[Beaker]

Hey all,

I'm doing a job that is an outline of tall grass and flower type shapes on 3/8" flat ally panels. It was to be engraved but now they want a perforated hole look to there panels.
Is there a way in mastercam X3 to chain a shape and fill it with holes to give the preforated look.
I never do this kinda stuff, its just a job that has bounced around and now has to be done.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[g-codeguy]

I see no one is helping you so I will give it a shot although there are much more knowledgeable Mastercam people reading this forum.

First let me say that I have never done what you are trying to do. I only program lathes, so it is quite possible that there are more efficient ways to do the following.

Far as I know Mastercam can't do anything without geometry. (Not strictly true.) Hopefully these panels are rectangular or square. It will be much easier. Figure out the desired spacing for the perforations both across and vertically. Define a point representing a perforation next to one of the corners.

Example: Say you want the perforations .150 apart going across starting .150 in from the left edge, and .135 apart in the vertical direction starting .135 up from the bottom edge. Maybe you need 100 perforations going across and 75 vertically. Easiest way I can think of to accomplish this without sitting in front of Mastercam so I can see all my options is to use OFFSET in XFORM. If the lower left corner is 0,0 then I would layout a point at .15,.135 for my start. Select the point and copy it 99 times at .15 distance in the plus X-direction.

Select RESULT and copy 74 times in the plus Y-direction. to make the perforations, select Toolpath, Points Only and use the mouse to create a box around them using Window/Inside to select all the points. Now I could be wrong on the exact procedure. I'm at home, but you should have no problem figuring out how to do it while sitting in front of Mastercam. You could also use this method if you wanted the points in each row staggered. I'm sure you could figure it out on your own.

This is if the perforations can be aligned as described. Can't think of a way to make all the points fall randomly. However, you could define a series of random points using the mouse and Sketch. Then offset these points, delete those outside the panel or too close to the edge. It would still be a pattern, just not quite as obvious.

This could conceivably be a very long program. Personally I wouldn't use a CAD program if using symmetrical points, but instead write a little Macro subprogram and then call it up using G65. This way variables can be passed to the subprogram. You only need the one program to run any size panel with any distance between perforations in either direction starting at any distance in from either edge.

EDIT: Don't know how to make points randomly in Mastercam, but pretty certain it could be done using a Macro program. It would have to be more involved and longer, but possible.

[Beaker]

Thanks G-codeguy,

I'm with you, I use Macros where ever I can but for this its just too damn random and large.
Have had a few goes just like you mentioned even tried to use hatching and put a drill path to the intersecting lines but no go, don't like the results.
Still haven't completed the job, keep pushing it to the side.
Gonna have to do it soon though
Thanks for your help

[g-codeguy]

No need to thank me. I wasn't any help. I think you know more about Mastercam than I do. Good luck with the job. Would be interested in how you solved the problem. Never need it myself, but I like to learn new things anyway.

Trouble with online is a person has no idea how much another knows about a subject. Seems like you should be teaching me.

[cadcam]

Share with me a section are of the geo if you can. I have some thoughts I want to test then give you the results.
thanks Cadcam

[Superman]

Here is another possibilty --> By drilling at the endpoints of geometry

Edit --> "Trim / Break" --> "Break Many Pieces"--> select your entities --> End Selection
adjust segment length to bigger than final drill size ie .25" segment for 0.2" dia drill ( play with it )

Drill Toolpath --> select by "Entities" --> select youy entities ( window / chain or whatever )

You may have to create splines from smaller entities or chains and then "Break Many"