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Stock model newbee


Oppiz
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I'm trying to grasp the use of stock models, when? how? why?

 

When? All the time... but especially on complex parts.

 

How? Many ways, but if you have a casting model that's a good starting place... once into the programming, pick the toolpaths and that will define your model at that point in the machining process.

 

Why? Because you can use them for rest roughing paths and they are great to use in verify.

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If I understand it correctly, if I have a complex part and want to use optirest, I can set up a stock model using the previous operations to use for the rest mill setup?

 

Yes sir.

 

It's pretty powerful...

 

If you are starting with a solid block, set up your stock to the exact material size... then when you open the stock model toolpath, choose "Stock Setup" on the "Stock Definition" page... and then select the operations you want your stock model to show on the "Source Operations" page.

 

It will generate like a normal toolpath... and you can toggle it on and off like a normal toolpath too.

 

If you work with castings, you can start with a Stock Model of a casting solid and rest rough to that to minimize air cuts... so yeah... very powerful stuff.

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Another excellent use of stock model is for multi-stage machining. Say you have rough 1 & 2, then Finish 1 & 2.

You have a stock model for rough 1, you then use that model as the "Stock" for rough 2, then you that model for Finish 1, etc, etc.

 

The beauty of this is that you'll see little nicks, and "forgotten" corner rads, and other errors as they flow through the process(also, if you go back and fix something...they all update when you regen!).

 

I also use it to speed up my verification. I always have one stock model called "in-process" in my file, and what I do is, as I'm programming and I'm satisfied with an operation, I add it to the stock model and generate. This gives me a visual of where I'm at in my program.

Then...

When I start my next op, I use the stock model as my verify stock, so verifies become instant and I can watch that one op verify over and over until I get it right.(then you add it to the stock model and move on!)

 

J

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Also, for those of us who are constantly interrupted, stock models can be great for 'seeing where you got to' during programing.

So if your last op is always a stock model, as you create your next op, put it above the stock model.

When you have finished the op, go into stock model, reselect all ops and regen, and then it shows you where you have got to.

 

It's one of those tools that is now so useful, you'll wonder how you ever did without it :D

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lots of stuff you can do with stock models. you can obviously use it for your stock setup (anything non-standard, Forgings, castings, etc.), for rest machining (re-machining) additional material away. you can use stock models for lathe work when Milling comes into play (stock model can update your lathe remaining stock - this is new to Mastercam 2017), you can use them to save a PMesh. you can also target specific areas with the 3d Toolpaths by creating a stock model of only your area to cut and then setting the 3d toolpath to only use that model which will not let the toolpath cut elsewhere, this is a great option for 2d parts when a customer has mill3d as you can target areas and pockets and program with ease. or like someone else mentioned just to see your progression through the part without the need to keep verifying.

 

they are exceptionally powerful and there is more that you can do with them but the most common stuff I use them for personally is for going from one operation to another or to save time on verifying.

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Stock models have alot of uses.

 

You can press the squiggly lines and render it up at will and do the same with the tool paths and get an overlay without having to be in verify or back plot mode.

 

But the most valuable thing for me is the use in verify.  My verify models can get very large with the opti paths on them.

 

STL's over 30 meg are troublesome  in verify. But take that same stl and generate it into a stock model and it works alot better in verify.

 

Now the easy peazy parts will all look good with stock model you can see what your part is, use it as rest material, use it in verify without ever making an STL...but when you have a huge complex part to verify with Moduleworks, you need to do a flip flop around 30 meg and go ahead and generate an STL from Verify instead of just processing the tool paths internally in the stock model...

 

It takes a long time to generate some of the tool paths and to crunch them a second time within the stock model function is redundant and wastes time..

 

But once you get it all figured out...cant live without stock models...

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Is the stock model thing new to MC? Just curious.

 

The lack of one is what made me jump ship years ago. I honestly don't remember how to program without it.

I used a lot of .stl files and rest roughed to them... when stock models came along, they were game changers.

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