Part Orientation

[Leehound]

I have been using Mastercam for several years. I am starting to read this forum on a regular basis, and I see that there are a lot of sharp people here. So maybe one of you can help me out.

 

A customer sent me a solids file that I brought into mastercam with no problems. The problem is that when the part is viewed in the top, side or front views it is not flat or parallel to any plane single plane. The part is skewed at a compound angle. Is there an easy way in mastercam to pick a flat face and orientate it so that face is flat in the top plane.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Scott Leland

SJC Tool & Engineering

[Rekd™]

Open the WCS manager, right click in the window at top, click CREATE, then SELECT MENU, then ENTITY, select the solid face and you're off! Don't forget when you create a new WCS, you need to re-click on it to make it "active" (displays a W in the right hand column.

 

HTH

 

'Rekd

[mayday]

+1 to Rekd

 

you may also have to rotate the new wcs to line up to any 2d lines we want to

[Harryman]

This is a must read.

 

http://www.mastercam.com/Support/downloads...MgrTutorial.zip

 

[Leehound]

I really feel embarressed. I have been using Mastercam for 4 plus years and I never used the WSC manager. What have I been missing! I really feel enlightened. What else don't I know about, probably a lot.

 

Thanks for the help! But now how do I permantly move the part from the new WSC:n9 to WSC:T, I want to merge this part with another and they probably should have the same WSC, right?

 

Thanks again

 

Scott Leland

SJC Tool & Engineering

[mayday]

xform translate between views

select entitys

source plane - ie no9

destination plane - top

[cadcam]

Leehound, you can use the WCS to set the part to.

Go thru the WCS download Harryman pointed to you.

 

this will help some of getting an understanding.

[Leehound]

Mayday,

 

That worked, but instead of selecting the N9 plane I was able to select a solid face.

 

Tahnks for all the help!

 

Scott Leland

SJC Tool & Engineering

[Chris Rizzo]

+1 to utilizing the WCS system. Once you get the hang of properly using it, it's a must have tool!

[Müřlıń®]

On parts that get machined on all 6 sides, WCS looks to be quite useful.

 

 

Murlin

[Rekd™]

cmd and murlin,

 

You're absolutely right. It's a great tool that takes some getting used to. I've been and am still cussing it out at least weekly, but refuse to give up.

 

The only problem I have any more is forgetting to set the right one when I create new toolpaths some times. Then I have to go thru each operation and do a 5 to 7 click ordeal to get everything hunky dory again.

 

'Rekd teh You can have my WCS when you pry it from my cold, dead HDD

[Müřlıń®]

quote:

---

You can have my WCS when you pry it from my cold, dead HDD

---

heh.......

 

 

Good one

 

Murlin

[mayday]

like Rekd said

 

cuss cuss but gotta love it

I have found that if I use names views like the old days I am more comfortable with it. I just import my standard work system i made for the horz. machines and click on cplane named view. I made an icon for the toolbar that is gview=cplane

so its quick to set the gview if i want to. the wcs needs some new spark plug wires for sure but it still runs on all 8