Mastercam Learning Group

[Rotary Ninja]

That is what we were thinking so far. This first one was just a test of the emergency broadcast system. It was only a test. Had it been an actual part to program you would receive further instructions to have it turned in on a certain date, finished or not

[Rotary Ninja]

Oh and the last one done is a rotten egg!

[Jayson Kramer]

Kevin GET TO WORK.. lol

[Rotary Ninja]

What? My finger is on the feed hold button!

 

Either that or I am waiting on this slow @## pc to generate a toolpath lol.

[MotorCityMinion]

"Oh and the last one done is a rotten egg!"

 

I smell something.

[Rotary Ninja]

Who all is still programming this? So far it looks like:

 

BOATDUDEGUY

SledGeek

uncle_dolan

Hockey Guy™

drafting3

Jay

Mick

Radical1

TK-32™

MotorCityMinion

[MotorCityMinion]

I'm almost done with the first op, just haven't had the time to finish it. I'll probably post it after you guys have moved on to part # 3.

[RayD]

I would say 1 project every 2 weeks.... I have enough programming on my schedule as it is...

[Rotary Ninja]

That's funny Ray. You programmed yours in what... 2 minutes? I was still on OP-1 when you made your post to say you were done. And I modeled the part!

 

I think one a week would be fine. That is of course unless we get into some more complex stuff. We could just play it by ear though and decide with each model.

[MotorCityMinion]

Done. Uploaded to the Forum/Jays FTP.

[Rotary Ninja]

Got it done a little faster than you thought huh. Your model somehow lost a rad on the edge of that gusset though. Kinda weird.

 

You got a flowline to work on the top of the pocket using solid geometry. Mine kept jumping all over the place so I created a surface to tame it down. So you inspired me and I just went back and picked the geometry starting where it appears you started picking yours and it works just fine using the solid on mine. Very weird. I also just learned that Mastercam starts a flowline toolpath at the first piece of geometry you pick. I never noticed that before now.

 

Very nice programming BTW.

[drafting3]

i still need to get the educational version of Mcam.

 

been swamped this week with finals, and dealing with lovely personal drama...

 

I'll be cleared up after this weekend.

[Radical1]

I've finally started to mess with the project but won't have much time to really get at it till next week, I will send it along as soon as I can.

[MotorCityMinion]

"Very nice programming BTW. "

 

TY. I started a new Job this week and it turned into a bust. I needed to program that to get my mind off of things. This forum can be an excellent diversion at times. I can see by your response that the Mastercam Learning group is going to be beneficial to everybody who participates. This was an excellent idea on your behalf.

 

Heh, I was wondering why that edge was sharp. I actually though it may have been intentional. Not to worry as this reflects real world conditions when opening models. Strange though as we're both using the same software. Looking at the history tree, it seems like you created the fillets with no special order in mind, that is to say no left to right, top 1st, or by size. Nothing needs a regen in the tree at my end.

 

As for the flowline, you are correct in choosing a surface instead of a solid. Flowline can be very finicky at times and I will resort to using a surface just to see what pops. I control flowline by using several different tactics and as to why this works, some other extremely knowledgeable guy (Jay, need your help) may be able to elaborate on this.

 

1st I Change the step over. Lets say from .004 to .0038, then a progressive reduction or increase and check the results.

 

2nd. Change the tolerance. Believe it or not I've found that a change of .0001 can help in certain situations. Changing the step over and tolerance seem to work in harmony.

 

Use Depth limits. I actually told it to go deeper than the programed face + the tool rad in one of those toolpaths and it worked as opposed to not using depth limits. The tool stays down. Play with the upper and lower limits and your results will change. Save the backplot as geometry then analyze the results after the 1st try. You'll get a good idea of where the range in the depth limits need to be in order to stop the hop.

 

Shut off check flowline motion for gouge. Backplot and verify work excellent and is sufficient in most cases.

 

Gap settings. I almost never use line length extension here. Too many issues with that. On that same page in the last flowline op, 2nd op, I have check retract motion for gouge turned off as well.

 

Pay close attention to the direction settings. You can get burned here real easy.

 

All of this may seem a bit anal at first, and overkill for an idler bracket but when the part has to look good, the results of all this screwing around can really pay off. Good tools to have in your box.

 

Blend and flowline are my favorite 3 axis motion tool paths.

[Rotary Ninja]

"Very nice programming BTW. "

 

TY. I started a new Job this week and it turned into a bust. I needed to program that to get my mind off of things. This forum can be an excellent diversion at times. I can see by your response that the Mastercam Learning group is going to be beneficial to everybody who participates. This was an excellent idea on your behalf.

 

Thanks. I have been thinking about suggesting this since joining here. There are a lot of guys in this forum that I would absolutely love to see some of their work and I am really really hoping a few of them feel like showing us some of their stuff.

 

Heh, I was wondering why that edge was sharp. I actually though it may have been intentional. Not to worry as this reflects real world conditions when opening models. Strange though as we're both using the same software. Looking at the history tree, it seems like you created the fillets with no special order in mind, that is to say no left to right, top 1st, or by size. Nothing needs a regen in the tree at my end.

 

I am sorta new to solid work. Maybe a little over a month or so since I really started playing around with them. So it is likely something I did. Not seeing any good examples of solid builds I am going at this on my own.

 

As for the flowline, you are correct in choosing a surface instead of a solid. Flowline can be very finicky at times and I will resort to using a surface just to see what pops. I control flowline by using several different tactics and as to why this works, some other extremely knowledgeable guy (Jay, need your help) may be able to elaborate on this.

 

I have resorted to the same tricks to get a toolpath to see things my way. Moving a containment boundary a thou or so tends to work wonders sometimes as well. With my program here I tried a few things with no results so it was just easier to create a surface and it worked the first time through. So I took the easy way out

 

Blend and flowline are my favorite 3 axis motion tool paths.

 

I try to pick my toolpath based on the geometry and flow. There are times when you simply cannot beat a plain old parallel path. But I see by your program the blend toolpath can be sort of dynamic and follow geometry other than parallel lines. I did not know blend worked like that. I will be using it more.

[MotorCityMinion]

On that part, the chains that drove the tool path were actually offset wider to blend adjacent faces into the feature. They could have easily been a set of parallel lines but that would have been no fun and less of an example. With the chains I used, the finish on the part would look like it flows around the feature as opposed to parallel lines that would look blocky. If this billet part were going on a car or bike and was visible, which would you choose? My usual preference is to cut one way, climb. That would have required an additional tool path and I was already getting quite a few tool paths in the file.

 

SF Blend works as a projection tool path. The two chains required can be a circle and a point, arc and a point, a line and a point, line and a arc, two lines. Splines are welcome as well. Any combination of entities will work. It will mimic parallel, radial, spiral, contour in a fashion where those tool paths may be less than desirable.

 

On the FTP. / Mastercam_forum/Training_files/Blend_Examples.zip

 

"I am sorta new to solid work. Maybe a little over a month or so since I really started playing around with them. So it is likely something I did. Not seeing any good examples of solid builds I am going at this on my own."

 

Not to worry as nothing appeared incorrect. Your work was fine. Not being symmetrical on that feature merely added a different approach. I've seen a lot of people that I've considered to be clever never understand the need for a solid or get the approach at all. I personally would start with a solid and let MC create the fillets as opposed to creating the geometry to make the surfaces individually. You have more control if something needs to be changed as well. Sooner or later a surface will need to be made. You also get the added bonus of using the solid in verify.

[Rotary Ninja]

Thanks. Will check that blend example out.

[gaspar pareds]

Great Idea, i don't mind throwing down some toolpaths, but I don't think i'll have time to be part of the group. you could add me to the list and I can stop in from time to time

un tisp para aprender de mastercamx5 lo tengo pero no lo se usar

[Rotary Ninja]

Hmm. Even Google Translate doesn't know what that says.

[BOATDUDEGUY]

something like tips for learning mcam x5

he has it but cant use it

 

anyways its clear now by downloading and opening rotarys rays and the model that my x6 hle is not the one you guys are using

what should i do

[Rotary Ninja]

Are you getting an empty file? What version of HLE do you have?

[Rotary Ninja]

Mine is 15.0.4.4

[BOATDUDEGUY]

15.0.4.4 ya same as mine

[Rotary Ninja]

Ok. BOATDUDEGUY had the same problem others have ran into, including myself. There is something not working correctly with the Home Learning Edition and opening files by double-clicking the files. Mastercam will open but not the file when you do this. You have to open Mastercam then open the file from within Mastercam using the file menu File>>>Open.

[MotorCityMinion]

This is strange and may be the source of the missing fillet. I tried opening the first file you uploaded awhile back by selecting it from Wndows, not the MC hle and nothing happened, empty file. I then opened it from the hle (15.0.4.4), while it was already open. I also used the Solid, find features option. Somewhere in between these steps the fillet got lost. I open up Rotary and Rays files and the fillet was there.

 

Perhaps uploading a part model with the prefix Master Idler Bracket, Master Boat Anchor, Master Camshaft, and so on, and then right protecting that file would diffuse potential errors and confusion.