Lazy Iskander dirty tricks Inc .

[Fig sign]

quote:

---

In op2 the NCI is 3 times as long, this makes verify taking longer, but not the nc output longer, this will still make a good part, right.

 

---

Right !

One more thing to remember about filtering is It can not do the part more accurate !

But it can do the opposite.

Filtering is approximation of the toolpath to smaller amount of lines and arcs with some tolerance .

If you have 10 points in the tolerance range it can built 1 arc instead of 9 lines ,but this arc can undercut or not cut part enough in some places (in tolerance range !).

Always pay attention to the tolerances .

 

Iskander teh Good luck and welcome to the filtered world !

[Lars Christensen]

Thanks Iskander,

I just love learning new stuff.

 

I will attack Lazy 14 next

 

Lars

[Fig sign]

LIDT inc is proud to announce

 

********LAZY15 TRICK***********

 

THIS IS A BETTA FILE !

NOT FOR WORK!!!!

 

This is also reply to thread thread

 

The main idea of this trick - you can do wonders with a contour toolpath !!!!

Have a look on the file

 

ftp://mastercam:[email protected]/Ma...LAZY15BETTA.ZIP

 

/edit Sorry for the wrong link corrected) end edit/

 

HF

HTH

ITHH

 

[ 11-02-2003, 07:58 AM: Message edited by: plasttav ]

[Fig sign]

LIDT is proud to present :

******A DOZEN WAYS TO MILL UNDERCUT ****

 

Have a look at ftp://mastercam:[email protected]/Ma...lazy16betta.zip

 

More then 20 toolpathes !!!!!

This tricks are from simple dirty ways to mill undercut that are good for ver 8 and earlier till surface contour with undercut ,surface finish jobs with rotary ,flowline .faked toolpathes to produce toolpath only to save by backplot to use for contour , multyaxes toolpathes and many other dirty tricks .

Not every toolpath will give the full result especially for parts like part 1 ,part 2 is far easier task to mill.

To see many tricks swith on backplot with simulate rotary multiaxes toolpath axes of rotation X tool orientation top and in verify for part 1 use 16.stl and for part2 use 16_2.stl .

THIS IS A DEMONSTRATION FILE ,NOT FOR WORK,SPEEDS AND FEEDS HAVE NO SENSE ,AND THERE CAN BE POSSIBLE MISTAKES,ESPECIALLY BECAUSE IT IS A BETTA FILE !!!

I am ready for discussion and will answer on any question .

 

HF

HTH

ITHH

 

[ 11-05-2003, 01:28 PM: Message edited by: Iskander from Zion ]

[ak762]

Hi Iscander,

Could you light at little with Lazy15betta.

When you did contour from 3D parametric spline

Why Mastercam don't recognise automatically 3D geometry

When you used trick there? or may be holes in Mastercam?

[Fig sign]

Hi, Alex !

quote:

---

Hi Iscander,

Could you light at little with Lazy15betta.

When you did contour from 3D parametric spline

Why Mastercam don't recognise automatically 3D geometry

When you used trick there? or may be holes in Mastercam?

---

That`s a good point !You are absolutly right !

I changed parametric spline to Nurbes spline and I have 3d toolpath and it is a right one too!

I don`t know it is a bug or simply Mastercam mathematical limitation but it is nice to know !

This is new corrected file

ftp://mastercam:[email protected]/Ma...AZY15BETTA2.ZIP

 

Thank you for your help !

[Fig sign]

Hello ,folks!

 

LIDT is alive !

 

Coming soon : Lazy15 trick final (corrected )

Thanks to Alexander (AK762) !

 

Next topics will be :

 

Create ->flowline tricks

Tricks with Fplot C-Hook .

 

Trick with Toolpath trimming .

 

Wintopo is your best friend (converting Raster to vector , using shareware Wintopo version )

 

And I am ready for your suggestions .

If I can help with anything else , I am at your service .

 

ITHH

 

[ 11-19-2003, 09:05 AM: Message edited by: Iskander teh Lazy ]

[Fig sign]

LIDT Inc . is proud to announce

Lazy15final trick

 

You can grab it here :

ftp://mastercam:[email protected]/Ma...LAZY15FINAL.ZIP

 

Many thanks to AK762 for his very important notes .

This is really funny ,but it is true that you can not run 3d contour toolpath on a parametric spline

It may be related to the easiness with which it can be flattened

quote:

---

1. Choose Main Menu, Analyze.

 

2. Select a 3D parametric spline.

 

3. If Edit is set to N on the Analyze Entity menu, toggle it to Y.

 

4. Choose Flatten.

 

5. Select a node point, then press [Esc].

 

Note: The selected node point sets the depth of the flattened spline.

 

6. Choose OK to close the dialog box.

 

7. Press [Esc] to exit the function.

---

Like it is not a really true 3d curve ?!?

Because it is combination of two equations ,each of them is basically flat ?!?

I will show ,how easy to build custom curve using a set of

parametric equations in the next article

Anyway there is very simple and nice solution :

you can use 2d toolpath with the unroll function

(the first toolpath )

The second toolpath is true rotary 3d toolpath with a spline ,converted to NURBS spline

modify ->X to Nurbs function .

Both of them looks good now ,but the first toolpath I like more .

This is only demonstration file .

It can contain mistakes !!!!

Use at your own risk .

 

The neft topic : Fplot.dll C-hook

 

ITHH

 

[ 11-24-2003, 07:38 AM: Message edited by: Iskander teh Lazy ]

[ak762]

quote:

---

Many thanks to AK762 for his very important notes

---

Iskander

I think you still remember what mean AK762 in army:D

[Scot]

Unfortunately I haven't had much time to browse the forum, but I just ran into this topic and can't wait to explore some helpful tips. Sometimes I wonder how and where I can expand my techniques using MC, well now I know where I can look first. Thanks for all the time put forth in attempt to help beginners such as myself.

 

Greatly Appreciated,

Scot

[Fig sign]

Hello ,All !

 

Thank you ,all the readers of this thread for your attention and letters .

 

I changed a schedule and this is special

By Piu request

About Raster 2 Vector convertion

 

First of all ,those of you ,who bought Mastercam

Raster2Vector File ->convertors->next menu->Rast2vect can read this article only from curiosity.

All the others can find here a couple of usefull tricks about how to make engraving before their boss will buy Rast2vect c-hook .

Convertion is always not an easy task .

It becomes worse if you must make a lot of transformations with a picture .

And the picture quality is important .

The best picture for convertion - monochrome ,good resolution .

The worst many colors ,not clear borders and bad resolution.

The better resolution the better result

256 colors a picture like Mastercam toolbar icon will give you bad result anyway .

I took a famous butterfly bmp file from Rast2vect

Tutorial and tested it with other different programs .

I made this test long ago and the winners were

in order- Coreltrace ,Wintopo pro,Wintopo shareware .

 

A bit about CorelTrace :

 

Corel Draw and it`s add-on CorelTrace RoCk!

Every engraver that I personally know bought

Corel Draw while not so long ago Freehand was dominant in this market .

If someone near you has CorelDraw you `ll learn to use Coreltrace in 5 minutes.

And results are the BEST !

The drawback is that sometimes you must know CorelDraw also to make some picture editing .

RTFM .

 

Wintopo Wintopo web page

Wintopo is a very good product one of a few that has fully functional freeware version!

It`s Professional version is very strong and you can try it too !

It will save a little part of your work only ,but you will have a chance to feel it`s might

.

A couple of things like negative , a lot of algorithms for thining ,edge producing .

The vectorising part is strong also .

The drawback -not so intuitive as CorelTrace .

Wintopo Freeware .

From hereon and further I will call with term Wintopo only Wintopo Freeware .

Grab the

ftp://mastercam:[email protected]/Ma...es/lazytopo.zip

to see what you can do with Wintopo Freeware .

bmp is a file from tutorial .dxf is a convertion result and Mastercam file with milling

I want to say once more that with the professional version the results were perfect ,only I am not a licensed user and can not save my results (sorry )

Anyway the Freeware results are not bad too.

Anyway :

The first thing to do with Wintopo -........

you losd a picture

And do all the nessesary manipulationd with it before Vectorising.

There are few (frreeware )

quote:

---

Raster Image Manipulation Options

Under the Image menu there are a number of options for manipulating the raster image. For some images using these options prior to vector extraction will result in more desirable vectors.

 

Convert to Grey Scale

Thresholding...

 

(The following options are not available in the Freeware version)

Negative

Brightness...

Contrast...

Despeckle...

Prune...

Fill Holes...

Snap Lines

Heal...

Convert to Grey Scale

Selecting this option will convert any colours in the raster image to the corresponding grey intensity.

If you are getting poor results from vectorisation of a image which has been scanned in colour, then you could try converting it to grey scale prior to thinning. The thinning methods may produce slightly different results due to their determination of which pixels are important and which are 'background'.

 

Thresholding...

Selecting this option brings up a window which allows you to remove pixels from the raster which are above or below the threshold limits.

 

 

The window shows the Red, Green and Blue intensities of the the upper and lower thresholds.When you click OK WinTopo will remove pixels whose intensities are outside (or inside) of these limits.

 

If the Keep option is checked then the pixels within the threshold limits are kept, and all others are discarded (set to background intensity).

If the Remove option is checked then the pixels within the threshold limits are discarded and all others are kept.

NOTE: in Wintopo Freeware there is no option to Keep or Remove - the function always keeps pixels within the threshold limits and discards the others.

 

Pressing the Upper Bound or Lower Bound button brings up a standard Windows colour selection dialog from which you can choose a colour for the particular threshold limit.

 

Alternatively, you can enter the Red, Green or Blue intensity (0 - 255) in the approprite number box.

 

Finally, you can press the Pick button to pick a colour value straight off the raster (not available on Freeware version). The cursor changes to a until you click on a pixel. The colour of the selected pixel is used for the threshold limit.

---

_____

All this stuff under Image menu

Thinning is not always need to be done .

Edge detection must be done mostly always

 

quote:

---

Stages of Vectorisation

WinTopo employs a two stage vectorisation process:

Thinning of the raster image to single pixel width lines.

Extraction of real vectors from the pixel lines.

Thinning

In order for WinTopo to extract vectors from a raster image it needs to determine which parts of the image constitute lines, and where those lines start and end. For example, the lines may be fairly obvious to a human observer, until the image is magnified, at which point it may be seen that the lines are several pixels wide, uneven along the edges and fade out into the background.

The approach used by WinTopo is to reduce thick or blobby regions down to single pixel width items, so that the image is transformed into lines of pixels. This process is called thinning.

 

WinTopo provides 5 thinning methods, each utilising different mathematical algorithms and producing different results:

 

Stentiford Thinning

Zhang Suen Thinning

Best Combination [Not in Freeware version]

Simple Edge detection [Not in Freeware version]

Canny Edge detection

The Stentiford and Zhang Suen methods both produce pixels lines at the centre of thick regions, whereas the Simple and Canny Edge methods produces pixels at the edges of thick regions.

The Stentiford method tends to produce lines that follow curves very well, resulting in vectors that most accurately reflect the orginal image.

The Zhang Suen method tends to be better at extracting straight lines from a raster, so may result in more desirable vectors from an original image which comprises mainly straight lines.

The Best Combination method uses some of the theory from the Zhang Suen method and some from the Stentiford method. It tends to be better with angular corners than the two separate methods, whilst retaining good straight line recognition and smooth curves. This thinning method will shorten some lines, which may be undesirable for certain drawings.

The simple Edge Detection method looks for the edges of objects, and so can be very useful for images with solid regions, where you only want to vectorise the outlines. This method works best for images with high contrast edges. It will find the boundary between dark objects and the lighter background. This method does not fully thin the image, so it is often necessary to run a Stentiford, Zhang Suen or Best Combination thinning after performing the edge detection. Unlike the Canny method, this edge detection process uses no additional memory.

The Canny edge detection method looks for the edges of objects, and so can be very useful for images with solid regions, where you only want to vectorise the outlines. The Canny method employs more mathematics that the simple edge detection method, and there are optional settings which can improve the results. This method will attempt to find boundaries between poorly defined objects as well as hard edges. The Canny method does not fully thin the image, so it is often necessary to run a Stentiford, Zhang Suen or Best Combination thinning after performing the edge detection. NOTE: the Canny method uses a lot of memory during processing, so may not be appropriate for very large rasters, or if memory is low.

 

 

With WinTopo Pro the colour of the original raster is propagated onto the thinned image, whereas WinTopo Freeware always produces a black and white thinned image.

---

After this you save your edited picture under other name and proceed to vector menu:

set all the needed options and use vectorise

quote:

---

Vector Extraction

NOTE: Although the Freeware vector extraction function is good, the Professional version benefits from recent research and produces a much better result.

Once a raster has been thinned down to lines of single width pixels, the vectorise button can be used to extract real vectors.

 

During vectorisation a progress meter window shows how quickly the vectorisation is performing, and the number of pixels processed.

 

 

When complete, the vectors will be displayed over the top of the raster image. The vectors will be drawn in green unless you have set the Show Line Colour option under the View menu, in which case the vectors will be shown in their actual colours.

Note: when the Show Line Colour option is used the vectors will be the same colour as the raster image, so will not show up well (if at all) against the raster. Therefore the View->Show Raster Image option is usually turned off, so that the raster is not displayed.

 

The quality or accuracy and number of vectors extracted can be varied by selecting options on the Polyline Reduction window

 

Here are some differences between the results produced by the Freeware and Professional versions:

 

The Professional version extracts coloured polylines, whereas the Freeware version produces only black polylines.

The Professional version examines lines intersections and junctions to determine which polylines should continue through the junction and which should stop at it. The Freeware version stops all polylines at intersections and junctions.

The Professional version produces far less vectors and polylines than the Freeware version. Usually only ½ as many lines are produced by the Professional version, resulting in much smaller CAD/GIS output drawings.

---

If the result is good save vector file as *.dxf.

 

 

You can learn this stuff alone .it is easy .

It took me half an hour to produce my first

really good dxf .

Don`t forget to save by other name your picture file .

After you `ve got the dxf open ot in Mastercam ,Scale it to needed size and turn lines to splines .You`ll reduce number of entities .

Create->spline->curves (select by window and set acceptable Max error )

If You will need to do a bit of geometry editing,

Use colrent.dll C-hook for better understanding of the geometry.

 

My boss don`t understand my work !

He does`t understand anything in computers ,CNC and so on !

All he wants is to do this work(engraving )now and fast enough !

He may buy Rast2Vect tomorrow but the job must be

done today !

This is a case when Wintopo Freeware can help you .

 

Iskander teh TrueType font

 

[ 11-25-2003, 05:36 PM: Message edited by: Iskander teh Lazy ]

[Fig sign]

Hello ,All !

 

I see in the recent days a lot of questions regarding contour toolpath .

I decided to put aside all my projects and announce the new fundamental project :

Contour toolpath Foundation .

 

The task is to show all the possible variations of the contour toolpath and I must say that the task is enormous.

You can have alook on my betta file :

ftp://mastercam:[email protected]/Ma...LAZYCONTOUR.ZIP

 

With basic toolpathes and features like various enter -exit types ., depth and multipathes ,infinite look ahead and optimization.

In the near future I want to continue with every feature of the contour toolpath and to add to the existing toolpathes many more .

This file consists only of 32 toolpathes .

I invite everybody who wishes to contribute ,take part in this project and to add toolpathes or explanations for them .

If this project will be the success ,the next great toolpath will be pocket toolpath

 

Let`s discover the depth and might of Mastercam together !

 

Iskander teh Lazy ,LIDT Inc. creator .

 

[ 11-30-2003, 06:52 AM: Message edited by: Iskander teh Lazy ]

[Fig sign]

********FPLOT.DLL C-HOOK**********

 

Hello , friends !

 

This is LIDT revival

 

This topic will be Fplot.dll c-hook .

For those ,who use ver8 or earlier to use it press Alt+C and select or write fplot.

For users of ver 9 U can also use

Create->next menu->add-inns->fplot* that is the same C-hook ,which exists now in ver9 menu .

A quote from MC help

quote:

---

The Fplot C-Hook is a function plotting utility that draws equations and can create corresponding geometry (points, lines, splines, parametric surfaces, or NURBS surfaces). The equations are entered using basic algebraic notation. The files for this C-Hook include:

 

¨ Fplot.dll

 

¨ Fplot.txt

 

¨ Fplot.doc

 

To use the Fplot C-Hook, you must create an EQN file that contains the equations. This file can be created with any text editor, such as Notepad. You can also enter an equation into the prompt area. The Fplot C-Hook reads the EQN file and performs the functions listed in the file.

---

Look at this thread to get an example of what Fplot can do Variable pitch threads

 

Read the file Fplot.doc for instructions to use it .

This files U can find in Mastercam C-hook directory

quote:

---

The following samples files are included with fplot:

 

candy.eqn A surface that resembles a piece of wrapped candy.

cossurf.eqn A surface: z = cos(x^2 + y^2)

drain.eqn A surface that resembles a drain.

chip.eqn A surface that resembles a potato chip.

ellipsd.eqn An ellipsoid.

invol.eqn An involute curve.

sine.eqn A sine curve: y = sin(x)

tube.eqn A tubular surface.

 

---

It looks rather simple and mighty stuff but it has it`s limitations

The first one is this one

 

quote:

---

Defines one or two variables (one if Geometry is set to Draw Only,

Points, Lines, Splines or NURBS curve; two if Geometry is set to

any Surface option).

---

So if you want to draw any geometry except surfaces you will have only one variable acceptable

Run this example ,set trace on and you will see that second variable will be not initialized

 

step_var1 = t1

step_size1 = 0.5

lower_limit1 = 0

upper_limit1 = 40

step_var2 = t2

step_size2 = 0.5

lower_limit2 = 0

upper_limit2 = 40

geometry = spline

angles = radians

origin = 0, 0, 0

r=30

h= 6.28319/10

x = r * cos(t1)

y = r*sin(t1)

z = (-1* (t1/h))-1.05^(t2/0.5)

 

But it is easy to overcome

If you chose geometry type surface !

Now U can use 2 variables ,right ?

 

You can build surface ,create ->curve->all edges

and delete surface afterwards .

In this example it will buld 2 points and 2 identical splines ,one U can delete with delete->duplicate entities

 

Let`s show some tricks and introduse some logic

This is what I call sign changer

 

step_var1 = t1

step_size1 = 1

lower_limit1 = 0

upper_limit1 = 50

geometry = spline

angles = radians

origin = 0, 0, 0

x = t1

y = t1*(-1)^t1

 

/edit- mistakes correction/

 

More sign changers :

sin(t)/abs(sin(t))

cos(t)/abs(cos(t))

tan(t)/abs(tan(t))

(sin(t)/abs(cos(t)))/abs(tan(t))

 

ITHH

 

To be continued

 

[ 12-29-2003, 01:50 PM: Message edited by: Iskander teh Lazy ]

[Fig sign]

*****FPLOT.DLL PART 2 **************

With a use of a sign changer you can do a lot of other tricks .

You can easily build condition statement -sorta while or for and even if elss statement .

You can make proportional division ,divide curve to equal and not equal parts and more ...

 

Some of this tricks I`ll show here

Condition statement sorta while

 

0.5*(1-sin(t)/abs(sin(t))*(put here condition dependent function)

 

1-sin(t)/abs(sin(t)) is to equal parts divider.

 

This is example of not equal proportion one part to three parts divider or condition

1-(sin(t)/abs(cos(t)))/abs(tan(t))

 

one to four parts divider

t starting value 0

t increment of (2/5)*pi

 

1-sin(t)/abs(sin(t))

(This example also can be regarded as if statement !)

 

and so one

 

You can combine conditions ,multiply them and make a lot of other tricks

 

Enough for today ,will check,correct ,add more stuff and examples in the near future(probably tomorrow )

Stay tuned ! ;>)

ITHH

 

[ 12-29-2003, 02:39 PM: Message edited by: Iskander teh Lazy ]

[Fig sign]

examples

quote:

---

step_var1 = t1

step_size1 = 0.392699

lower_limit1 = 1.5708

upper_limit1 = 62.8319

geometry = lines

angles = radians

origin = 0, 0, 0

x = t1

y = (1-sin(t1)/abs(sin(t1)))*0.005*t1^2-(1+sin(t1)/abs(sin(t1)))*0.001*t1^3

---

quote:

---

step_var1 = t1

step_size1 = 0.392699

lower_limit1 = 1.5708

upper_limit1 = 62.8319

geometry = spline

angles = radians

origin = 0, 0, 0

x = t1

y = (1-sin(t1)/abs(sin(t1)))*0.005*t1^2-(1-sin(t1+pi)/abs(sin(t1+pi)))*0.005*t1^2

---

quote:

---

step_var1 = t1

step_size1 = 0.392699

lower_limit1 = 1.5708

upper_limit1 = 62.8319

geometry = lines

angles = radians

origin = 0, 0, 0

x = t1

y = (1-sin(t1)/abs(sin(t1)))*0.005*t1^2-(1-sin(t1+pi)/abs(sin(t1+pi)))*0.005*t1^2

---

To be continued

 

[ 12-30-2003, 05:36 AM: Message edited by: Iskander teh ]

[Fig sign]

Lidt is alive !

 

This is reply for this thread

Many thanks to Gcode for an idea for good trick.

Using contour tooltpath with toolplane top and

Cplane front !

Sorta slotting !

You will get nice code with arcs and lines and nice toolpath .

Attention - TIP COMPENSATION CENTER !!!

You can dounload it here

ftp://mastercam:[email protected]/Ma...FONTTOOLTOP.ZIP

 

This trick also proves how mighty the Mastercam

contour toolpath is !!!

 

HF

HTH

ITHH

 

Iskander teh

[S/X]

Hi Iskander

 

I question is a bit menial, i know but I can't get onto your site by just clicking on your highlighted lettering. Am I doing something wrong.

I want to see your tricks but am obviously struggling to retrieve them. Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

Thanks

[Fig sign]

To Coxy and everyone else !

 

Those who can not download files through link (I think it is Ftp server problem )

come to the ftp through Cadcam Ftp Site link

Cad cam ftp enter to

MC9 folder and select specific file or files and with right click make copy to folder .

This works (checked ).

I really don`t know why the first way is not working now ,it was working good before .

Don`t have time to check why it is not working now

Sorry for unconvinience .

 

 

May be once I will make one big archive .

 

Iskander teh

 

[ 01-12-2004, 01:08 PM: Message edited by: Iskander teh ]

[Fig sign]

Hello ,All .

 

The next trick is engraving related .

It based on the simple fact that if you make engraving with a ball mill and if the millling not goes through radius depth and if you have tool tip compensation center it does not matter that your surface is not parralel to the table !

The second toolpath is the faked one only to produce toolpath for the next toolpath .

I got it through backplotting with display options save toolpath .

Use applied stl file for verifying.

 

You can grab it here

ftp://mastercam:[email protected]/Ma...ZYLETTERING.ZIP

 

I will appreciate any comments

 

[ 01-13-2004, 07:16 AM: Message edited by: Iskander teh ]

[S/X]

Iskander

 

Thank you very much

[Fig sign]

Coxy !

Thank U 2 !

 

The next is not a trick , it is demostration of different toolpathes to get the good surface smoothness.

The toolpathes R :

2 types of surface project-blend ,surface -contour, shallow and scallop .

The resolution of toolpathes is rather rough for the lesser MC9 file size .

You can change it for better results .

 

U can grab it here

ftp://mastercam:[email protected]/Ma...iles/LAZY19.ZIP

 

HTH

ITHH

 

[ 01-14-2004, 08:22 AM: Message edited by: Iskander teh ]

[Fig sign]

I want to announce my plans for the next tricks :

 

1 Roll only between surfaces the way to write programs fast

2 .customizing level manager

3 using create->curve ->flowline for some dirty tricks with geometry creation and toolpathes

4 .How to overpass some parasolid kernel errors

 

I want to thank all ,who answered me !

I am ready for requests :

If U R interested in smthn specific that my humble person can help ,share Ur problems .

I do not promice 2 answer fast but I will !

If u have some suggestions ,I will apreciate any imput .

I appreciate teh negative imput 2 !

It would also be interesting to listen if somebody uses smthn from here in real life production .

 

Regards ,

Iskander teh spammer .

[Fig sign]

Hello , All !

 

Ever worked from IGES file ?

If so you know that sometimes to build good and fast check boundaries takes a lot of time !!!

And if you`ll use check surfaces there may be problems too with what I call capping if check surface covers a bit from top view drive surfaces

Yet exists fast and dirty way to mill your model using Surface->contour toolpath and feature called roll only between surfaces/solid edges !

fROM mc HELP

quote:

---

Mastercam provides three methods for setting how the tool rolls over edges in a surface toolpath. These options are available on the Advanced settings dialog box.

 

¨ Only between surfaces (solid faces) - rolls the tool between surfaces and/or solid faces only, but not at the extreme edges of the part (as shown below).

 

---

The limitations :All surfaces must have taper direction one side (sorta pyramide) and vertical surfaces are not accepted .

If your surfaces are inside this limitation and you select roll the tool only between surfaces/soled faces Mastercam can not roll tool from the undercut side of the surface and it will not be milled !

It speeds up program writing many times .

Responsibility is yours ,use at your oun risk !

Don`t forget to make a backplot !

I use it constantly and love this litle feature

 

You can grab the example ,demonstrating this nice feature here

ftp://mastercam:[email protected]/Ma...iles/LAZY20.ZIP

 

 

HF

HTH

ITHH

 

[ 01-19-2004, 05:28 AM: Message edited by: Iskander teh Owl ]

[Fig sign]

Hello !

Here is one more trick -example of using flowline command.

 

ftp://mastercam:[email protected]/Ma...lazY21BETTA.zip

 

It will mill sorta difraction grid on sphere

The slot`s depth changes from shallow to medium and deepest and so on .

 

I built curves using create->curve->flowline and sorted arcs using Bryan`s C-hook colrents.dll

About colrents C-hook

Use applied *.stl for verification .

 

If U have any questions U R welcome

HF

HTH

ITHH

 

Wol

 

[ 01-21-2004, 04:38 AM: Message edited by: Iskander teh Owl ]

[Fig sign]

Also plz pay attention to the fact that tool tip compencation- center !