Unable to get drill center points for holes cut in pipe.

[Mekslayer]

So I have a pipe part, made in solidworks, that has holes cut in it. In Mastercam I can see the holes, and I can create all the surfaces from the solids. I can also create the arcs from the surfaces. But the problem I seem to be having is being able to cut the holes. Mastercam does not seem to bring in the centerpoint for holes cut in the pipe.. perhaps because the pipe is not a flat surface?

 

Normally I select the hole positions from these centerpoints, but apparently since the surface is not flat, its a pipe, the hole center point does not show up. So what I need to have is a drill centerpoint to show up. How can I turn these on?

 

So I've tried to do a "masc on arc" these holes, but again, the surface is a surface of a pipe, and this seems to confuse mastercam. Anyone have ideas on how to do solve this problem?

[Mekslayer]

So I have a pipe part, made in solidworks, that has holes cut in it. In Mastercam I can see the holes, and I can create all the surfaces from the solids. I can also create the arcs from the surfaces. But the problem I seem to be having is being able to cut the holes. Mastercam does not seem to bring in the centerpoint for holes cut in the pipe.. perhaps because the pipe is not a flat surface?

 

Normally I select the hole positions from these centerpoints, but apparently since the surface is not flat, its a pipe, the hole center point does not show up. So what I need to have is a drill centerpoint to show up. How can I turn these on?

 

So I've tried to do a "masc on arc" these holes, but again, the surface is a surface of a pipe, and this seems to confuse mastercam. Anyone have ideas on how to do solve this problem?

 

Ok so it seems there was no solution, so I made the pipe part into a rectangle and then mastercam was able to identify drill locations. Kind of a dumb way to have to locate drill hopes, but I guess that's the way it goes.

[kh012]

the problem was probably that the edges of the holes were splines not arcs , curved surface.

the easist solution is to download the free "verisurf" addon from this site.

it will allow you to define a hole axis and creat arcs and points on that axis.

then you can use them to drive your tools

 

HTH Ken,

[Tim Johnson]

You can also project the hole edge splines, simplify the splines to arcs and join them together (if needed). The Verisurf addon is much less work though.

[RaiderX]

verisurf hole axis should work for this

[Mic6]

verisurf hole axis should work for this

 

^^^That, or in X7, under the solids menu :Hole Axis"

[Chipmakr]

Old school way was to 1) create surface from solid using the cylinder of the hole use wish to drill. 2) untrim that surface, 3) create arcs on each end of that clean cylinder, 4) create line that starts at one arc center and ends at the other arc center. Now you can create WCS. Now verisurf makes it a I click affair.

[BrianP.]

No need to create surfaces. Create curves right on the solid. Xform project to zero or whatever z depth you want. Simplify all splines. Done about 20 seconds.