Help improve Mastercam toolpaths

[Rotary Ninja]

One thing I find myself doing a lot is drawing my own toolpath and projecting it onto a surface. I can get what I want that way. I wish there was a way to draw one line, offset it like .010" and connect every other end with either a line or a loop so all the offset lines form one chain. Or is there already a way to do this that I am unaware of?

[ajmer]

do a facing toolpath with 0.01 stepover, save the backplot as geometry and you have what you want

[gcode]

offset it like .010" and connect every other end with either a line or a loop so all the offset lines form one chain

sometimes you can get away with not connecting the lines

in the chaining menu, window them with the ziz zag for open chains selected

in gap setting, set the gap bigger than the distance between your line and check "follow surface"

this can save a ton of time if you don't have to connect all your project curves

[Rotary Ninja]

do a facing toolpath with 0.01 stepover, save the backplot as geometry and you have what you want

 

I would just use a parallel toolpath for that. I am talking about curved geometry.

[Rotary Ninja]

sometimes you can get away with not connectiong the lines

in the chaing menu, window them with the ziz zag for open chains selected

in gap setting, set the gap bigger than the distance between your line and check "follow surface"

this can save a ton of time if you don't have to connect all your project curves

 

I'll try that next time. Thanks for the tip.

[Machineguy]

Finish developing the lathe side. You have been just picking at it for years.

[Tony35]

done

[mayday]

Isn't this is what the customer feed back program is for?

I thought you received imput on what programmers where using for tooaths.

if not, what is it for

[Mastercam User Experience]

Isn't this is what the customer feed back program is for?

I thought you received imput on what programmers where using for tooaths.

if not, what is it for

 

Wes, yes, the customer feedback program gives us the number of times a function has been called, but that is really only half of the battle. We use feedback from surveys such as this to validate the usefulness and usability of a function, that way we aren't spinning our wheels working on something that doesn't need the attention. Surveys like this also give us the opportunity to get open ended feedback on how customers are using the functions, which is a big plus for us.

[mayday]

I brought up some of the issues at the focus group I attended last fall about neglecting existing tool paths and trying to replace them with all the new high speed paths. I think there was some agreement that some of those paths are irreplaceable. most importantly are the surface rough and finish tool paths.

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

Wireframe toolpaths almost always produce cleaner, smoother, shorter code than the equivalent surface toolpath. They can also save you a bunch of modelling time when you need to deviate from your model. I don't use them often, but when I do I am very grateful for them.