Surfaces help

[Mgrenier]

Hello all,

 

First of all, let me say that I am relatively new to any 3D/surfaces work.

 

I put a file named marting.mc8 in the mc8_files on the ftp site. This file is a model send to us by our custommer. In it you will find a surface that is made of 2 flats and a variable radius between them. What I would like to do for machining purposes is to create curves on this surface where the flats and the raduis meet.

 

P.S. Using mill V8.1.1 level 3 and we do not have the solids option.

 

Hope I make sense to you guys.

[Thad]

I haven't downloaded your file and I'm going from memory here...

 

Create-Curve-One edge. Select the surface, drag the arrow to the edge you want to extract and click. It's makes it easy if you change colors first to see the new curve.

 

Thad

 

Edited to say that you could also select Create-Curve-All edges. Then select the surface.

 

[ 10-24-2003, 01:38 PM: Message edited by: Thad ]

[Mgrenier]

Thad,

 

Thanks for the reply, but this is not what I am trying to do. What I want to do is create curves within the same surface. Because the 2 flats and the radius are all in one same surface.

 

Hope this brings more light on my problem.

[Thad]

Martin,

 

I just downloaded your file and I see that my last reply won't work. I didn't realize that the whole thing was only one surface. My reply would've worked if the flat surfaces were two seperate surfaces and the variable fillet was a 3rd surface. Sorry.

 

Thad

[Mgrenier]

No problem Thad,

 

I appreciate you trying to help me.

[Jean-Simon]

Salut Martin, je pourrais peut-être avoir une solution pour toi, create curve flowline et met le nombre assez élévé et tu auras une curve qui pourrait être très près de ce que tu veux et ensuite trimmer ta surface. C'est tout ce que j'ai pu trouver, pas mal pour un vendredi hein??HTH!

 

Simon

[Thad]

Sorry for the double post.

 

[ 10-24-2003, 02:52 PM: Message edited by: Thad ]

[Thad]

Martin,

 

What was your thought process on why you had to get those curves? Maybe there's another way to attack it?

 

Thad

[John Summers]

Martin,

I have loaded 2 files to Text & Post files. One is 5to3.pst, and the other is Q9.NC3. Q9.NC3 is a 5-axis flowline without the normals, made from 5to3.pst. You could possibly luck out with flowlines made in the other direction, and pick out the two you want. Otherwise, you could pick out the break between a straight surface and the fillet surface from Q9.NC3 with a 'post' that would work on the line segments in this file.

[Mgrenier]

Jean-Simon,

 

Merci cela me semble être une bonne solution, je vais l'essayer.

 

_____________________________________________

 

Thad,

 

I need these curves because I want to machine the 2 flat surfaces with one cutter and machine the radius part of the surface with another tool using the rotary table. If you open activate level 1, you will see the entire part.

 

_______________________________________________

 

John,

 

Thanks for the files but what are these and how did you get them? I am confused.

 

[ 10-24-2003, 04:05 PM: Message edited by: marting ]

[John Summers]

Martin,

Read my post. I made a 5-axis flowline toolpath to get a 3-axis curve with no offset whatever. I suppose I could have used a very small cutter, but this is cleaner. Then I stripped out the normals of the 5-axis -.NCI file to make the picture, using 5to3.pst. This gives me an ASCII -.NC3 file which is the blue lines. We still don't have the break between the straight lines and the fillet. I have posted a curvature analyzer curve.pst. That shows length (SUM), curvature (K), and radius ®for Q9.NCI. Notice the transition is not crisp between the flats and the radius. Neverless, CURVE1.PST and CURVE2.PST pick out a curve where the radius transitions a 2 inches. Backplot Q9.DOC with FILE-ASCII-CONVERT...

[Mgrenier]

Hello all,

 

I would like to thank everybody who helped me with this problem. I first used what Jean-Simon suggested and it went pretty well. Then John Summer stepped up and did send me an .MC8 file with the curves on the surface. Onec again, thanks everyone,

[Mgrenier]

Hello all,

 

I would like to thank everybody who helped me with this problem. I first used what Jean-Simon suggested and it went pretty well. Then John Summer stepped up and did send me an .MC8 file with the curves on the surface. Once again, thanks everyone.