lines to surfaces

[skulpter]

Hello all. I'm shop supervisor at the Univ. of Arizona College of Architecture, and we've recently acquired a small cnc router, which came with Mastercam. I'm a complete novice, but I've learned a whole lot in the last three months that I've been working with it. A primary reason we purchased the machine is to cut smooth contour site models (topographies) accurately, based on GIS topo maps in DWG format. My dilemma is this -- since the digital GIS maps are a series of topographic lines, I need a way of converting those lines into a surface so as to generate surface toolpaths. Is there a way of doing this in Mastercam, or in any other program for that matter? I feel there must be a way, but I have yet to figure it out. We have Autocad, Rhino, Viz 4, Truespace, and Maya. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Chris Rizzo]

Rhino has a "drape" feature..which basically does exactly that. Drapes a surface over a wire. I've only had the occasion to use it once, and it did work just fine. Amazingly simple to do. A few switches to play with in Rhino (mesh size, density, etc.). If memory serves me, I think I went out of Rhino with a .x_t (parasolid file) right into Mastercam.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

[BernieT]

cmr is close - Rhino 'Patch' is the command to use.(Drape is for placing a surface over a mesh object) Rhino can read the DWG file and Mastercam Ver 9 Sp2 can read the Rhino file - no translation needed. (File-Converters-next menu-next menu-Rhino)

 

Lots of variables in the 'Patch' command. You will have to play with many of them to get what you want. If you need any help I would be happy to be of assistance.

 

HTH

[Chris Rizzo]

thx BerTau,

I could'nt exactly remember what the heck I did, it was my first time (any only time!) using Rhino at a friends computer...and the details apparently escaped me!

 

I think I had a .3ds ??? mesh file that I wanted to get surfaces on..

 

Rhino seemed like a nifty little program, would like to get to know a bit more about it.

[BernieT]

cmr -- You are welcome.

 

Rhino is a great program, well worth getting and learning. And CHEAP! Approx $200 if you are a student, $600 to $1000 otherwise depending on where you buy it.

[skulpter]

Thanks for the replies. I've tried both drape and patch on Rhino with limited success -- drape works great on other surfaces or solids, but not with lines (as I recall), and patch only gives a highly "smoothed out" approximation, seemingly regardless of how much I tweak the parameters. However I am still working along those lines.

 

BTW, Rhino is a really powerful little 3d modeling program, using nurbs. I have found that 3d geometries that use boolean operations need to be saved as IGES files to import cleanly into Mastercam -- something that took many hours of head scratching to finally discover. A full version with 30 saves is available for evaluation at www.rhino3d.com. Thanks again!

[Chris Rizzo]

Oh, Welcome to the Forum, Skulpter! Sounds like you do some pretty interesting and different work...looking forward to more of it.

 

Here's what I used Rhino for..

 

Might be hard to see, but it's a human heart cut out of a ole' chunk of Titanium (about 3"x5"x1.5"). Sits in a little box machined out of Purple Heart wood...that was the easy part!.

[Jimmy Wakeford from Barefoot CNC]

skulpter

have you tried using lofted surfaces yet? YOu may have to rebuild the curves first. (MC,Maya,Rhino)

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

Skulpter,

 

I'm going to ask you to back up a bit and ask why you feel you need to use surface toolpaths? Why not just 2D contours at different depths using the lines you have?

 

ProductDevelopmentGuy

[Phil Orenstein]

Skulpter,

You may want to give the Loft wireframe toolpath a try. It will give you an blend and fill in between the topological contours on different Z levels. Try experimenting with wireframe toolpaths esp the loft using the across or along method - they should give you some interesting results

 

Phil

[Thad]

quote:

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I think I had a .3ds ??? mesh file that I wanted to get surfaces on..

---

cmr, it wouldn't happen to be a heart, would it? I remember that thread.

 

Thad teh shoulda read the whole thread before replying