Optirest NOT WORKING... LOL...

[Bob W.]

So I finally got the stock model to regenerate after several hours of trying different approaches. Then I move on to apply optirest using the stock model to drive the toolpath and BARF! Didn't work... A little history on this project. I am machining an engine crank case from billet for vintage Porsche race cars. This is a very complex part and it has been roughed on the inside and outside leaving .050" all around, mainly to relieve stress and allow the part to move before finishing. There is a ton of material that still needs to be roughed out and I really need a solid rest roughing toolpath to get this done. Any suggestions on what tweaks I need for optirest to produce a toolpath?

[Bob W.]

A little more information on this part. The roughing has been done from the front and back only, removing 80% of the material. The finishing will be done with 5-axis in a horizontal mill with a rotary table (Makino A51nx/ Koma rotary). I plan to rest-rough from all five sides (3+2) to remove the last 10% of the material to be roughed out, then finish using several 5-axis toolpaths. This is for the outside of the case. Same process for the inside. In all, there will probably be 10-15 rest roughing toolpaths.

[Bob W.]

Mastercam just crashed... Tried to restart itself and crashed again... I tried to restart it, CRASH! Rebooting... This is X7 SP2...

[scooke4073]

I would start off by using a containment boundary to focus the toolpath on one area. Obviously you also need to make sure your tool is sized appropriately....can't fit a square peg in a round hole. .

[Bob W.]

The tool is sized to get most of the material out, but not all of it. The part was roughed initially with a 3/4" end mill and this is a 3/8" .060"R bull mill with a .05" toolpath radius. One really nice thing about X7 is that with the multi-threading I don't have to wait as long to find out it isn't working. It gives me the error much faster than in the past. Kudos to them for that :-)

[Bob W.]

Okay, I tried to save the file and I get "error writing database to disk". WTF??? I can't even save this file... I'm in Mastercam Hell!

[Greg Williams]

Maybe there is a temp file somewhere that is corrupted, Try deleting them from C:\Users\LOGON-NAME\AppData\Local\Temp

[Bob W.]

Maybe there is a temp file somewhere that is corrupted, Try deleting them from C:\Users\LOGON-NAME\AppData\Local\Temp

 

That worked. I can save my file now. Thanks for the tip.

[Guyinthedesert]

A little more information on this part. The roughing has been done from the front and back only, removing 80% of the material. The finishing will be done with 5-axis in a horizontal mill with a rotary table (Makino A51nx/ Koma rotary). I plan to rest-rough from all five sides (3+2) to remove the last 10% of the material to be roughed out, then finish using several 5-axis toolpaths. This is for the outside of the case. Same process for the inside. In all, there will probably be 10-15 rest roughing toolpaths.

 

Try saving your rest stock as an STL, and use CAD file for your trim stock. That'll tell you if the problem is with your stock model.

[Tyler Robertson]

any way you can post a part bob? hard to tell what opti-rest might be having trouble with.

 

maybe try calculating it with a smaller stepover/tolerance first until you get something working / close to what you want - and then tighten it up.

[djstedman]

I could be wrong but I it sounds like this is probably a massive file.. have you looked at task manager to see how much RAM your using? my guess (and it is just an educated guess) is that your probably using all of that 16GB and so your machine is choking on the data..

 

I have 32GB of Ram and on parts that aren't that complex I have often gone over 20GB into Ram

[Bob W.]

Well it appeared to all be linked to the corrupt file in the temp folder. I worked well into the night making up for lost time and things went very smoothly and everything worked really well. I do like the processing speed and this is looking very promising. The issues were extremely frustrating to say the least. I spent the better part of Sunday installing X7 and getting everything migrated and then it just kept puking. Nothing makes my blood boil like going to battle against Mastercam.

[Brando]

have you tried increasing the toolpath and tool shape tolerances? when i have issues with stock models this seems to fix it most of the time, and sometimes i just have to delete the stock model and do it over again

[djstedman]

Glad to hear you got it working Bob.. totally get the frustration .. nothing worse than being up against a deadline one a complex part to machine and then having additional issues getting the software to work..

 

Anyhow.. the processing speed for regening toolpaths is phenomenally better in X7..