flats

[Marty A]

hello everyone. i have written before and have had good luck with your responses. i am still really raw at this stuff only 2 months now. i don't even have any answers to anyones questions thats how dumb this guy is. anyway i have another question to ask.i have been getting geometry with little flats instead of a smooth line for my arcs.i have been playing with this but they still come out as little flats of the mill. if anyone has the time to give me a han it will be greatly appreciated to know end. one day i hope to have a response to some questions, but you guys and gals are way over my head. ok i know this is long so i will say thanks and be gone. everyone have a good or night. motty

[Zero]

What version are you running? My first thought would be either the filter or the geometry itself. Make sure your filter is set to at least twice what your cut tolerance is. 95% of the time my cut tolerance is .00017 and my filter is set to .00033 for a total tolerance of .0005. sometimes I'll double those for a total tolerance of .001.

Also, is your geometry arcs or splines, or is it really a bunch of small lines. If so, you might try rebuilding it.

 

[ 01-16-2003, 08:48 AM: Message edited by: Zero ]

[Jeremy Grigsby Excelsior Marking]

If geometry was a bunch of smal lines, whats the easiest was to change it into arcs? Actually #106 copius data from an iges is what they are, and convert to arcs doesn't work.

[Zero]

Convert to arcs only works on splines I believe, and after you pick the spline(s) that you want to convert there is a tolerance option on the menu that you can play with. Personaly, I usualy rebuild the spline(s) or series of many small lines with Create/Arc/3 Points and "trace" over the offending geometry.

[Marty A]

im useing version 8.1.1 now.

[Jeremy Grigsby Excelsior Marking]

I trace over them too but when you are working with an iges font, and have about 4 or 500 arcs to create, then its very tedious.

[Zero]

Yeah that sounds like fun If you do this alot, I would try converting the file to something that the Raster to Vector converter add-on will read. Then you could try to cut down on the amount of lines by playing with the tolerances there. This is just a suggestion as I do not have this add-on myself. You might be able to talk to your dealer and get a free trial or something.

[Fig sign]

Do you use filtering ?

If filtering not turned on ,you will have just this result -> your arcs will be little lines

 

And what is your machine?

[Marty A]

ok the files i get are ug files which i clean and turn it into an igs file. the machines are an okuma and okk.i tried create, spline,curves, done.no good. i tried create arc, tangent 3 points but the arc didn't hit all the tips of the flats.

[gstephens]

Run a contour toolpath on the chain of lines (doesn't matter what size tool) with the compensation off. Turn on the filter and give it a tolerance you can live with. Backplot the path and save the geometry. The arcs aren't tangent, but you usually end up with decent geometry to deal with.

[mark l]

I ran into this problem just today and I tried with filter on and with filter off, no change I tried changing my filter tolerance, still nothing. What fixed it was I changed to Roll cutter around corners-None, then turned my filter on, worked GREAT, although I am running V9.0, don't really know if this will help you.

[Marty A]

i want to thank you guys for your help. i will try these to see what works. again thanks. i will let you know what happens.

[P_Scott]

motty,

 

Try exporting a Parasolid file (.X_T) from UG and convert it in Mcam using the Parasolid converter. You may have to Update the Parasolid converter in V8.1.1 to read V13 Parasolid files. There's a patch for it available here Patch Archives - look for "ReadPS.zip" This format is much cleaner than IGES ("I Guess") and you will no longer have to deal with the "flats" in your geometry. HTH