Toolpath surface selection issues

[SledGeek]

Any one else having X5 issues with this? I'm not even sure what exactly is happening except it seems Mastercam isn't recognizing which surface or solid face is which. It doesn't consistently show what's a drive and what's a check. When I click show on either,it will show a variation of both or either, but never the actual. Due to my crs condition it tends to be extremely time consuming trying to remember if I get pulled away in the middle of picking......or even if i don't get pulled away

I can pick my surfaces or faces then click on check button and it shows drive surfaces. Or, if I pick my surfaces, exit the window then reopen it, it shows my drive surfaces in the check area.

 

Any thoughts or fixes? Never had this happen until X5......

[Guyinthedesert]

Yes, I have the same problem.

[Newbeeee™]

Haha - Yep I thought it was just me

Just the other day going back to a previously programmed part to update and selecting check surfaces, and the whole model highlights. This is the norm and is very frustrating cus the old mind isn't what it errr used to errr... be!

[Justin Beebe at Folsom Tool]

I'm having similar issues.

[Scott Lundin Shopware Inc.]

I have noticed it also.

[NOTW Programmer]

Just experienced this yesterday while editing the drive surface on a coupling. When trying to change it after clicking the white arrow the whole model showed up yellow instead of the rib I had originally selected. Wierd !

[MotorCityMinion]

Guys, this isn't a X5 issue as it occurs in X2 as well. I now color mask my surfaces to assist in selecting drive and check faces when I have to use them.

 

"This is the norm and is very frustrating cus the old mind isn't what it errr used to errr... be!"

 

Well put. Drove me nuts for a while. I just had to get used to, and ignore, the values for drive and check surfaces changing when looking at or changing tool path parameters. Call it a non critical bug. Remembering which surfaces were selected when dozens of individual faces are present gets old fast. I also make a note of the colors selected in an operation in the comment section. I do the same with chain , boundary and trim geometry when things start to get busy, also noting the levels that those entities reside on.

 

Side note. I use check surfaces sparingly, usually when a boundary doesn't give the results I'm looking for or isn't an option. I found that they can corrupt the fist few layers in the tool path. I also only use surfaces when the solid is so large that it adds substantial calc time.

[Festus]

i completely quit using solid selection when toolpathing. i always create a surface from the solid and then use those surfaces for toolpathing. my problems seemed to go away.

[Teh Bear without Brains kinda idiot]

I found out that I have this kind of issues only if I drag and drop geo from toolpath to another

 

HTH

[Chris Rizzo]

Why can someone buy a xbox game for 25$ that has hyper-realistic amazing graphics, while for the past 5 years we can't get a solid face displayed correctly! IMHO someone needs to man-up and roll some heads in the graphics dept back at cnc. Hell hire a few game designers.

[SledGeek]

mmmmmmmmmmm.....Never had it happen in X2,3,or 4. Just lucky I guess Yeah, there's multiple ways around it; Colors,levels,surface creation. We jus got 5 hooked up so I'm noticing a few things....finally found something on it after a few more searches. Basically the same work arounds we're talking about. As usual, it's frustrating until you figure it out The part that's frustrating is when u pick ur drives , walk away, come back to refresh your memory and there are zero drives and 153 checks.....

[E3CADCAM]

+1 Chris

[Dtm]

I have the same problem. Very frustrating. Also, some multiaxis toolpaths won't even let you remove the selected drive surfaces. I have to delete the toolpath and start over. It would be nice if they could fix all of the bugs before they add new stuff.

[Tyler Robertson]

the game design argument, I've used it myself

 

 

- If you got paid to make graphics engines for games would you really want to stop that and work for a cad/CNC software company?

- The size of the market for games is far bigger than the market for CAM software. The video game industry has grown bigger than the movie industry - games can be sold for far less because it's not a 'specialist' industry.

- Sometimes there's more data associated with a model in CAD because its expected to be interacted with in different ways than in a game where it is just looked at, shot at or run into.

- Games don't need to work in the 'real world' so some processing may not be done to extreme mathematical precision, making it cleaner

- games are often built from the ground up - whereas I could see CAD/CAM companies being fearful about abandoning engines that 'work', given the repercussions in industry

 

 

on the flip side:

 

- there are graphics engines out there built by companies who do nothing but develop cad graphics kernels (I don't know the specifics of what goes into implementing this of course).

- graphics cards and cpus are only getting better, and solid models more complicated - it stands to reason the graphics in mastercam will have to keep pace, especially in Windows 7 and 64-bit systems.