what is the sdk function for creating extruded surface?

[jz_5_3]

I tried to seach from chook help file but cannot find anything useful. thanks for your help.

[bryan314]

I found this in SolidsExtrude_CH.h: sld_new_extrude and sld_extrude_from_chain. The file has more info on the params.

 

Bryan

[arenner]

Thanks for the input bryan314. However, I think this will give you a solid (assuming sld means solid). So when you look at the input parameters for this, there are many, a lot of them dealing with what to do inside the surface bounds.

 

The Topic is asking about creating a surface extrude. With this function (see Menu->Create->Surface->Create Surface Extrude) you really only need 1)chain 2) axis of extrusion 3) amount of extrustion. So this should be somewhat easier to program in a chook if the API provides for it, which as the topic starter mentions, doesn't seem to be the case.

[bryan314]

Oops. Sorry, I did a quick search on extrude forgot it needed to be for a surf.

[Takashi Sato from Ai Solutions.]

my code.

code:

---

extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) int m_main (int not_used)

{

AFX_MANAGE_STATE(AfxGetStaticModuleState());

 

MC_BOOL succf;

DB_LIST_ENT_PTR e_ptr;

 

surf_type surf;

memset(&surf,0,sizeof(surf_type));

surf.s.type = TABCYL_SURF;

ent e;

memset(&e,0,sizeof(ent));

e.id=A_ID;

e.u.ar.r=50.;

e.u.ar.view=2;

e.u.ar.sa=0;

e.u.ar.sw=P5_PI;

vec_3d (50., 0.0, 0.0, e.u.ar.ep1);

vec_3d (0.0, 0.0, 50., e.u.ar.ep2);

store_ent (&e, &surf.u.tabcyl.pcurve, ALIVE_BIT, main_color, main_level, main_attrib, &succf);

vec_3d (0.0, 100.0, 0.0, surf.u.tabcyl.line);

surf.u.tabcyl.l_sin_ang=0;

memset(&e,0,sizeof(ent));

create_nurbsurf_from_surf(&surf, &e);

store_ent (&e, &e_ptr, ALIVE_BIT, main_color, main_level, main_attrib, &succf);

draw_ent(&e,e.color);

return MC_NOERROR;

}

---

but it's not hilighted by mouseover.. I dont know why??

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

Takashi,

Some things I noticed...

 

1) The arc center point is not defined and it must be. It is not calculated from the endpoints.

Define the Center point (in VIEW co-ordinates, not WORLD) and then you can just use

arc_ep_3d(&e.u.ar, e.u.ar.ep1, e.u.ar.ep2)

to generate the endpoints.

 

2) the 'surf' needs to be better defined. I would use...

 

surf.s.minu = 0.0; // since the arcs start t = 0

surf.s.minv = 1.0; // since the arcs end t = 0

surf.s.minv = 0.0;

surf.s.maxv = 1.0;

surf.u.tabcyl.l_sin_ang = 0.0;

surf.s.f.closed_u = FALSE;

surf.s.f.closed_v = FALSE; // TRUE if the arc is 360 degrees

surf.s.f.along = FALSE;

surf.s.f.upu = TRUE;

surf.s.f.upv = TRUE;

surf.s.f.ready = TRUE;

surf.s.f.ready = TRUE;

surf.s.type = TABCYL_SURF; // this is critical - telling Mastercam what the surface type is.

[arenner]

Pete, I'm kind of curious why the SDK doesn't have the function to create a surface. I was under the impression that anything in the Mastercam environment could be accessed through the SDK functions. Maybe the "Create Surface Extrude" function in Mastercam is linking to something like Takashi and you are coding yourselves? How does the SDK work? I thought an SDK just allowed access to the code used to develop the software? I'm not computer engineer, so I'm sure I'm missing a fundamental element of SDKs.

[Takashi Sato from Ai Solutions.]

Thanks Pete,

that cleared vague things in my head.

 

Alex,

I'm coding by myself anyway,

in the sdk only some low-level functions are exposed, CArc,MCSurface.. claases are not avalable for chookers.

So we have to make our own wrapper class library for low-level functions in the sdk for now..

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

-----

"...I thought an SDK just allowed access to the code used to develop the software? ..."

-----

 

It's a little more complicated than that. We've always felt that the idea of a C-hook is to ADD functionality, not duplicate it, so not everything needs to be exposed. There are lots of other reasons why things don't make it in to the SDK. For one thing, not that our documentation is the greatest, but there's soooo much code here that it'd be almost impossible to document it all. Also, we don't expose everything since we could end up competing with ourselves if say, someone starting maketing a C-Hook with Level 3 functionality (surface machining) and sold it on top of our Level 1 product.

[arenner]

That all makes sense thanks for the info.

 

Thanks for ideas about

 

create_nurbsurf_from_surf

 

and

 

TABCYL_SURF

 

Based on the required inputs to that function and the surface type, I think this is the easiest and best (for this application) to replicate the Create->Surface->Create Surface Extrude... routine.

 

It does seem backwards to me to be using the create nurbs surface function for create a very simple surface (since nurbs are capable of creating the most complicated of surfaces).