Faceting In solids

[Goosehnter]

We are often required to machine solids originating from our engineering Department. We are constantly having issues with convex or concave portions of a solid coming into Mastercam being faceted. The radius is actually a series of flats. So consequently, when tool paths are put on the solid, the resulting surface of the machined part is a series of flats which represents a very unsatisfactory finish.

 

I have tried a number of things, such as importing the solid in a number of different formats. Nothing seems to make any difference. The only thing I have found that works is creating edge curves on a different level, breaking them into 5000 pieces, and creating surfaces to machine. That’s the only way I have found around it, and certainly is not keeping the integrity of the solid model that engineering wants the machined part to represent.

 

So, anyone ever run into this problem and figure out an easy solution?

 

I appreciate the help!

[taperlength]

Use toolpath filter and adjust the tolerance to create curved toolpaths.

[Jeremy Herron@DBS Solutions™]

I have found that most of the time this problem comes from thier cad package export tolerance and mastercam import tolerance. What CAD package do they use? Have them try and loosen the tolerance on their exported solid and see if helps at all.

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

What CAD are they using, and what format are they outputting? Sounds to me like the problem is on that end. STL files will always have facets, they're a triangle mesh model. Ask if they can output a STEP or IGES file.

[Goosehnter]

Most of them are using Solid works, But a few are using Solid Edge. I will see if they can loosen the tolerance..

[John@WMM]

A few years back I had some issues with cad files from Solidworks and it was caused by a setting in Solidworks called "draft quality" HLR/HLV Our engineering department had this set at low quality in Solidworks to save server space. Because of this I was getting low quality files when I would inport...

[bogusmill]

Iv'e had this same problem for years. We import from Catia mostly and convert to .stp. The facets occur in opposite quadrants I haven't yet found a way to get the facets out.

[Jeremy Herron@DBS Solutions™]

If it cost you a lot of time, invest in the catia translator. It will fix it.

[uncle_dolan]

If you are working from 2d geometry you can use the edit>simplify function to fix up splines, or the break many pieces will work in most other situations