Mastercam 2018 Chaining

[metzenwest]

Hey every, So, I upgraded to 2018 today, and after a bit of a rocky start I've come across a problem.

The problem I'm having is with chaining Wireframe, I've used mastercam for over 10 years and know exactly how chaining wireframe behaves.

In 2018 it is not behaving the same. I click on my line at where I want it to start and which direction, and it puts the start point 2 entity's away chaining in the wrong direction.

So I think "Oh my chain must have a gap". So I trimmed everything and it's fine. Yet it still won't chain correctly. I can correct it after I chain, but If i have to correct it EVERY chain that doubles my programming time.

I played around with the options under the chaining tab and nothing changed, I played with the chaining tolerance under Chain Manager and nothing.

Any Ideas?

I imported the geometry to 2017 and it works as it should there.

 

[jeff]

It must be a setting that you have, I don't have this issue.

What are your chaining settings at in the config?

 

[metzenwest]

I got it figured out, on all the geometry I had there was a microscopic line that was causing the problem. I guess when I imported it to 2017 it didn't take that very small line with it.

So I feel like an idiot for crying wolf here. And of course it happens the First time I do a program in 2018.

 

Edit: I R Amazing Speller!

[Colin Gilchrist]

4 hours ago, metzenwest said:

I got it figured out, on all the geometry I had there was a microscopic line that was causing the problem. I guess when I imported it to 2017 it didn't take that very small line with it.

So I feel like an idiot for crying wolf here. And of course it happens the First time I do a program in 2018.

 

Edit: I R Amazing Speller!

Don't feel too bad. It happens to the best of us. Small bits of geometry can be very hard to detect, especially with different Chaining Tolerances now being tied to the Chaining Dialog for each Operation.

That is a new change to the software, either in 2017 or 2018. So now, you can have a different Chaining Tolerance, per operation, and that tolerance value is "tied" to the individual Operation...

Even if you opened up the tolerance value, having a small line (.00005 for example), that shares an endpoint with another line along your chain, will still cause Mastercam to detect a "Branch Point" in your chain, and is exactly what was driving you crazy.

Check out the C-Hook "Find Overlap", (Alt + C, on your keyboard). You can use this utility to hunt for "collinear" lines and "concentric" chunks of arcs. (It only works with lines and arcs, no splines allowed.)