Surfacing vs. Modeling

[bamavick]

I know that a model is actually surfaces with a water tight skin on it but does anybody see any advantages of programming a part as surfaces and not creating a actual working model if you can get the job done faster as surfaces.

 

We do a lot of cavities with variable land and variable draft tapering up from the bottom of the land. This becomes a nightmare on some complex shapes to model. Just trying to get some idea on which direction to take.

 

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

[djstedman]

I guess it probably depends what software you are using to model / surface with..

 

That said.. using Mastercam, most everything I have had to make its been far easier to make solid models than to make surfaces .. and really there hasn't been much I couldn't model in Mastercam however I have to admit on a few projects it was easier to get there using Solidworks to do the model and then importing it.

 

Since I don't know exactly what your making or how your making the solids perhaps i'm missing something but sounds like if you have to go to all the effort of making a bunch of surfaces which in itself isn't easy.. making the solid model really doesn't seem like it would be all that much more difficult.

 

As for the machining .. IMO since I believe most of the HSM toolpaths are made for using with solid models .. its worth the effort to make a solid.. if your roughing mold cavities its gonna be hard as hell to find a better faster way to rough them out than some of the core roughing paths.. (then again maybe they work with surfaces too i'm honestly not 100 percent sure .. but I thought they were basically for use on solids)

[bamavick]

Right now we are using MasterCam to model in. We are looking at going to Solidworks with the MasterCam add on. I don't actually do the toolpaths for the part I mentioned above but I am pretty sure they are creating models, turning them into surfaces and putting the standard old style toolpaths on them.

 

That was what I was looking for in that if we have the model we need to be doing HSM toolpaths. We are using X5, does the feature based machining work well cutting H-13 steel?

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

You can trim a solid to a surface; that might help some of the tricky situations.

[Rstewart]

We are using X5, does the feature based machining work well cutting H-13 steel?

 

 

:rofl:

 

Seriously tho, With tons of work and planning Maybe...

[Oscar R.]

Yes, you can use high speed toolpaths with surfaces. You just have to be extra mindful of cavities and boundaries so as not to gouge your part.

I usually don't bother trimming the solid because you can use the solid selection tool for most of the toolpaths with little or no issues. If there are faces or complex shapes that I want to isolate them maybe yes.

 

I work in MasterCam and SolidWorks (solids, surfaces, wireframe) and for me it's usually easier/faster to make complex shapes in solids. Especially something that has many extrusion or lots of faces that would take along time to create individually.

For most surfaces you still have to create wire geometry anyway. Usually the amount of geometry that it takes to design a solid model is a lot less than what it would take to design a surface model.

Once you have your solid model you have the best of both worlds, because trimming the individual faces is a snap in MC, if that's what you need.

[Oscar R.]

We are using X5, does the feature based machining work well cutting H-13 steel?

 

Most programmers who know, don't use FBM and there's a good reason for that. Nuff said.