Another issue that I should probably bring up here is cost. We are a relatively young company, and trying to weigh our options in terms of the most expandability (I like the idea of being able to sling some arms around) for the cheapest buck. (Though we definately recognize the required investment). What has your experience with the Genie been?

All, I have a couple of questions and I am always amazed at the quality of information that I get out of this forum, so here it goes! We are researching getting a robot arm and rail system to automate a lot of trim and drill operations. Currently, we have a big 5axis Motion Master (Disaster). The part size (and flexibility) that we deal with forces us to reposition 3+ times per part which is really hosing us. So, a couple of questions: 1.) Does anyone have a guesstimate spindle load to hack through up to 0.5" thick carbon layup for a given feed and speed? Specifically, I am curious about the physical force required to move the tool through the material, rather than a spindle motor load (hp wise). From my limited experience with industrial robotics, the accuracy is greatly affected by loading at the wrist, correct? 2.) What is the general consensus regarding programs like RobotMaster? Any others recommended programs out there? 3.) Anybody have similar experience/wisdom that they might like to share? I am all ears! Thanks everybody, I really appreciate it! .jim

Would the parasolid be the ideal file to start with? Murlin, I am always up for learning something new! Thanks guys! .jim

Bruce, It worked! Thank you all so much for your help. .jim

John, It is multiple surfaces. I have allready run into the duplicate entities issue, so individual create>curve>one edge makes sense. I guess the big problem that I'm running into, and I'm not sure if I'm conveying this correctly, is: I have a part which has some very simple geometries, but rather than just redraw it in MC, I'd like to learn how to come up with some 2D contours from the .IGS file. (Simple as in, if I was programing the outer contour, it'd go something like: G01, G02, G03, G02) The problem that I seem to be getting with these contours is that no solution seems to be seeing all these little splines as the full sized arc, so whenever I post the toolpath it is painfully too large for my Robotool which probably has less ram than my graphing calculater. Like I said, I'm sure this is all boiling down to my vast inexperience in MC, but the help is much appreciated guys. It probably is also not helping that I'm unable to connect to the FTP site here. Though if anybody wants to take a look at it, I'm more than willing to email it out. .jim

Bruce, The unblank trick seems to be working. When I do the unblank from a freshly imported .IGS, and then remove the surfaces, I am left with good arcs it seems, but it generates these very long lines that run axially though the center of each known arc. Is this normal? Secondly, what did you mean by the screen>next menu>combine views? Thanks! .jim

Hey guys, thanks for all the quick responses! Sorry I am slow to respond, but all the help is much appreciated. Heeler, I'd like to learn how to do this in MC, though that post converter sounds pretty slick. Italian Stylin', I've been having trouble with the modify>convert to arcs trick. I'm sure it's operator error on my end. Learning to use the little tricks in MC take me FOREVER, it feels like. Bruce, I really like the unblank trick. I am giving that a try right now! Thanks a bunch guys! .jim

no problems, I just sent it to your new adress.

Thanks Gary! Email on the way. .jim

An additional note, when I generate the toolpath (should have been the first indication something was wrong) all my arcs show the tool stepping over instead of the start finish that is normally displayed. This, I believe, suggests that the arc was broken up into a series of pieces? I adjusted the filter, but no luck. I also tried connecting to the FTP site to include the files, but I was unable to connect at the moment. Will try again shortly, or can email if anybody wants to take a look at it. .jim

No, I didn't use the filter on the toolpath, I will give it a try, but any additional recomendatiions? Sideliner, what additional info? Thanks Guys! .jim

Hey Guys, I'm running into a problem that I've never had before, and I'm sure it something you guys see every day, and know an easy fix, it just has me I was given a solidworks file to part out, it's simple 2.5D stuff, So I decided to use the create-curve-all edges, delete the surfaces (it's an .IGES file) and just use the 2D geometries. Now whenever I post, I am getting horrifically large posts, and it seems as if each of the geometries have been broken into tiny arcs. Any easy fixes to this? Thanks in advance guys! .jim

Joe, CMR, and Todd, Thanks very much for all the info, this has definately been a place of great knowledge and good people. If the Raster to Vector add-in costs a fair amount, I'm not sure if I'll be able to add that to our setup, as we don't really do much graphic conversion. However, this has been a really interesting experience, and I am amazed at how quickly the geometry was generated from the included graphic. Thanks guys, your help is invaluable. .jim

Joe, schoolofmines.mc9 is awesome! Were you able to generate that from the graphic I linked to above? That is really cool. Thanks a million man. .jim

Yes, I will see if I can find a higher quality version of the shield. Is the Raster2Vector add-on free? Much thanks! .jim

Hey guys, I've been on this one for a while, so I thought I'd ask on here. We got a new desktop mill here at school, so I'm shooting to make a fancy demo piece to show off some basic 3d capabilites. I've uploaded it here: ftp://mastercam:[email protected]/Ma..._DEMO_PIECE.MC9 The general surface cutting I've got down, but my goal is to get this logo projected onto and then milled into the face with a small ball endmill: http://egweb.mines.edu/images/shield.gif I am assuming that I can just draw the shield on a plane parallel with the face of the piece that I want to draw it on, and then use the Project to Surface feature, but I'm having some problems with it. Can I create a plane parallel to this face to work on in Mastercam, or should I just orient the piece's face to one of the main planes in Mastercam? I was also just planning on redrawing the shield in mastercam, which is not a big deal, but I am curious as to if there's a way to use the graphic of the shield to simplify this? Thanks a lot guys! .jim

Hey Mark, Much thanks, that works great! .jim

Hey All, I am progressing slowly but steadily with solids in MC. Up until now, for chamfering, I have been using a 2D contour at varying z depths to handle the chamfering. Is there an easier way to do this now that I am in solids? I was thinking surface->finish->contour and adjusting the depth to drop down? What are the general opinions on this? Much thanks! .jim

Iskander, The surface-finish-shallow option works great! I have a couple of more questions, but no rush, all the help you guys have provided has been great! First, I noticed in the .MC9 file that you referred me to, that all the holes and the 2 slots in the part have red contours overlaid on top of them. What is the reasoning behind doing this? Second, I would like to both extend the depth of the outside contour (say .05" to assist in machining the opposite side), as well as the depth of the 2 slots. Would my best option here be to extend the solid itself? I really, really appreciate the help! .jim

Much thanks Iskander! .jim

Hey all, I'm picking up some of these solids ok, but I've gotten stuck again. Any comments would be greatly appreciated. I think I'm ok on the surface-rough-pocket and surface-finish-contour use, but I am unsure as to how to do finish passes for the facing type operations with a solid. The part I'm stuck on now is: ftp://mastercam:[email protected]/Ma...s/BASE_FIX1.MC9 I'm using a 1/2" HSS to rough, and 3/8" HSS to finish. I experimented using the surface-finish-leftover, but I'm not really sure what is the best way to go about it. Any suggestions would be greatly, greatly appreciated! .jim [ 01-17-2005, 12:55 AM: Message edited by: n23x ]

Thad and Eeyore, I thank you GREATLY for your help. I think I am actually starting to get this. Solids are the wave of the future! ( at least to me ) Once again much thanks for your informative and quick responses! .jim

Eeyore, I downloaded the eeL-Bracket.MC8 file and opened it up, but I cannot tell the difference between this one and the original L-Bracket.MC8 file that I uploaded yesterday. Is there a change to a particular surface or portion of the solid? Also, how (if at all) would driven and checked surfaces be applicable to generating toolpaths from this solid? Thanks Again! .jim

Eeyore, I was able to upload the original solidworks part, the .IGS file, and the .MC8 file, which should include the stock (just added .2" to XYZ dims with part centered in stock). I tried the surface->rough->pocket but it only recognized the holes in the part. The URL's for the files are: ftp://mastercam:[email protected]/Ma...s/L_BRACKET.IGS ftp://mastercam:[email protected]/Ma..._BRACKET.SLDPRT ftp://mastercam:[email protected]/Ma...s/L_BRACKET.MC8 What (if any) are the benefits to importing into MC the .sldprt as opposed to the .IGS? I do greatly appreciate the help! .jim

Hey All, Up until now, I've only used MC (v8) with 2d contour type work. As I get more and more solidworks parts brought to me (still all simple 2 1/2D stuff) I am realizing the benefit of importing solidparts right in and using the available solids stuff. My question is regarding excess material removal. The part is imported in .IGS format, from solidworks 2004. The stock dimensions are set as necessary. I then do toolpaths->surface->contour->all. For the most part the toolpaths look great, for both roughing and finishing. The part is essentially an L-bracket machined from a solid block of stock. The problem that I'm running into is that, even though I've set stock dimensions, the toolpaths don't seem to clear any of the addition material before cutting the lower contour, so run as is, the endmill would just dig deeper and deeper until breaking. I wish I could post a picture, but I am unsure as to how to upload a picture on this forum. I should also say that I am a student at Colorado School of Mines, that it is the school's copy of MC, and I am just now learning to take advantage of the solids in MC. However, there is nobody that I've managed to find there who's ever used it before. Any help is much appreciated, thanks!