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Machiner32

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  1. Hey sorry I forgot to follow up on this, I contacted our reseller again about the post and sent them a zip of my file and when they posted the code they were getting varying results. Said there was indeed some very strange computation error going on and they ran it through some "post debugger" and were unable to figure out exactly what the problem was. I believe they had to send it up the chain to CNC Software to get it fixed, but they got back to me with the fixed post I haven't had any problems since. The other issue with the code not lining up I figured out was actually the rotary CW/CCW direction in the machine def. Good thing it was a testing the path on a chunk of Poplar and not the good Mahogany (have you seen the price of wood lately?!) Anyways, its all worked out so consider this case closed. Thanks for the help, and I will be keeping that MP post around
  2. Wow Aaron, thanks!! I can see now exactly all the things I was doing wrong. I was confused about machining/avoidance selection in collision control for starters, but now it makes sense what Colin was saying before about the ''motion of toolpath vs what you want to leave behind''. This is a much cleaner path and a lot less work than slicing up my solid model and/or creating dozens of planes, in fact I might not even need the scanner softwares 'auto surface' as much as I had thought. Looks like it comped out to the STL very nicely and with the new Edit Mesh functions in Mcam it should make my job a lot less frustrating! I've spent hundreds of hours in the last month learning all this new stuff on my own time, and your example just tied everything together. We plan on doing many similar parts like this one so I really can't thank you enough, I should be buying you lunch!
  3. https://www.dropbox.com/s/x96i3aqv99vvdyi/test scan2.ZIP?dl=0 There are different geometries the scan company provided, i put them on different levels. Just wondering which works best? the STL looks to have more defined edges than the solids do. I tried slicing some of it up since there are flat areas on the stock wood glue up that dont need to be milled, and also trying to avoid hitting the rotary and tailstock.
  4. Thanks Colin, I watched that video over the weekend it was very informative. I think I had the right idea but I was going about it the wrong way, so i'll keep trying on this. My other problem might be this part is a bit complex for a multi-axis beginner (me) to start learning on. The boss gave me a lot to chew on here... I'll try getting some other toolpaths working on simpler geometry. I started learning mastercam on version 6.11 for fun at my dads shop when I was a kiddo, It's crazy to look back and see how far its come. I made a zip2go, It might still be too big but ill try to upload it. tried deleting some stuff since the file grew into a disorganized mess in my frustrations, i will upload to dropbox and share a link
  5. Update: spent 2hrs today messing around with multisurface toolpath while my machine was ran a long Pencil finish op on the detail which turned out beautifully. But could not get multisurface path to compensate to anything when tool axis is set to a pattern surf. I tried both solid and surface for comp geometry, and different shapes for pattern, but the path stays on the pattern. Part is along the X on the rotary, 4 axis output pattern to cylinder , seems simple enough so maybe I'm just missing something obvious. I was able to get most of the other multiaxis toolpaths to work pretty smoothly so I kept the machine running with those while sitting there stumped.
  6. Thats what I tried to do. For some reason I thought you couldn't select solid faces for compensation... But there must be something else I'm not understanding because the path just stays on the cylinder.
  7. Still new to multiaxis stuff, but just wondering is it possible to 3D project the "multisurface" toolpath that I created on the pattern surfaces? Or do I use the "compensation surfaces" option? 5-axis convert/dropping? I've found the scanner company provided a pretty lousy surface model in the form of an .IGS file but the STEP file they gave me has worked pretty well for projecting and other 3D paths so far, but I don't seem to have the option to select solid surfaces in Multisurface toolpath.
  8. I have also tried using cylinder surfaces of various diameter, and this seemed to work well for the "gooseneck" and ball-claw section of the part, but approaching the "wings" section with the engraving which has more rectangular-ish geometry and is throwing it off a bit.
  9. I tried a 3D high speed project NCI of a 2d path, then convert to 5x with 4-axis output to add some tilt, and that seemed to work pretty good but I can't figure out how to wrap the toolpath it all the way around the part. If I do this with 5axis multisurface will it wrap around? I'm trying to avoid a toolpath mismatch, though its no big deal since its wood and a 5 minutes with sandpaper will take care of that.
  10. I was wondering if anyone has experience working with geometry created from 3D scanners. Our company is looking into purchasing a scanner, so the boss had a few 'test' scans done on a few things to see if we could machine something from it. One item that was scanned is an old copy mill pattern that was used to rough out a furniture leg that would then be finish carved by hand, so the scan is essentially a 100% organic shape. The laser scanner company provided us with a few different file formats of geometry that their software generated from the point cloud. They included a watertight mesh model as well as a STEP and IGES of surfaces/solids to demonstrate their software "Auto-surfacing" feature. So it turns out this is not at all what I was expecting with this autosurface stuff. I'm looking at thousands of patched together surfaces with flowlines going every which way and I'm not even sure where to start since I'm also still relatively new to the entire Multiaxis package in Mcam 2022. Our customer provided us with a glued up chunk of mahogany for stock that they would normally start with to carve this out, and our goal for this test run is to see how close we can get to the original hand carved part, thus saving our customer lots of time in labor hand carving the entire piece like they've always done it. It doesn't have to be perfect, but I'd like to see how perfect I can get it. We have a 4th axis rotary on our VMC and so far I've been able to get some 3d roughing paths rotated around the part. but now I'm really struggling to get some of the multiaxis toolpaths to work right on these odd surfaces. Flowline and multisurface won't work unless I painstakingly create my own surfaces. No luck with mastercams "surfaces from solids" tool. No luck using the new "overflow UV" tool. I tried to painstakingly re-draw my own surfaces on this, but then realized that kind of defeats the whole purpose of the Scanner Software "autosurface" feature. I've been exited to try out the new mesh modelling and toolpathing options in the new 2022, but I can't really get it to work right. Not entirely sure how to use a mesh model to drive a toolpath.... I can attach a file if anyone is interested to help out with this or provide any advice, but its a huge file so I might have to trim it down a bit. I have attached screenshots of the part that show the mesh model and also the solid surfaces that were patched together.
  11. Thanks Colin, that took care of the issue, no longer getting Feed rate alarms and also the machine seems to run more smoothly. Is it possible to modify my other post to do this same thing? I was looking around in my other post and it looks a bit different and I'm not sure if I have the machine/control definition set up right. Doing a 4 axis continuous rotary cut and it's looking like it's not lining up with what I had already cut before, same toolpath I ran before. I really should have my reseller fix this now that I'm certain that it's not my machine setting or "weird toolpath geometry" like theyve been insisting. I'm starting to wonder what I'm paying "maintenance fees" for...
  12. This is what I've been trying to do. I can't find a setting in mastercam control definition that will do this and I have no idea how to edit the post itself. What I dont understand is my program is posting out walls of redundant feed rates of F1000. and then randomly will be missing a F.
  13. As far as I know, the setting "ROTARY DIAMETER" is a function in the HAAS control that allows units/min feed on a rotary. You enter the diameter of your workpiece and it compensates the feed (works only for 1 diameter"
  14. Our shop just got a hold of a new HAAS rotary axis (HRT-310) for our VM-6 machining center, and I'm still new to the multiaxis package as I've only been using it a few months now and just updated to mcam2022 last week. Using a generic HAAS 4X post processor provided by our reseller, so far I've been able to cut some basic wood carvings running multiaxis toolpaths on 3D scan geometry of antique furniture carvings. It's been working fine until sometimes my post will forget a feed rate on random blocks during continuous 4x movements when inverse feed movements should be happening. This causes my HAAS to give a "NO FEED RATE" alarm. When I checked with our resellers and they checked my control definition settings they said everything looks fine it should be posting out inverse feed time, and that it must be a setting on the machine or "something weird" with my toolpath geometry. I know the machine will alarm with no feed rate is given on every block, and I know get this alarm with even simple geometry as well. It's been weeks now and still haven't found any solution to this. Customer needs their part that's been chucked up while I scratch my head trying to get some code that doesnt make my machine alarm randomly in the middle of a 3 hr long program.

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