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Graphics in Simulator Choppy


TOM S
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Trying to figure out why when I verify some programs the display comes out choppy or pixelated.  Other programs display smooth.   In the smooth displaying verification in the bottom right corner there is a processing bar marked Enhancing Model.  But this doesn't appear in the choppy version.

I am running Mcam 2018.  Windows 7 64-bit, and updated my graphic drivers to most recent version trying to fix the issue

First pic is the smooth cutting one.  Second is the choppy / pixelated one.  Verified and screen shot right after each other.verify2.thumb.jpg.f818c522f48787c82cf27eccdadadc4d.jpg

 

 

 

verify.thumb.jpg.50781f2cb48c872f7f454aa0bc6fd1ec.jpg

 

They are both relatively the same scale, so it's not a matter off zooming in too far.

Am i missing something simple here??

 

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Just and observation but in the first screen grab the smooth one the model has been enhanced 100%.  In the second screen grab  I can't see the slider bar for model enhancement.  It automatically enhances when you zoom in or out or change the postiion of your verified model.  Did you give the software enough time to complete the model enhancement before you did the second screen grab of the choppy verification?

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  • 4 years later...

its related to stock size most likely, mastercam automatically reduces graphics quality on larger stock sizes, shrink your stock to only fit around one of the features and re-verify and you likely will see what i mean.

there  is an accurate zoom that you can run after verify is complete, or use stock models to verify individual sections of the part.

the bigger the stock size, the more choppy the verify results 

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Josh is right that the issue is the stock size, you need to increase the precision value in MastercamSimulatorDefaults.xml in the user data folder

use this setting ->  <PrecisionIndex>10</PrecisionIndex>

and this -> <PrecisionFactor>5</PrecisionFactor>

 

PrecisionFactor default is at one , so that is one fifth of the potential resolution, this does make the simulation take longer, but the  quality will be very high

When you install mastercam you always need to check these values to avoid this issue ,

 

HTH

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2 hours ago, byte said:

Josh is right that the issue is the stock size, you need to increase the precision value in MastercamSimulatorDefaults.xml in the user data folder

use this setting ->  <PrecisionIndex>10</PrecisionIndex>

and this -> <PrecisionFactor>5</PrecisionFactor>

 

PrecisionFactor default is at one , so that is one fifth of the potential resolution, this does make the simulation take longer, but the  quality will be very high

When you install mastercam you always need to check these values to avoid this issue ,

 

HTH

just be careful if someone does this, cuz going too much on that can lead to issues. What i do is copy and paste the Simulator defaults file in this location, C:\Users\name\Documents\My Mastercam 2023\Mastercam, i then rename one of them "High Precision" and make those changes only to the high precision one, then anytime i want to use the high precsion one i just go into verify and go to file  --> defaults --> change defaults and pick the high precision one. That way i dont mess up my default verify settings and only get the change when i really need it.

i thought we only need to change precision index and to not go above 4 on that, but i could be wrong there...

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4 hours ago, JoshC said:

just be careful if someone does this, cuz going too much on that can lead to issues. What i do is copy and paste the Simulator defaults file in this location, C:\Users\name\Documents\My Mastercam 2023\Mastercam, i then rename one of them "High Precision" and make those changes only to the high precision one, then anytime i want to use the high precsion one i just go into verify and go to file  --> defaults --> change defaults and pick the high precision one. That way i dont mess up my default verify settings and only get the change when i really need it.

i thought we only need to change precision index and to not go above 4 on that, but i could be wrong there...

I am 90% sure it is a value out of 10, as I remember it being at 5, and the quality suffering, then checking an older version that was at ten and that fixing the problem,

no this shouldn't cause problems, I usually set mine to the max, then set the slider in the ui to the minimum, it only needs to be increased for large stock setups then

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43 minutes ago, byte said:

I am 90% sure it is a value out of 10, as I remember it being at 5, and the quality suffering, then checking an older version that was at ten and that fixing the problem,

no this shouldn't cause problems, I usually set mine to the max, then set the slider in the ui to the minimum, it only needs to be increased for large stock setups then

ill have to look where I read about it when i get back to work tomorrow. perhaps with the complexity of your toolpaths and parts you have not noticed a problem, with some of the parts some people work with cranking that to the max can cause an issue with performance. 

edit, im not saying that you do not do complex work, i have been very impressed with your c-hook and other work, so hope that doesnt come off that way. i just mean everyone does different work and some of the work i have seen already is straining verify at default settings for some people. also some people do not get the fastest systems to work with even after begging management for an upgrade 

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15 hours ago, JoshC said:

ill have to look where I read about it when i get back to work tomorrow. perhaps with the complexity of your toolpaths and parts you have not noticed a problem, with some of the parts some people work with cranking that to the max can cause an issue with performance. 

edit, im not saying that you do not do complex work, i have been very impressed with your c-hook and other work, so hope that doesnt come off that way. i just mean everyone does different work and some of the work i have seen already is straining verify at default settings for some people. also some people do not get the fastest systems to work with even after begging management for an upgrade 

I frequently work on files with 1000's of operations across huge workspaces, my customers are among the largest aircraft oems in the world,, so we get the biggest  files sometimes 100 gigabytes or more..

if the work area is small, having too much precision will slow you down, the larger the area, the more precision you will need, if the graphics card is outdated, the simulation is going to be longer, but the simulation is useless if you have minecraft sized pixels anyway....

Rather than setting the precision factor to 1, it's better to set it to 3 or 4 and turn the slider for precision all the way down, then you can easily adjust it,

the precision factor should be a slider too in my opinion

15 hours ago, JoshC said:

found more info, knowledge base article 17521 https://my.mastercam.com/knowledgebase/optimizing-simulator-for-small-parts/  talks about this topic, it does state 4 is max for Precision Factor. 
if its been working for you though no problem just telling you what I have read about before and its outlined in this article

It's likely truncated to 4 then,

You could set it to 2,3,4 then, but at no point should it be 1, unless all you simulate is a tea-cup or something, I thought for the first five years I used mastercam that the graphics were just bad until i found those settings, so i wanted to share, since everyone was talking about gpu's ,which has nothing to do with the pixelation afaik

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