[oneineight]

Mountain Dew and everybody else welcome too.

You mentioned drawing your parts in layers, then importing the layers into sprut.
I am using ironcad, are those layers listed in the scene browser as part 1, part 2, ect?

[pickled]

I am a little confused by your terminology and haven't used IronCAD. I'll slap up some screen shots of a simple project from my CAD system using layers and how it looks in Sprut ASAP so you can get the idea...if I had my external microphone handy I'd just do a quick video. Maybe if I feel motivated in the morning when I go to the building.

[pickled]

Well here's something that hopefully won't be confusing. Note that I am still using Sprut version 7 (happily I might add). I started back in the day with the venerable Sprut 2007. At any rate this model is a fragmentation of a large roller chain sprocket that had to be precisely fixtured and machined in halves because it was beyond the capacity of the Y axis travels to knock out in one shot. At essentially 13" in diameter it provided a good candidate for modeling with multiple layers. Each picture that I uploaded here will have some verbiage and arrows to certain areas that attempt to explain what I am trying to display. Let me know if you have any questions. Regards, Doug P.Attachment 302692

[pickled]

FYI- I just watched a tutorial on your IronCAD. Looks like a nice, intuitive software package BTW. Yes it appears that you would have your vise as an individual part in your scene and your part assembly listed as another part. Have you tried to export a multi-part assembly to IGES yet and import into SPRUT? If so do the names come through in a hierarchy like you see that mine do when I import files generated by Rhino? BTW the Tormach web site has solid models available for you to use of their vises, chucks, 4th axis (most of them)...etc.
http://www.tormach.com/solid-models.html

[Jabs1542]

Very clever - well done. Now that I've had my educational tidbit of the day I can get back to work

Thanks

[pickled]

Thanks for the kind words Jabs1542. I too will have to return to the working realm in 45 minutes....my only educational experience so far this morning was holding down the button on the coffee grinder for an optimal time to deliver grounds of a good particle size distribution for my brew. The resultant nectar that was extracted from those grounds is helping me to slowly feel alive again!

[mountaindew]

Thanks for the kind words Jabs1542. I too will have to return to the working realm in 45 minutes....my only educational experience so far this morning was holding down the button on the coffee grinder for an optimal time to deliver grounds of a good particle size distribution for my brew. The resultant nectar that was extracted from those grounds is helping me to slowly feel alive again!

+1
Fine words, much like the above detail on layers and importing .I never noticed it sorted the model and 2d lines somewhat close to layer system in cad "great tip" will look to see if I can do this.

[oneineight]

Thanks for all the time and research you put into my question.
I have not tried to import multi part assemblies yet, but will be soon.
I did get the vise file from tormach, the steps to get the vise to close on a part still elude me. The drawing comes as a collection of faces, I'm wondering if the file could be imported into sprut and use the sew button on it. Perhaps import the stationary parts and sew them, then import the jaw and sew it.
It might be a day or two before I get your first couple of posts digested.

Nice sprocket! Back when I was youngster I got elected to crawl into the drawworks on my drilling rig and replace chains on some sprockets like that. The 90 wt gear oil was about 4 inches deep in there and I had to clean the mud off my boots before crawling in.
On the plus side, the air temp was near zero with a brisk wind, and it was nice and warm inside that gear box.

[pickled]

+1
Fine words, much like the above detail on layers and importing .I never noticed it sorted the model and 2d lines somewhat close to layer system in cad "great tip" will look to see if I can do this.

Hey MD, what is your CAD of choice these days? I'd be interested to seeing how other CAD systems export assemblies and accompanying hierarchical design info. I take advantage of the fact that my models will come in purely "as designed" and I can have individual surfaces and contours reside in multiple layers. For instance I will create a layer for 1/4 x20 and associate all the holes that I will be spotting, drilling and tapping of that size. I also will create layers that have the associated 2D geometry for external and internal contours. When it comes time to set up machining operations in Sprut having the faces, edges...etc. already cataloged as part of the import process really helps my workflow.

[pickled]

Thanks for all the time and research you put into my question.
I have not tried to import multi part assemblies yet, but will be soon.
I did get the vise file from tormach, the steps to get the vise to close on a part still elude me. The drawing comes as a collection of faces, I'm wondering if the file could be imported into sprut and use the sew button on it. Perhaps import the stationary parts and sew them, then import the jaw and sew it.
It might be a day or two before I get your first couple of posts digested.

Nice sprocket! Back when I was youngster I got elected to crawl into the drawworks on my drilling rig and replace chains on some sprockets like that. The 90 wt gear oil was about 4 inches deep in there and I had to clean the mud off my boots before crawling in.
On the plus side, the air temp was near zero with a brisk wind, and it was nice and warm inside that gear box.

That reminds me of a fine tune by the Rolling Stones, "Give me shelter". Wow I'm glad they were concerned about the potential foreign material contamination of that gear oil and made you clean those boots off LOL! I used to say that the smell of used gear lube (or burnt ATF) and a recent pay stub are some of the most attractive qualities for a potential date to notice in a young man.

Back to the subject at hand. You should take a look at this old, but still quite relevant tutorial that was put together by my personal Obi Wan Kenobi of SprutCAM- Mr. Eric Andersen. Though the interface has changed throughout the years you can see the interactions and it might help you put 2 and 2 together to make 5 (oops must be common core mathematics in play). Keep on plugging away at it and you will become one with the Sprut way of thinking.

https://youtu.be/OBCnefVyKzI

[oneineight]

Thanks Pickled,
this info will keep me busy for a while.

[popspipes]

I have never used the machine or vise designations, or fixtures or holders for that matter?
I just import the part into sprut, set up the machine ops and machine from there.

I set my hold down bolt head clearance with Z clearance so that the tool clears.
Outside of the part clearance for the vise, I set using the bottom level.

But I am a rookie machinist as far as cnc is concerned.

It just seems like a lot of extra work to set up the vise and related items for each part??

I need some enlightenment here guys as I havent been around that long............

[C*H*U*D]

Importing the vise had me scratching my head one night as well. I did figure out that when importing, it's important to have the "fixture" tab highlighted. This will create the vise faces separately...from there, it was trial and error until I had the correct faces selected so that the jaw would move together. I may have some of that mixed up, but if you've used Sprut before, you get the gist of what I'm saying. I think the easiest thing to do is play with just the vise for awhile when you don't have to worry about getting parts done.

Honestly though, I do exactly like Popspipes does. I just bring the part in and go from there.

[phoneman]

I do a lot of fixtures to hold material for machining. I will draw the fixture in 3D CAD and pull it into Sprutcam9 as a part first to make the fixture. Then I will pull it into sprut as a fixture and pull the part in that it will hold. The fixture is positioned exactly where it will be on the machine and the part positioned exactly where it will be on the fixture.
Sprut will tell me if when doing the ops for my part if I have a problem running into the fixture.

I have done the same set of parts 3 different times with several days between runs. By not changing my G54 zeros the parts run with not positioning problems.

The fixture feature of Sprut is great.

Dave

[popspipes]

I do a lot of fixtures to hold material for machining. I will draw the fixture in 3D CAD and pull it into Sprutcam9 as a part first to make the fixture. Then I will pull it into sprut as a fixture and pull the part in that it will hold. The fixture is positioned exactly where it will be on the machine and the part positioned exactly where it will be on the fixture.
Sprut will tell me if when doing the ops for my part if I have a problem running into the fixture.

I have done the same set of parts 3 different times with several days between runs. By not changing my G54 zeros the parts run with not positioning problems.

The fixture feature of Sprut is great.

Dave

I draw my fixture, export into sprut, and machine it just like a regular part. Then I export into sprut the part that will be machined on the fixture and machine that. I do them all without the fixtures or vise or holders in Sprut. This may not be the correct way but it has always worked, most all my parts are machined on both sides and the second side is where I use the fixture.

I havent tried to reimport the fixture into sprut as a fixture.

I just set my XY where I want it for the stock I have and set the Z height to the stock and machine from there.

With succeeding parts I always set my Z height for each piece of stock if its not a consistent thickness, on the fixture,on parallels in the vise or step jaws.

It sounds like we are doing the same things, just in a different way, I will have to try using the fixture function and see how it works, it may be easier than the way I am doing it.

Everything I machine is in the vise , a little disaster safety factor from Mach 3 days......

[phoneman]

Mike Sr

Yes we are doing things close to the same. One difference is I do most of my fixtures clamped to the table and not much work in the vise. I also use fixtures in my 4th axis. I do a lot of multiple parts so fixturing for position comes in real handy.

Dave

[oneineight]

Thanks C*H*U*D,
I fiddled around enough to figure that out just about 3 hour before your post.
I imported the vise several times and it kept coming in with a ghost work piece showing, and showed up in both the part and fixture layers.
Most those trys were with fixture checked, with the part and work piece unchecked,with the part was selected.
Selecting the fixture let me bring in the vise without work piece.
So I got a lot of practice importing files.

I am pretty sure that I could get popspipes' method to work but, I want the wreck detection feature to work too.

My first part useing a cad/cam generated program is a spindle clamp. Yah, I could buy one pretty cheap. This builds character.