CHAINING IN X8

[Tinyfxds]

Has anyone besides me noticed that chaining in X8 seems to be a little annoying.  In X7, if I needed to chain a circle for a contour tool path, I would just click near the quadrant and it would produce a climb mill chain.  With X8, it seems to be a crap shoot as to which direction the chain will go.  I've tried changing my CONFIG settings under chaining, but nothing seems to work.  This is very frustrating as X7 worked and now X8 does not. 

[K2csq7]

Can you share a file?

[Tinyfxds]

Unfortunately I can not (company policy).  Are you thinking it's the file/model that is causing problems?  If I create circles they chain perfectly (climb mill).  When I open up a file and create curves on the model, that is when I seem to have chaining issues. 

[CJep]

Has anyone besides me noticed that chaining in X8 seems to be a little annoying.  In X7, if I needed to chain a circle for a contour tool path, I would just click near the quadrant and it would produce a climb mill chain.  With X8, it seems to be a crap shoot as to which direction the chain will go.  I've tried changing my CONFIG settings under chaining, but nothing seems to work.  This is very frustrating as X7 worked and now X8 does not. 

 

Don't forget when using a circle as a tpath chain the direction is midpoint dependent like any other chain geom.

Is it possible that the circle has been indexed to something other than 3:00 as the start position?

[Thad]

Sounds like it's the geometry to me. I'm not really sure where "create curves" gets it info to create the arc. Just looking at it, you can't tell if the arc starts at 0 and ends at 360 or -360. Analyze the arcs and you'll probably find the difference.

 

You could always "Screen-Combine view." I think that will fix it.

[Thad]

Just ran a few tests and Screen-Combine views will not help.

[K2csq7]

If you drew a circle then xform rotated it..... the quadrants of the circle get rotated also. 

for example, 1 circle drawn at X+ Y0. rotated 3x at 90°....

So 3:00 on the original circle is 12:00 on the Y+X0/second circle, 9:00 on the X-Y0/3rd, and 6:00 on the Y-X0/4th

[CJep]

If you drew a circle then xform rotated it..... the quadrants of the circle get rotated also. 

for example, 1 circle drawn at X+ Y0. rotated 3x at 90°....

So 3:00 on the original circle is 12:00 on the Y+X0/second circle, 9:00 on the X-Y0/3rd, and 6:00 on the Y-X0/4th

 

That can also be done in analyze entities, you can change the start and end point of the arc as well as the sweep.

[rrichard]

Well I just use the reverse direction on the toolpath chaining page, makes me no deference if starts 3:00, 9:00, etc.

[Tinyfxds]

I reverse the chains as well but it's something I've noticed with X8.  X7 chaining was much more consistent.  You would still, on occasion, get a weird chain but they were few and far between. 

[Jayson Kramer]

Don't find this issue at all. works nicely and have had none of the ten students I am training now have the issue on 5 of my laptops they are using.

[Tinyfxds]

Well I just brought in a stp file of a simple part.  It has ten holes in it.  I rotated the model into position and "created curves on all",  Eight of the holes had the start point at 12 o'clock and two had the start point at 6 o'clock.  Found this out by analyzing the curve at each hole and without doing this, I would have started chaining holes at the 3 o'clock position which would have given me a tool path on the outside of the hole instead of the inside.  Is there some setting that could be causing this?  Is it because I'm rotating my model into the correct position?  I'm not sure why this would affect it because I create curves after the model is rotated.

[K2csq7]

See if you get better results using hole axis instead of create curves. 

Ctrl click one hole and it should get the others on the same face. 

[Tinyfxds]

Ok.  I will give it a try

[Tinyfxds]

It's the model or at least the model has something to do with it.  If I bring my model in and create curves it puts the start point at 6 o'clock on eight of the holes and 3 o'clock on two of the holes.  If I rotate the model that's when my start points change.  So Mastercam is picking up something on the model to tell it where to put the start point for the curves.  I was hoping that Mastercam would put the start points based off of the construction view, then no matter how you rotate your model, the holes are always at 3 and / or 6 o'clock.

 

Thanks K2csq7 for the hole axis tip.  Never new you could select all holes with a ctrl + click in "hole axis"

[Tinyfxds]

"Use cursor position" was checked.  Unchecked this box and now all my problems have disappeared. 

[Tinyfxds]

Ok now I have problem with having "Use cursor position"  UNCHECKED.  Now all my chains around the outside of the part are on the wrong side!!  Why the hell can't I figure this out.  VERY FRUSTRATING!!

[K2csq7]

I posted a reply on our Forum....

 

http://forum.mastercam.com/Topic3598.aspx

 

 

Unchecking that box makes it default to whichever direction you have set in the 2 choices directly above the "Use Cursor Position" box. 

[Newbeeee™]

^^^

Has a member of theeeeeeeeeeee sqwercle penetrated cnc then....

[K2csq7]

^^^

Has a member of theeeeeeeeeeee sqwercle penetrated cnc then....

SHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Geez, you brits.... no bedside manners.....