List of point coordinates

[Bill Cronkhite]

I have a point cloud that I had to enter by hand X,Y,Z coordinates (144 points). Problem is I have a few that seem to be missing and a few "fliers" that are obviously wrong. Is there any way to generate a list of the coordinates of the points I'[ve entered in Mastercam so I can compare it to the original list? I know this is a strange request, but I have to work in a 1970's enviornment here.

[brandon b]

Not too sure what your doing. But could you create a drill tool path and select all the points and post it out. Then use that as a list?

[Bill Cronkhite]

Didn't even think of creating a drill tool path. That should work. THANK YOU.

[Colin Gilchrist]

Do File > Save As.

 

Set the option to Save as a Text file. (*.txt)

 

That will save the file in a space delimited format. You can then use the Text Import Wizard in Microsoft Excel to import this as "delimited" data. In the wizard, tell Excel the delimiter is a space character. This will put your data into sortable rows and columns...

 

Hope that helps,

 

Colin

[Colin Gilchrist]

Here are some pictures of the points I created, and the results after importing:

[Bill Cronkhite]

Colin, the drill path gave me a list, but your solution should allow me to do a compare in an excel spreadsheet to what I was sent. Helps alot.

 

Thanks everyone for the help.

 

Bill

[Colin Gilchrist]

You are welcome Bill, thanks for asking the question. One of my favorite things about Mastercam is the variety of different tools build into the software. I find there is almost always a way to get the job done...

 

You can also import lists of points from a text file Bill. So if you are getting the data that way, you can easily import it into Mastercam and not type it in manually...

[Scott Lundin Shopware Inc.]

Another way to get a list of the point coordinates is to use 'analyze contour", window chain the points, pick a search point, OK the chaining box, OK the analyze contour box, and then save the listed points as a txt file.

[Scott Lundin Shopware Inc.]

You can even open the txt file generated by analyze contour and it will bring in all the points as Colin mentioned. I did not expect this because of all the extra text in the file. I guess it just ignores that extra stuff.

[Radical1]

You can also import lists of points from a text file Bill. So if you are getting the data that way, you can easily import it into Mastercam and not type it in manually...

 

Collin, this is something I could use, could you explain this a bit for me.

[crazy^millman]

There is also the free Tools from Verisurf that gives you a lot of flexibility here as well. You can download it from the download section here.

[Aaron Eberhard]

Collin, this is something I could use, could you explain this a bit for me.

 

Radical - If you choose ASCII (txt) for the "type" of file to open, Mastercam will bring it in a text file as Points, Lines or Splines (depending on your options selected). To bring it in, Mastercam wants to see it in this format:

1 2 3

1 2 3

1 2 3

 

1 2 3

1 2 3

 

Of course, that would just bring in the same point 5 times, but you get the idea... It's just the X Y Z position with a space in between them. If you're bringing in splines, it uses a blank line to end the spline. If the 1st and last points in a group match, it will close the spline for you, otherwise it'll be open.

 

Edit: I just saw Ron post about Verisurf's tools, they're quite powerful

[Colin Gilchrist]

Thanks for answering that Aaron. I've been meaning to respond to Radical1's question, but I've been busy this morning...

[Aaron Eberhard]

*hat tip* no problem, good sir I was waiting on a blade expert toolpath to generate

[Radical1]

Thank-you both gentlemen, I will try both sugestions ASAP,(probably not till early next week). I am working tons of hours this week...next week I can play.

[Bill Cronkhite]

Thank you all very much. Right now I have to depend on others to do any CMM work for me and it has been a hassle with sometimes as many as 600 points. Hope to soon get our own CMM, and this information will be very helpful.

 

Thanks again,

 

Bill

[Radical1]

Well I had some time last night so I tried some of the suggestions and of course they work great. I D/L the verisurf tool and installed it to have a look, I will have to try that soon. Thanks again guys.

[Verisurf - Ernie Husted]

If you installed the Verisurf tools. There should be a tool you can add to a toolbar that can do Copy & Paste, you can Copy selected CAD points right to the windows clipboard and Paste them into any editor or Excel, you can also copy points from an editor or Excel and Paste them back into CAD points.

 

This tool can save lots of time.

 

Ernie

[TheePres]

One of my tasks at work is modeling aerospace parts, where the walls are defined by Mold Line data charts, so i am familiar with importing the .csv data as points. I manually have to create rows of splines using these points to create lofted surfaces.

Question for Ernie, does Verisurf tools have capability of creating surfaces from points (cloud point?), or is this feature only available in full version of Vericut?

[Verisurf - Ernie Husted]

Question for Ernie, does Verisurf tools have capability of creating surfaces from points (cloud point?), or is this feature only available in full version of Verisurf?

 

Verisurf Reverse can create Surfaces from point clouds or STL meshes.

[The IT Guy]

On 9/22/2013 at 9:07 PM, Verisurf - Ernie Husted said:

If you installed the Verisurf tools. There should be a tool you can add to a toolbar that can do Copy & Paste, you can Copy selected CAD points right to the windows clipboard and Paste them into any editor or Excel, you can also copy points from an editor or Excel and Paste them back into CAD points.

 

This tool can save lots of time.

 

Ernie

I apologize for performing necromancy on this obviously dead thread.

 

Ernie,

   When I copy the points out using Verisurf tools I get points in the global co-ordinate system regardless of what WCS I have selected. Is there any way to get the points to copy out relative to a selected WCS?

[Verisurf - Ernie Husted]

I guess not, we also think we should output using the active WCS to the Copy to clipboard in the 2019 tools.

What version of Mastercam are you using?

Ernie

[The IT Guy]

3 hours ago, Verisurf - Ernie Husted said:

I guess not, we also think we should output using the active WCS to the Copy to clipboard in the 2019 tools.

What version of Mastercam are you using?

Ernie

I am using 2018