Jump to content

Welcome to eMastercam

Register now to participate in the forums, access the download area, buy Mastercam training materials, post processors and more. This message will be removed once you have signed in.

Use your display name or email address to sign in:

Pitch in your little gems that make mcam life easier


jlw™
 Share

Recommended Posts

Flowline direction not being seen from time to time. It just dawned on me today why I can't see the flowline directions of certain toolpaths from time to time. I always work with the active level not visible. When doing so the toolpaths don't care and they use the active level. Problem is when that level is not visible then the flowline entities will not be shown. This one thing has drove me crazy for years and finally today I realized what is creating it. 😀

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
On 5/15/2019 at 12:41 PM, 5th Axis CGI said:

Flowline direction not being seen from time to time. It just dawned on me today why I can't see the flowline directions of certain toolpaths from time to time. I always work with the active level not visible. When doing so the toolpaths don't care and they use the active level. Problem is when that level is not visible then the flowline entities will not be shown. This one thing has drove me crazy for years and finally today I realized what is creating it. 😀

I'm a beginnerish user, and never used flowline.  But your post confused me for a few reasons.  A) When I make a level active, it forces it to be visible.  How would you make the active layer not visible?  B)WHY make the active layer not visible???

Link to comment
Share on other sites
3 hours ago, JB7280 said:

I'm a beginnerish user, and never used flowline.  But your post confused me for a few reasons.  A) When I make a level active, it forces it to be visible.  How would you make the active layer not visible?  B)WHY make the active layer not visible???

There's an option in configs, screen: "Main level is always visible".  You can turn it off.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, Matthew Hajicek™ - Conventus said:

There's an option in configs, screen: "Main level is always visible".  You can turn it off.

Yes I am not your average user and like having the active level off majority of the time. That active level is the level in which Mastercam uses to graphically communicate items to the user. Since I don't fit the mold I do get the molded process. 

Matthew thanks for answering it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
16 hours ago, 5th Axis CGI said:

Yes I am not your average user and like having the active level off majority of the time. That active level is the level in which Mastercam uses to graphically communicate items to the user. Since I don't fit the mold I do get the molded process. 

Matthew thanks for answering it.

I don't totally understand though, why would you have it off?  Wouldn't everything you're working on be invisible?  Sorry if that's an ig'nant question, I just think I'm missing something.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, JB7280 said:

I don't totally understand though, why would you have it off?  Wouldn't everything you're working on be invisible?  Sorry if that's an ig'nant question, I just think I'm missing something.

I may have 600 to 800 levels in a file with items on them. The active level doesn't need to be one when you programming and doing work. I build machines for CAV and many other parts of the manufacturing process. As I am working there are many times that I want to move things or create things on the active level, but not have it visible. Again I think differently than yourself so how I wrap my brain around a problem is totally different than how you wrap your brain around a problem. I visualize items and things in my head and build complete machines and parts in my head. Mastercam is a tool to take what is in my head and make it reality. Can you take everything you come up with and put it on paper? In a Program? I am sorry, but I cannot and most of the time I am jumping between 5 or 6 different things. For how my brain works this process works for me. I saw an issue it was creating for certain things and if someone else happened to be running into the same thing I wanted to offer some assistance to help them. Not sure why that has puzzled you so much, but after 16 years on this forum and trying to help others hopefully you will see it is just how I am. Have a great day. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
1 minute ago, 5th Axis CGI said:

I may have 600 to 800 levels in a file with items on them. The active level doesn't need to be one when you programming and doing work. I build machines for CAV and many other parts of the manufacturing process. As I am working there are many times that I want to move things or create things on the active level, but not have it visible. Again I think differently than yourself so how I wrap my brain around a problem is totally different than how you wrap your brain around a problem. I visualize items and things in my head and build complete machines and parts in my head. Mastercam is a tool to take what is in my head and make it reality. Can you take everything you come up with and put it on paper? In a Program? I am sorry, but I cannot and most of the time I am jumping between 5 or 6 different things. For how my brain works this process works for me. I saw an issue it was creating for certain things and if someone else happened to be running into the same thing I wanted to offer some assistance to help them. Not sure why that has puzzled you so much, but after 16 years on this forum and trying to help others hopefully you will see it is just how I am. Have a great day. 

It seems like you were offended by my question.  I was genuinely just asking a question.  I'm a new Mastercam user and just trying to soak up what I can.  Not sure why the condescension.  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
43 minutes ago, JB7280 said:

It seems like you were offended by my question.  I was genuinely just asking a question.  I'm a new Mastercam user and just trying to soak up what I can.  Not sure why the condescension.  

Sorry you took it that way that was not my intention or thoughts behind it.

Think of levels as places in a file cabinet. I always teach programmers when thinking of levels as your file cabinet when your programming. You have a 1000 prints you need to keep organized. If you take the time upfront to organize everything then when you need to go back to look at something you have no problem going back and finding it. I use this to help other understand how organization and naming levels and planes and such may take work upfront, but pay off in the long run. This helps develop a programming process and method. With that you becomes faster and better over time. The other part of that is when you are looking at one Print you don't have any need to look at the other 999 prints. That is why we have visible and non visible levels to help us reduce the clutter on the screen. I may have a stock on one level that is the active level, but not visible and I want that to be the active level for a view sheet. I may need to check that part will fit or that work holding will be where I need it. I don't want to have to change the active level to something else when I want to make that level not visible or visible as I am checking things. When the make active level always visible is active you don't have this option you must in my opinion do more work making other levels active that may not be part of what your doing. By being able to keep a level active, but not visible then it helps me to see things in a hurry as I am going though and doing different things in the software. I may get stopped 10 or 15 times on a program and if I keep myself in the habit of doing things where Viewsheets use the active level and I can turn on and off things without having to change the active level it helps me go back and forth and keep it someone straight in my head. Hopefully that gives you a better idea of a little bit of why I go about it this way.

Again apologize and hope the explanation is helpful. 

  • Thanks 1
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
27 minutes ago, 5th Axis CGI said:

Sorry you took it that way that was not my intention or thoughts behind it.

Again apologize and hope the explanation is helpful. 

Fantastic explanation.  Thank you.  My apologies for the previous post.  We've got a new "process engineer" that may have me just a bit edgy, haha.  In Esprit you had levels, or "layers"  but you also had "Masks" where you could turn off all solids, all geometry, all chains, etc etc, so I find myself probably not using enough layers, and a clean mcam file is kind of important to me, and something I've been struggling with a bit.  Thanks again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
40 minutes ago, JB7280 said:

Fantastic explanation.  Thank you.  My apologies for the previous post.  We've got a new "process engineer" that may have me just a bit edgy, haha.  In Esprit you had levels, or "layers"  but you also had "Masks" where you could turn off all solids, all geometry, all chains, etc etc, so I find myself probably not using enough layers, and a clean mcam file is kind of important to me, and something I've been struggling with a bit.  Thanks again.

No worries and hopefully we all can help you on your process of learning Mastercam.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, JB7280 said:

but you also had "Masks" where you could turn off all solids, all geometry, all chains, etc etc

Mastercam has these as well. The line of circular icons on the right side of the screen. They are split diagonally so that if you click the upper left hemisphere, you select ALL of the group (points, lines, splines, wireframe, drafting, surfaces etc), but if you click on the lower right hemisphere you select individual elements of the group.

Then you can mask the selected elements, or invert the selection and mask everything except your selection.

This is one of my favorite features.

Hope that helps.

Zeke

Link to comment
Share on other sites
52 minutes ago, So not a Guru said:

Mastercam has these as well. The line of circular icons on the right side of the screen. They are split diagonally so that if you click the upper left hemisphere, you select ALL of the group (points, lines, splines, wireframe, drafting, surfaces etc), but if you click on the lower right hemisphere you select individual elements of the group.

Then you can mask the selected elements, or invert the selection and mask everything except your selection.

This is one of my favorite features.

Hope that helps.

Zeke

That's just for selection though, right?  Esprit had a similar feature, not sure what they called it.  Masks in Esprit though, was just checkboxes, where you could VISUALLY turn off different things.  Attaching a screenshot.  Does Mastercam have something similar?  

masks.PNG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would be lost without Quick Masks. I use them for selection for tool paths, changing colors or whatever. I have them hot keyed to my mouse and key board. Makes selecting multiple surfaces, solid faces or whatever very quick and easy.

 

View sheets can be setup to turn on and off levels and geometry or whatever you want with the click of the mouse. I believe that is the feature you are looking for. I don't use them much myself, but have been wanting to implement them into my programming and give them an honest try.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Just now, Corey Hampshire said:

I would be lost without Quick Masks. I use them for selection for tool paths, changing colors or whatever. I have them hot keyed to my mouse and key board. Makes selecting multiple surfaces, solid faces or whatever very quick and easy.

 

View sheets can be setup to turn on and off levels and geometry or whatever you want with the click of the mouse. I believe that is the feature you are looking for. I don't use them much myself, but have been wanting to implement them into my programming and give them an honest try.

I believe these are the things I need to adapt to.  I keep hearing that quick masks and viewsheets are helpful, but i nearly NEVER use them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, JB7280 said:

That's just for selection though, right? 

Yes.

Once they're selected, you can do things to them. If you only wanted to see surfaces on the screen, Quick Mask All-Surfaces, then Alt+E. To get everything back on the screen, Alt+E again.

To further useful selections, after isolating all surfaces, select the ones you want for op1 (for example) and change them to a different color. Then later, you can QM all color green (or whatever) to select all of those surfaces.

Even further, when you want to select all surfaces EXCEPT the green ones...QM all surfaces, then Alt+E. Then QM all color green->Invert selection->Alt+E->Alt+E and you'll have all surfaces that aren't green on the screen that you can easily window. The options are practically endless.

With a little bit of practice, you can select/deselect a great number of options very quickly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...

I bet many of you guys knew this but.....

I just figured out that the location of your cursor, when rotating geometry/solids, toggles whether you snap in 5° increments or rotate dynamically.

If your cursor is in the in the circle, you snap. If your cursor is outside of the circle, the angle goes to wherever your cursor is.

My print screen doesn't show my cursor so I added orange dots to show where my cursor is:

Untitled.png.358f83083dc444baa7a8589d6d1d771e.pngUntitled2.png.45618b6926f6af3c0bf5e31e83171eea.png

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 months later...
On 11/2/2015 at 6:44 AM, Colin Gilchrist said:

Once you've gotten used to how Mastercam works, I recommend turning off the following checkboxes in the System Configuration Menu ->

 

  • CAD Settings -> "Update Cplane when changing Gview"
  • CAD Settings -> "Reset Cplane to Top in Iso Gview"

Those two check boxes, more than any other settings, will mess with you during geometry creation. My personal preference is to set a "Plane" myself, and to not have that plane change, until I make the change personally. Having those boxes "on", means that Mastercam will switch you planes for you, often without you knowing it happened. By then the damage is usually done.

 

Another thing I think is a great "Tip" is to get used to using the "Quick Mask" tool bar buttons. These "masks" give you the ability to select "All" of a certain geometry/color type by "Left Clicking" the button, while "Right Clicking" the button turns on the "Only" selection mode. I have a hard time using MC without the "Quick Mask" buttons now.

This was driving me nuts...

 

I just found that in MC 2020 this is no longer in System configuration, instead there is a drop down menu called "Follow Rules" at the top of the Planes Manager.

 

Thank you!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
20 minutes ago, Steelab said:

This was driving me nuts...

 

I just found that in MC 2020 this is no longer in System configuration, instead there is a drop down menu called "Follow Rules" at the top of the Planes Manager.

 

Thank you!

Yes, I believe they switched those settings in Mastercam 2017.

Still the most annoying settings that are defaulted to 'on', but it has been that way forever and isn't likely to be changed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...

Variable Chamfer on a part. I needed to do this today and broke out the old school Surface Fillet to Surfaces. I used the Variable Fillet and then went into the advanced and click chamfer and rails. I need to drive a 5 axis toolpath around a complex shape to deburr it, but need the exact edge of the chamfer to drive it from to get the cut and motion I wanted. Model was a sheet solid so couldn't just chamfer it and Solid Chamfer wouldn't work on the complexity of this shape. That is where Surface Creation Tools shine in Mastercam. 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...

Creating Vectors lines for 5 Axis toolpaths. Use the Fence Surface to create a surface perpendicular to the surface your are wanting to drive from. Then use create curve flowline and see if U or V gives you lines that are perpendicular to the drive surface you want. Pick your line spacing and now you have perfect vectors to drive any 5 axis toolpath. I need to do a .005R x .005  deep Scribe line on a mold for a customer, but the problem was couldn't keep normal to all the surfaces it would crash, but then needed to be normal to other surfaces. I use this and some of my Jacobs ladder tricks and got a very nice toolpath to drive the part.  The bottom row of vector lines is normal to the surface I am cutting and was created using the process described above. The top section is a Jacobs ladder process. I decided what my Center Vector would be and then what my end Vector would be. I then made mid section vector dividing that angle in half. I then drew a spline for the ID of the vectors and use the original arc for the contact area to the part. Now I use the create point segments to give me a equal number of points for each section. Then create line lock the auto cursor to point and draw from the contact surface out to make the vectors all go the direction I want. Now I can window select all vectors that are on a level by themselves and call it a day.  

image.thumb.png.3cfb590b414bd57591d2670f9f8a1233.png

 

  • Thanks 2
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

Join us!

eMastercam - your online source for all things Mastercam.

Together, we are the strongest Mastercam community on the web with over 56,000 members, and our online store offers a wide selection of training materials for all applications and skill levels.

Follow us

×
×
  • Create New...