Testing Mastercam plug on Solidworks - is it practical for me?

[A.N.D]

Hello there.

 

Up until today I used SW at in studio and exported X_T to MC at the factory. It creates a lot of double modeling and it's a mess to track all the versions.

So I decided to try SW at the factory with MC plug. As soon as I started working on tool paths It got tricky. maybe somebody is familiar with this tool:

 

1. After I applied tool paths, how do I nest the parts, including tool paths, on the stock plane?

2. When routing in 2D where there is an undercut, how do I limit the area to cut so the tool path wouldn't cut out material that "shades" the undercut?

3. Where do I find instructions / manual / case studies of working with MC plug to SW?

 

Cheers.

Avsha.

[Guest]

Have you by chance contacted you'r reseller?

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

I'll second what JP says, but meanwhile, for the most part the toolpath generation (other than entity selection) is not much different from standard Mastercam.

[A.N.D]

The first thing I did was contacting my reseller.

He has never experienced with SW plug for woodworking yet, so it might take a while until I will get replies / solutions. I prefer to look for knowledge abroad instead of wait.

Since I am time limited with the Solidworks trial version, I look for fast answers at the forum hoping to evaluate the software before expiry.

Other than my previous unsolved issues, here is another:

today i work only in mastercam X9 and i have a button "solid disassemble" that make great work with the parts and then i made nesting.
in the new software "mastercam for solidworks" i dont have this button.
how can i make it?

Cheers.

Avshalom Noham

Industrial Designer

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

There are tutorials in the Documentation/Tutorials subfolder that can help you with some of the 2D programming questions.

But your questions regarding the undercut apply in metalworking as well as in woodworking, and in the standard Mastercam product, so your reseller should be able to help you with those even if he is not familiar with the "for SolidWorks" version.

Meanwhile we're looking into the best way for you to do the 'disassembly'. Hang on!

[Ryan Butt CNC Software]

Hi Avshalom,

 

In SOLIDWORKS we wouldn't use a solid disassemble since that would break our mates. Instead what you do is toolpath each part in it's assembly orientation using a custom WCS. Then just select those toolpaths within nesting and it will automatically re-orientate you toolpath flat on your defined sheet and nest them based on your settings.   

[Ryan Butt CNC Software]

"2. When routing in 2D where there is an undercut, how do I limit the area to cut so the tool path wouldn't cut out material that "shades" the undercut?"

 

In this example when selecting the geometry for the toolpath, select the entire solid body. When you do this in MCfSW with in a 2D toolpath it will automatically generate a silhouette boundary around your part and project it down onto your toolplane.    

[A.N.D]

Hi Pete and Ryan.

I wish to share with you our progress on the topic.

Today we got responded by our reseller regarding the two questions we had:

1. How to create tool-path using geometry we add to a face we work on, instead of the contour of the face? The image at the beggining of this topic describe it.

2. How to nest non-planar bodies/parts, including its tool-paths, to a single plane?

 

the answers we got are:

 

"In SW we have toolpath nesting only, no any geometry nesting function in SW AFAIK.

Also disassemble function not exists in SW since it uses separate part files to create assemblies."

 

If that's MCFSW capabilities for today, when do you think we would see a useful tool for our needs?

 

Cheers.

Avshalom Noham

Industrial Designer.

[Ryan Butt CNC Software]

Hi Avshalom,

 

I'm sorry but I don't understand the 1st question:

"1. How to create tool-path using geometry we add to a face we work on, instead of the contour of the face? The image at the beggining of this topic describe it."

 

The way nesting works in MCfSW is: You do not move your parts flat onto a plane prior to toolpathing or within nesting. This would break any SW mates used to position the parts within an assembly. This is also one of the reasons there is no "disassemble" function nor any plans to add one.

Instead the intent is you toolpath the parts in what ever orientation they were designed in using a custom WCS. Then in nesting the toolpaths are automatically nested flat onto your sheet. Moving multiple copies of solid bodies into various nested orientations just isn't feasible within the SW application. SW only offers the ability to move solids using their move copy function, not sketches and nesting supports all geometry types. So with that in mind MCfSW is intentionally built around the SW work flow intent (assemblies, configurations, model space etc.)