Automating a Repetitive Step

[James Sergeant]

Good Morning All,

 

I have recently been working on automating some rather repetitive steps that we take between NX and MasterCAM. I have the NX part complete but seem to be having a hard time finding much research material online for Mastercam VB Scripting. In UG I could record a macro in VB and learn and tweak from that but I am having a hard time figuring out a good way do do something similar in Mastercam.

 

I have scavenged through the example VBS files and managed to pick out a little of what I needed but it is minimal.

 

The steps I am needing to take are...

 

1) Draw 2 lines outside of the part.

2) Create a Ruled/Lofted Surface between these two lines.

3) Create Curve at Intersection

      a) Selecting a Parasolid that is already open.

      Using the Created Ruled/Lofted Surface as Intersection of Parasolid.

 

Can you please point me to a good resource or example for these steps that I can pick apart a bit?

 

Thanks all!

James

 

Here is what I have so far, it isn't much yet...

Public Const PlaneLevel = 2
Call Main()

Sub Main()
    Call ResetAll
    Call CreateOutline    
    Call RepaintScreen(True)
End Sub

Sub ResetAll()
  Call RepaintScreen(True)
  Call ClearPromptLines
End Sub

Sub CreateOutline
Dim CLine
Dim intRet
Set CLine  = New McLn  

With CLine
 .X1 = -20
 .Y1 = -30
 .Z1 = 0
 .X2 = -20
 .Y2 = 50
 .Z2 = 0
 intRet = CreateLine(CLine, mcCONSTRUCTION_COLOR_CURRENT, PlaneLevel)

 .X1 = 20
 .Y1 = -30
 .Z1 = 0
 .X2 = 20
 .Y2 = 50
 .Z2 = 0
 intRet = CreateLine(CLine, mcCONSTRUCTION_COLOR_CURRENT, PlaneLevel)

End With       	

Set CLine = Nothing
End Sub

[Roger Martin from CNC Software]

This level of interaction is not possible using VB.

It may be with a custom (C++) C-Hook Add-On.

I'd need more details (sample file) to verify that.

SDK@mastercam.,com