I am trying to avoid z-level cuts; I'd just like the machine to plunge all the way down, all the way back up, move over a tiny bit, and repeat. Is there any way to do this? Toolpath-rough-plunge doesn't work, as described above. Does anyone know what's wrong? Thanks.

The pocket toolpath seems optimal. Unfortunately, the "optimize cut order" checkbox was grayed-out when I opened the gap settings dialog, so I could not change it. I'm trying to rough out a heightmap out of a 5x5x5cm block of polycarbonate plastic. Thanks.

Thank you all, helps a lot. Endmill is what I meant, thanks for the terminology help there. =) However, does a 2 hour milling time seem odd to rough out a 3d surface (5cm x 5cm x 5cm)? It seems it would be more efficient if at every XY-gridpoint, the program would just plunge down, stop at the surface, and come back up (instead of cutting out successive Z-surfaces). Is there something more memory/time-efficient than roughing a surface out one slab at a time?

Hello. I have a heightmap which I need to mill out. When I try to generate a toolpath (parallel is the only one which seems to work) what happens is this: The mill cuts out the entire topmost layers, passing back and forth needlessly, then does the same thing for the next deepest layer, then the next, etc. This is highly inefficient. Would anyone please suggest a more efficient toolpath? (Is there some way to restrict movement so the drill bit remains roughly on the surface I'm trying to carve out?) Thanks, Mats

No need for help now. Rhino3D is able to turn a DXF -> IGES (rather inefficiently truns each quadrilateral into a NURBS surface but it's better than nothing).

Oops, as it turns out while AutoDesk is able to import the file properly and turn it into a spline surface, it is unable to export it as a IGES file. Whatever polygonal surface (DXF, STL converted from a DXF, STL of a joined surface...) I try to import into MasterCam, it always seems to get broken up into a bunch of small polygons, which I can't figure out how to turn into a toolpath. I know this is a MasterCam forum, but by any off chance might anyone know how to: A) using AutoDesk (3D Studio Max, VIZ, etc.), export a surface as an IGES file? using Inventor, join a bunch of polygons together and export as a surface in an IGES file? C) or perhaps create a toolpath of a whole bunch of non-connected quadrilaterals in MasterCam (without manually patching them all together; I have thousands of polygons on this surface)? Thanks.

Thank you all. I (finally!) found a way around this mess. The application AutoDesk automatically converts any imported model (e.g.: DXF) into a spline surface with arbitrary position. Hence I'm going DXF->IGES->MasterCam It should work fine now. My misadventure: Unfortunately, my school's version of MasterCam 7 did not have a toolpath-wireframe option, so I was unable to create a toolpath despite managing to import the model in other formats (e.g.: STL, etc.... and MasterCam wouldn't let me import as DWG saying it's a pay-extra feature so I would have to pay if I wanted to use it.) ~>( I was also tempted to figure out how to use the aforementioned stl2surf c-hook before I discovered AutoDesk. So now all's well and good... except for the fact that I'll probably have a 20-meg file which needs to be toolpathed on a Pentium II. =) Thanks again for the help, It is most appreciated.

Thanks all very much. quote: Wireframe geometry is supported in DXF files and can be used for 2D, or 3D toolpaths.Ahah, this is what I was getting at! So how would one go about using a DXF as a 3D toolpath? =)

Thank you. So DWG is the version of a DXF that will allow me to mill, and I am unable to mill using a regular DXF file?... The DXF is exported from Mathematica. My other option is to export as STL... but I don't think I can get surfaces from that, can I?

Thank you both. However, I find this odd... why is it that people are able to import DXF meshes and use them to mill out things like text engravings or chess pieces or heart models? How is one supposed to use a DXF in MasterCam??

Is there a way to quickly convert DXF->surface in MasterCam?

Hello. I have come up to a brick wall in my research project and any help would be greatly appreciated. I have imported a surface into MasterCam as a DXF. When I try to make a toolpath of the surface (using toolpath-surface), I am unable to select the wireframe; the imported DXF doesn't appear to be registered as a 'surface' object. I am new to the software. Might anyone know what's wrong? Is there a special way I should go about making the toolpath for a DXF surface? ... or is there a problem with MasterCam 7's ability to import DXF files, and if so is there a way to automatically patch together or interpolate a bunch of 3d quadrilaterals? (If worse comes to worse I can try to convert to another format, but I'm trying to avoid that.) Thank you.