Who knows about toolpaths for solids?

[dgoering - DEPCO LLC]

Still working on the damn CO2 car, and I am trying to create Rough Parallel, a Finish Contour, and a Finish Parallel toolpath (in that order) on the front side of the stock. I've tried to create these toolpaths, but I'm 100% sure they are not correct. Does anyone have tips for creating solid toolpaths, or have experience desiging CO2 cars in Mastercam?

 

 

P.S. - I'm using Mastercam X2 MR2

[Thad]

quote:

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I've tried to create these toolpaths, but I'm 100% sure they are not correct.

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What makes you say that?

 

I wouldn't use Surface Rough Parallel. Try Surface Rough Pocket.

 

quote:

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...or have experience desiging CO2 cars in Mastercam?

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Did you ever get back to the guys who looked at your file here?

 

Thad

[dgoering - DEPCO LLC]

Yes, and Brian from Acutek helped me figure out the extruding problem.

 

And I'm 100% sure they are not correct because of how the stock looks at the end of verification. It looks close to being correct, but there's a lot of red areas indicating collisions, and there shouldn't be.

[Thad]

As for the collisions, check your retract. Make sure it's absolute and above the highest point on the car. You could verify one op at a time to narrow down which is the op at fault.

 

Thad

[dgoering - DEPCO LLC]

I will try that, thanks.

[dgoering - DEPCO LLC]

I've done some different selections on the stock, and it seems to be working a lot better now. I will need to change the retract, because there are a few stock collisions still.

 

Thanks for the advice, all!

[Troy Gossett Indepak Inc.]

If you are progamming in front view you need to define your stock in front view as well there is a box "Stock View" in Stock Setup that should be set too "Front" if that is the view/plane you are machining in. Other wise no matter what you do the verify will look funky when finished.

[#Rekd™]

Hi dgoeing,

 

You can also convert the solids to surfaces which will give you some more options for machining.

 

John

[Jayson Kramer]

John why would hanging to surfaces give him More options?

[heavychevy2155]

He can break the surface and machine just that area, containment boundaries work the same though.

[Thad]

quote:

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He can

break the surface

and machine just that area

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[dgoering - DEPCO LLC]

FYI: dgoering is a 'she', not a 'he'.

 

And she seems to be getting it a little more straightened out. I didn't set my WCS and T/C planes correctly at first, so fixing that has helped a lot.

[dgoering - DEPCO LLC]

But thanks for all of your help guys, I really appreciate it. Hopefully, I can get all of the toolpaths done today for the car, but I am still waiting on the tech guys here to fix my post file, so I can't test anything with the machine yet.

[dgoering - DEPCO LLC]

Ok, so I've changed the retract rate several times in order to prevent tool collisions with the stock during verify. Originall, the Retract was set to 0.05, and now I've got it up to 0.25, but I still get collisions. Is there another way to fixt this, or should I increase the retract again?

 

And Colin, thanks for advice about the stop tool on collision check box.

[gms1]

Did you set the .25 as 'absolute' or 'incremental'? May seem like a silly question but I've done it enough times to know. DOH!

[dgoering - DEPCO LLC]

It's set to incremental.

[iowajim62]

Change retract to absolute .25, if you have clearance checked on set it to 1.0 or 2.0 absolute as well.

[gms1]

What Jimmy says is correct. What you are telling mastercam by setting it to incremental is it is only rising .25 from the LAST cut depth, then moves to the next position. So if you are 2" deep in the part, and the next cut is at .5" its only going up to 1.75 then rapids over to the .5" cut which leads to very bad things....

[dgoering - DEPCO LLC]

I have the retract set to 0.25 (absolute), and I checked the Clearance check box, set it to 2.0 (absolute), but still end up with 20 tool collisions with the stock. Should I increase the retract or the clearance, or what? Am I missing something?

[#Rekd™]

Hey Jay,

 

I did not mean more options to solve this problem but more machining options in general.

 

Sorry for any confusion!

 

John Ford

[htm01]

doesn't mc convert to surfaces anyway.in the toolpath group it has drive surfaces not drive solid.

 

if i pick a solid it shows up as (35) surfaces.

[Thad]

quote:

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if i pick a solid it shows up as (35) surfaces

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I believe it's referreing to 35 solid faces.

 

Thad

[dgoering - DEPCO LLC]

The file is now on the FTP site.

 

ftp://www.mastercam-cadcam.com/Mastercam_forum/MCX2_files/DG 11-24.MCX

 

If it helps, I am working with the shading active. It's easier to see the stock under all of the toolpaths.

[dgoering - DEPCO LLC]

Great success. Colin, I set the Feed plane to 0.1 absolute, then regenerated my toolpaths, and ran the verify again, with NO TOOL COLLISIONS! Thank you so much.

 

Also, when I verify, I am using an STL file for the stock, in case anyone wants to look at the part file.