Best method for importing operations?

[Bob W.]

I am in the process of making a run of orthopedic molds and there are 18 assemblies in total. These molds all have identical features and they only vary in size. I have made a few of these already and the current process is:

 

1. Open existing file, save under the new part name and import new geometry to new levels

2. Reassign geometry one toolpath at a time to the new geometry

3. Clear all of the existing geometry from the old levels

 

This seems to work well but I was curious if there was a better way.

[TK-32™]

:following this topic because it sounds very interesting:

[Bob W.]

I should also mention that I have taken great pains to maximize use of incremental depths and strategic chain selection whenever possible. It really speeds up how quickly things can be changed over.

[Sticky]

The way you are doing it now has been the most reliable method for me. I was building a library of operations to import to a new or existing file, but I have had some reliability issues. Things like "force tool change" won't work, some issues using imported ops that had a custom wcs associated to them previously won't marry the new custom wcs you want to associate to it etc.

 

One time we had an issue with either copying a drill path or importing it, I can't remember which, where I had finished drilling a set of holes with about a 5/16" diameter drill about 10" long, the machine retracted to the clearance plane, shut the spindle off and started to head home for a tool change(how our post is setup), and then cranked the spindle back on to about 10k rpm (only about 5x more then the programmed spindle speed)!! Needless to say the drill bent 90*, good thing no one poked their head in there, that would have been game over.

[Colin Gilchrist]

Hi Bob,

 

I prefer importing my operations from existing Mastercam files. If you right-click in the Operations Manager, choose Import.

 

That brings up the Import Toolpath Operations dialog box. This will be set to import from .Operations files. Click the Browse button to open a new library.

 

When the "open" dialog appears, you can change the file extension from .Operations, to Mastercam X Files, and that will let you filter on Mastercam files.

 

Browse to the Mastercam file that you want to import from, and you'll be able to see the Operations Manager from that file. Then you can choose the operations you want to import, and set the import options.

[Millertime]

Hi Bob,

 

I prefer importing my operations from existing Mastercam files. If you right-click in the Operations Manager, choose Import.

 

That brings up the Import Toolpath Operations dialog box. This will be set to import from .Operations files. Click the Browse button to open a new library.

 

When the "open" dialog appears, you can change the file extension from .Operations, to Mastercam X Files, and that will let you filter on Mastercam files.

 

Browse to the Mastercam file that you want to import from, and you'll be able to see the Operations Manager from that file. Then you can choose the operations you want to import, and set the import options.

 

 

+1 on that Collin I do the same here works great. The only problems I have doing this is when I import It resets My Coolant and Air blast to Ignore on both.

[Bob W.]

Hi Bob,

 

I prefer importing my operations from existing Mastercam files. If you right-click in the Operations Manager, choose Import.

 

That brings up the Import Toolpath Operations dialog box. This will be set to import from .Operations files. Click the Browse button to open a new library.

 

When the "open" dialog appears, you can change the file extension from .Operations, to Mastercam X Files, and that will let you filter on Mastercam files.

 

Browse to the Mastercam file that you want to import from, and you'll be able to see the Operations Manager from that file. Then you can choose the operations you want to import, and set the import options.

 

I did that once but these are 4 and 5-axis (3+2) programs and the reference to the tool planes was lost. Maybe I did something wrong? Also, with 30-40 operations to import it becomes pretty unclear exactly what each toolpath is doing if it comes in dirty.

[specv]

Sometimes when I do this I do multiple parts in the same file, especially if there are a lot of features that are the same, I will copy everything to a new machine group and re use the geometry that is the same.

Pete

[duckdogers]

I am in the process of making a run of orthopedic molds and there are 18 assemblies in total. These molds all have identical features and they only vary in size. I have made a few of these already and the current process is:

 

1. Open existing file, save under the new part name and import new geometry to new levels

2. Reassign geometry one toolpath at a time to the new geometry

3. Clear all of the existing geometry from the old levels

 

This seems to work well but I was curious if there was a better way.

I also do it this wayits much more reliable than importing ops

[CJep]

I use both methods depending on the desired results,..

If you have a family of parts with similar geom when importing the ops you can bring in the geom with the ops then just regen the tpath and associate the dissimilar geom with the new tpaths. The custom tplanes will typically be renamed to the default plane name, "new view (1)" etc.

 

If I want to retain the custom planes, have a common fixture for all the parts, then I will merge the new part into the existing file and reorient if needed and start reassociating geom with tpaths. If there isn't a concern of the file getting out of control data wise I'll just leave all the parts of the family in the same part file.

[Smit]

If I just want to use the same toolpaths I'll import them from the similar file without geometry and then assign new geometry.

 

If the parts have some identical features I'll import the toolpaths with their geometry into the new file with only a solid. Then you can keep the geometry you want, translate some geometry to new locations, delete stuff you can't use and assign it new geometry, or delete geometry and operations that don't apply to the new part.

 

If you import geometry the imported levels will be blank and if you are using tool planes the tool plane names won't be imported. It will come in as New View #1, etc.

 

Those methods work well for me. I've never had any trouble with importing ops so I'm not sure what kind of trouble other people are having.

[mkd]

I did that once but these are 4 and 5-axis (3+2) programs and the reference to the tool planes was lost. Maybe I did something wrong? Also, with 30-40 operations to import it becomes pretty unclear exactly what each toolpath is doing if it comes in dirty.

it's all good.

the imported paths will add WCS' in view manager, which can/ should be deleted after selecting new wcs' in current mastercam file.

[Colin Gilchrist]

I get around the Toolplane issue by importing all of the Toolplanes before I begin importing operations. If the toolplanes already exist in the Mastercam file, then Mastercam won't have to generate new unnamed ones.

 

I use lots of Groups to organize my toolpaths, so often I'll opt to "add/import" the group names along with the operations I'm importing. Sometimes I'll just import a few operations at a time, select the new geometry and regenerate these ops. Once those are done, I'll continue on to the next ops I need.

 

One of the advantages of importing the planes and operations is that you can organize the Planes the way you want. Mastercam won't let you move or organize the planes once they have been created in the view manager. Since that is the case, by importing the planes in the order you like, it can be easier to keep groups of similar planes together.

 

Sometimes I'll also just take an existing file and rename it, then import the new geometry. When you do this though, you often end up with two sets of levels. The levels containing the original geometry, and the new levels where you are adding the new geometry. Or you've got to use the existing levels and make sure they all get updated correctly.

 

I think it really depends on the size of the file, number of ops involved, and type of work that you are doing. I also like the idea of just adding a 2nd Machine group. We would do this at Boeing when we had groups of dash numbers for Stringers or Spars, which are often made from the same extrusion. We'd end up with 10-20 parts in the same part file, each with a different Machine Group. That way we were able to share common geometry and common tooling/fixturing between the parts. To be fair, these parts were often no more than 10-20 operations per setup.

[mikenaturalice]

I did that once but these are 4 and 5-axis (3+2) programs and the reference to the tool planes was lost. Maybe I did something wrong? Also, with 30-40 operations to import it becomes pretty unclear exactly what each toolpath is doing if it comes in dirty.

I like to add comments in the toolpath like "rough outer profile" or "3d finish large gate" etc. This can help when reassigning geometry, but that still leaves you (the programmer) doing alot of work...

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

I usually use Bob's way, augmented by Collin's. What gets to be a pain though is having to make changes or updates to the whole family of parts months or years later, while trying to ensure that the process stays consistent across the family.

[CJep]

I usually use Bob's way, augmented by Collin's. What gets to be a pain though is having to make changes or updates to the whole family of parts months or years later, while trying to ensure that the process stays consistent across the family.

 

I try to make as many notes as I can in the levels manager, nothing fancy, some abbreviations, associating the level set with the op and or the work offset,..