Who draw their parts in MasterCam

[ostie01]

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"MASTERCAD , I like the idea

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[Greg Williams]

Why not just use the Mastercam 4 solidworks add-in?

[Müřlıń®]

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Mastercam could capitalize on more of the market if it had a better modeling kernal

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Ya, but that would be years in the making....

 

I think the easier way to go is the way they are headed by using the best of two tools.

 

Solidworks/Mastercam is a powerful combination that is hard to beat. the same goes for Proe/Mastercam.

 

Just the other night, one of my customers came to me with a problem he was having on a part he modeled with Mastercam.

 

I can't show you the part because I am not sure if the DOD would allow it, but it was a rectangular ring that held a piece of lexan and bolted to the wing of an aircraft.

 

He had used a Faro arm to gather the construction points and was about 80% done but could not finish up because he was building the entire thing in solids.

 

The part had an angled lip around the inside of the containment ring that held the piece of lexan and there were compound corner radii as the part bolted to the airfoil of the wing.

 

Since he was using 9 he did not have all the surfacing tools. I was able to use sweep to build the edge boundaries, then net surface to create the corners.

 

It worked great except for one thing.

 

I could not trim the solid body to the surfaces I had constructed.

 

I was able to trim the corners when I converted the model to surfaces, but the thing would not solidify.

 

I spent many hrs persuing every angle I could think of.

 

Finally, I exported the surface in IGES and brought them into Proe and they cut the body just fine.

 

I don't know why so many people have problems with IGES, it works great for me.

 

The model was exported from Proe into a STEP and Mastercam had no problem at all reading thast file.

 

So I think the bestthing CNC could do to improve the modeling aspects of Mastercam would actually be a suface joining tool.

 

I wonder if that would be possible with the existing kernel?

 

After thought...perhaps also a constraint function for wire creation, so tangent wire geometry could be more easily constructed.

[Columbo™]

We use mastercam to draw parts when the models are NOT given to us......other than that we bring them in as either Step, CAtia or Pro-e files.

[LaszloK]

More work on the solids end is needed for complex faces. Specifically, lofted features. MC has very limited options for the transitions between the cross sections when more than jus end sections are specified. Also, although MC machining does not like assemblies, the design end will allow multiple solids. I do a full mold design with all the plates and components in one MC file. I then "save some" on the components that get passed on to CAM programmer. No modeling issues and no importing issues.

[MotorCityMinion]

I agree, lofting in MC needs work (IMO). While we're dreaming...

 

On the fly plane creation by selecting a face on the model. Someone else mentioned this.

 

Solid/Surface extrude being able to extrude a 3d, non-planer chain and with draft angle capabilities.

 

Xform offset contour being able to keep the same number of entities in the new contour, synced with the original contour.

 

Better trimming/extend features.

 

And J.B's. favorite, better highlighting/visibility of the chaining selection and surface selection tools.

[Leigh @ Kodiak]

HOOPS!

 

Seriously though, the graphics could use a bit of an update.

[Guest]

"Seriously though, the graphics could use a bit of an update."

 

Understatement of the year.

 

Why not use Teksoft3D HOOPS?

 

Because Jon Banquer was the first to suggest it be used in Mastercam?

 

Everyone here knows Jon Banquer could never be right.

 

LOL

[Guest]

User interface for Mastercam Solids should be completely redone so it works like the user interface for the new Dynamic Planes works except for the annoying dated dialog boxes.

 

Old graphics engine should be torn out and replaced.

 

Mastercam X3 and X4 allows direct import of SpaceClaim files. Thank you!

 

SpaceClaim's user interface holds all the answers for how Mastercam Solids should work. So does Solid Edge with ST.

[gcode]

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On the fly plane creation by selecting a face on the model

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whats wrong with

"Planes by solid face" ??

[[email protected]]

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"Planes by solid face" ??

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That and "Hole Axis" addon from Verisurf rock!!

[jrykrl]

I draw in MC exclusively. I don't know how to use solidworks, except to translate it to a format I can pull into MC.

When I do use solidworks, I find that alt f1 doesnt work!!!

Jer

[Guest]

"When I do use solidworks, I find that alt f1 doesnt work!!!"

 

Right click on any toolbar / Pick "Customize" (near the bottom) / Keyboard Tab / In the "Search for" field type in "Fit" / Click in the "Shortcut(s)" field / Press Alt+F1 at the same time. You will see Alt+F1 appear in the "Shortcut" field / Press the OK button.

 

Now when you press Alt+F1 SolidWorks Zooms To Fit just like Mastercam.

[Guest]

Currently when I need to do something like place a drill point relative to a piece of geometry in Mastercam I do the following:

 

I choose, Point, I choose Relative, I click on the geometry I wish to draw my point relative to and then I type in the X and Y values separated by a comma where I want my point to appear in the Ribbon bar.

 

I think the following feature found in a CAD program I have begun to use more and more saves me time because my eyes stay in the same place that I wish to create geometry. I also find the following feature to be a much more natural approach for me.

 

To do the same thing in this CAD system I do the following:

 

I move my mouse over the geometry I wish to create geometry relative to, I hold down the Shift Key, a marker appears showing the relative geometry selection I made and now as I move the mouse X and Y dimension boxes and leaders that stretch appear showing how far I am moving the mouse relative to the geometry I held the Shift Key over. If I wish I can press the Space Bar at any time and enter exact dimensions in the X and Y dimension boxes that appeared when I held down the Shift Key. I can toggle between these X and Y dimension boxes by hitting tab. I find this to be a lot faster way to sketch / draw.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

The biggest problems I have with IGES are..... it does not bring a solid body into Mastercam. STEP, Native CAD, SolidWorks, UG, CATIA, Inventor, etc, ALL support solid bodies. 99.9999999999% of the work I see is a solid body, and going back to the originating CAD System; tolerances matching up with the importing tolerances causing surface untrims, and other issues. Generally speaking when you import a solid model, you don't have a surface to untrim.

 

JM2C

[Müřlıń®]

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99.9999999999% of the work I see is a solid body

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I bet surfaces were used to create a large portion of those solids if they have draft and compound curves in them

[Storkman]

I draw it all. If it wasn't for modeling I'd get bored. Toolpathing is boring.

[Hitachi]

Depends on how complicated the part is, for basic stuff I use Mastercam for design as I do not have a solids key. The majority of my files come in a Solidworks format, I have been using Autocad for the last 15 years but am now leaning towards Solidworks

 

Elco1971

MX4 MIll L3 Lathe L1 5 axis

Solidworks 2007 SP3.1