draw geometry for G00 rapid moves

[Bret Vanderhyden]

oh you don't have the CAD of the finish model with that wave pattern. All of my ideas are driven to the Drive faces or surfaces so without having an accurate model that makes more sense to me now why you are taking this approach. That's impressive work man for not getting accurate CAD models, I would probably still model the part and use a 3d path than try to manipulate a manually drawn path but it looks like you have your strategy figured pretty good. Other than the toolpath editor idea, another thought would be to just use your custom geometry that you have drawn, but instead of doing it all with 1 toolpath break it up into multiple toolpaths and as long as you don't draw your links Mastercam should use a retract back to your toolpaths clearance plane. So my idea would be just don't use your links that you have drawn but instead use multiple toolpath and that should link the paths with a rapid move. good luck

Thanks Josh - Multiple toolpaths with rapid retracts is typically what I do. Window select works best for multiple entities. 

[Bret Vanderhyden]

Beautiful artwork, Bret!

 

This looks like a perfect application for Mastercam Art.  You probably want to talk to your reseller about a demo on it.

 

The quick version is that you create an art "object" (basically a mesh in the background) that you can manipulate using repeating patterns, importing gradient graphics (white is tallest, black is lowest), etc. to get the size/shape/height you want.   Then you can export that to a mesh or Mastercam surfaces.

 

Here's an example of something I created in a few seconds.  I'll send you a PM about how to get the file, even a small one like this is ~15mb, so too big to attach here.

 

Start with a area you'd like to fill in (a simple rectangle in my case), and an area you'd like to fill in (the squiggly area in the middle):

 

Then go in and create a pattern (either use a predefined or go with custom).  If you go with custom, choose your base image:

 

Finally adjust any settings you'd like to fill in the pattern until you're happy, then right click on the art "object" and choose to Export to > Mastercam Surfaces:

 

Now you can use an ol' toolpath to cut it, I used surface high speed raster here with a basic ball mill just for example:

Hi Aaron- thanks for the info on Mastercam art -- I'll definitely look into it.