Orientation of STL file changing

[Jrygus]

I have two mastercam files for my part. The first is for roughing and the second is for finishing. When i run verify on the rough file, i save my stock as an STL then use it in the finish file in a rest mill op. I have several of these part types and it works fine on some and bad on others. The problem is the files keep changing orientation. I have pictures for examples. This is a screen grab from front view front cplane after rough verify.

 

photo 1

 

Then i load the STL as a mesh into MC and it is rotated like this.

 

photo 2

 

I have tried changing cplanes, i have tried different quality settings in verify. I dont even have a view in this file that coresponds to that orientation. Also, like i said, sometimes it does it, and sometimes it works fine. If anyone has any suggestions i would appreciate it.

[Superman]

Try setting all WCS and planes to TOP when running Verify and then save the STL file

 

Even when your "compsre to STL" is used, check the position of your checking file before comparing

 

Your WCS is the real killer

[Jrygus]

Thanks for the reply Superman. The WCS is set to Top along with cplane and gview. I have tried many combinations with those settings.

 

I am not using compare to stl. I am just creating an stl with verify in one file. Then calling it up in another file, and the orientation of the stl is totally different.

[Colin Gilchrist]

Do a search. I've covered this numerous times. Don't use the "Stock view" function in "Stock Setup". Only set it to "Top" and use a Solid that you build on your WCS plane... This keeps Verify and WCS happy together.

 

The other option you have is Xform - STL which you can use to re-orient the STL that is out of position, but this gets real old, real fast...

 

Try searching...

 

HTH,

[Colin Gilchrist]

I've got another question: why would you have two separate files, one for Roughing and one for Finishing? This is a very inefficent way of programming in Mastercam.

 

You don't happen to work in 1707 or 3250 do you?

 

[Jrygus]

Thanks Colin, i will check that out. I use 2 files because of file size. Overall performance and lock ups seem better with 2 seperate files. My rough program makes my computer run slow enough.

 

No i do not work for Boeing. I work for Valley Machine Shop out in Renton. You came out here and gave us some tutoring one time. It helped us a lot thanks!

[Jrygus]

That was it. Thanks Colin. I don't know how that got changed. I never use the Stock View feature, i guess it got turned on accidentally. Anyway, these parts will go considerably faster not having to use xform stl so much. Thanks again.

[Colin Gilchrist]

Hey anytime! Glad I could help. Is this Jerry? Now I get why you are using two files... It will make a huge difference in performance for large parts. Sometimes I'll run two computers and create different toolpaths on them so I can reduce the programming time on a hot job.

 

How is life at Valley? Its been a while since I've been out there. Are all your programmers up to speed with X2/X3? Shoot me an email sometime if you would like to setup another session. There are lots of cool new features that really speed up programming time. Are you using the new Advanced Multiaxis toolpaths yet? They are just awesome once you figure them out.

 

Thanks,

[Hitachi]

Colin,

I have found your information usefull on this subject, thanks for the info.

 

How is it going up there at Boeing? We work in the semiconductor field down here, very slow right now.

 

Elco1971

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