STL'S for Verify.

[Ron Branch @ Verisurf]

SO I have a part I am programming that has a surface model of the forging. Could not get a solid to make out of it. So I then made an STL and ended up with over 175k worth of faces. File is only 5mb but everytime I got to Verify a toolpath it take 3 minutes to load up. What kind of performance hits are you seeing when using STL'S. I have used solids for so many years and it is so quick I guess I got spoiled.

 

Thanks for any responses.

[Guest SAIPEM]

Verify is making a tessellation (STL) even if you use a Solid.

The benefit of using a solid is that you are assured of a "water tight" tessellation required by the MachineWorks Verification engine that MC uses.

 

If you are creating STL files directly, make sure you are creating Binary versions.

The files size will be much smaller than the ASCII version and will load much quicker.

 

If you'll place the surface model on the FTP site, I'll grab it and close it as a solid for you.

[Ron Branch @ 5th Axis]

ITAR part so not allowed to share. Thanks for the offer. I always use binary when messing with STL's thanks for the tip though.

[Steve Hattori]

Ron, have you tried making surfaces from the solid, then reversing it to get a new solid? SOmetimes, that works for me....I have the same problem with verify- its so slow as to be nearly useless with any complicated part. I sometimes will make a toolpath as if I were roughing from a cube, verify that and save the result as an stl to use for verifying the actual toolpath. Anything to help it go faster.....

[gcode]

Changing the STL and Tool resolution can be a big help.. on really big parts I'll run it as high as .008

[Ron Branch @ Verisurf]

I tired .01 and I got the fatal error for simulation. Works fine if I keep it at .001 if I try turning it up to .002 same error. Oh well such is the wonderful world of Mastercam and STL files.

 

Steve the forging was sent to me as surfaces and I could not get Mastercam to turn it into a solid.

 

Thanks for the suggestions guys.