the hole then after i create the surface from that.

 

I put back a copy of your file under 'DETAIL 5 OPPOSITE_SLYD.MCX'

[Colin Gilchrist]

glad it worked ok Barry...

[MotorCityMinion]

Can you guys save that as a x file, not x2 or x3?

[Colin Gilchrist]

Someone else will have to do it motor, I can't upload from here...

 

On another note, I found a much easier way to fill in that hole and all other holes on this model.

 

Solid | Find Features can detect fillets and holes in a solid. I used it to find all the holes (don't use "combine operation") in the solid and add them as "extrude cuts" to the solids manager.

 

I then selected the first "extrude cut" in the list, held down shift and clicked the last extrude cut. Then (while still holding down shift) I right-clicked and choose "Suppress".

 

This suppressed all the holes on the solid. Then I just created "surfaces from solid" and moved them to a new level. Then I un-suppressed the holes in the solid.

 

Just like magic there was now a clean set of surfaces with no holes for the roughing/finishing toolpaths...

 

HTH,

[Slydman]

Colin,

 

I tried this way to do, but no luck. I had error 'toolpath input edge/face not found' message.

 

Is it possible because the solid is body?

 

MotorCityMinion,

 

The toolpath will be lost, but i will put it in ftp's.

[Colin Gilchrist]

Slyd,

 

You probably need to run the "No History" Chook on the solid before you do "Find features". This removes any history from the solid. Doing this will mess up the toolpaths that are already programmed on this model, so you should copy the solid to a new level first and turn off the original solid. This "copy of solid" will show up in the Solids Manager, and when you run the NoHist chook, Mastercam will remove all of the internal history in the database and leave you with a clean solid...

 

I forgot to mention this in my post...

 

HTH,

[Slydman]

Thanks I will try it tomorrow

[MotorCityMinion]

Thanks, I'll look for it. Don't really need the toolpaths, just interested in whats taking place here.

[barrybaker]

Wow Colin,

That's really slick. Much easier,and smoother. Thank you for the extra effort.

 

Barry Baker

[Slydman]

MotorCityMinion,

 

Sorry, no luck to put the part in ftp's, my version of smatftp's has expired yesterday and tried to reinstall it but i can't.

 

The file is in ftp's site under 'detail 5 opposit_slyd_x.mcx'

[Tony35]

colin,

that worked great thanks for the tip

[Slydman]

Colin,

 

Great tool to use. Thanks

 

quote:

---

You probably need to run the "No History" Chook on the solid before you do "Find features".

---

I didn't need to run that c'hook, after coping the solid, it has worked perfectly. I think it 's because of the toolpath that was associated with.

[Colin Gilchrist]

Yep,

 

Those toolpaths won't let you modify the solid. Keep in mind though that as you copy or move a solid, Mastercam will keep that internal translation or association stored in the solid definition. If you've only got a couple simple solids this is no big deal. Once you start getting 10, 20, or a few hundred solids, Mastercam can get unstable when you are trying to modify or do anything with that solid. This is why the "NoHist" chook becomes so important...

 

I try and keep my MCX database as clean as possible to avoid the problems that so many users experience...

[MotorCityMinion]

Slydman. I Got it. Thanks.

[Slydman]

Thanks to all

 

Have a good weekend

[Steve Hattori]

Nice trick, Colin- Thanks!