[williamsmotower]

Just as title says...trying to highlight a oval thats basically cut in half and want to machine it out.

I select planar box... asks me to select curves... I try and select and nothing gets highlighted.

Seperate issue... I have 4.3 according to verifying version... but my toolbar is 4.0 I think. I've tried to search and load toolbar but can"t find any newer version.

All the screenshots I see on here list what version madcam is in toolbar... mine does not.

[svenakela]

I'm not sure what you're trying to do, could you post an image on the model?
Or maybe if you can post the model somewhere (download site or similar) and PM me the link, I can have a look.

-S

[Dan B]

Are you using the curves as a region curve? Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you are trying to do, but if you are using the half-oval as a region curve to control the cutter, make sure the half-oval is a closed solid. If you've trimmed it with a line and haven't joined it, it will not select.

Like Svenakela mentioned, post an image it helps a lot. Like the saying goes, "a picture speaks a thousand words".

Dan

[williamsmotower]

Trying to machine out the inside of these... madcam won't highlight them at all. i could email the file if someone needs to see how I drew it.

[svenakela]

Add it on RapidShare AG, Cham, Switzerland (it's free, just upload) and PM me the link.

[svenakela]

Oh BTW, if you want to mill the inside only you have to prevent the mill from going to the outside. You can do that with Select region curves.

[williamsmotower]

http://rapidshare.com/files/434554202/madcamtest.3dm

[svenakela]

I think your problem is that you are trying to use a mm cutter library in a model that uses inches. When you choose cutter, change the Cutter Library to Cutters_Inch by changing the path with the button with the three dots in the Cutters dialog.

I copied your objects to a mm-model and then everything worked with my settings.
Then I re-opened your model and changed my Cutter Library to the inch library and voilá, works also.

[williamsmotower]

Still not getting it to work.

I'll play around with cutters somemore... but I think it's correct.

Did it work for you right away?

[williamsmotower]

Sorry, I click on "select region curves" and then try and click on those objects... and they don't highlight for me

[svenakela]

Still not getting it to work.

I'll play around with cutters somemore... but I think it's correct.

Did it work for you right away?

Your file didn't work as it was, but if I did as mentioned earlier it worked fine. Either switch to a mm-model or the Inch cutter library and it worked.

[Dan B]

Here is the procedure I followed:

I turned on the layers to show the whole part. Then I selected the part and the stock box (green) encapsulated the part just as shown in your screen shot.
Then I created a .25" ballnose tool (because your units are set to inches). Then I picked the "set region" button and then proceeded to select all the region curves that I just made. Notice that the green stock box should shrink to the extents of the pockets. I then ran a roughing toolpath and it worked fine.

Don't expect the surfaces that make up those pockets to highlight. You aren't actually picking those surfaces, you've already done that when you activated the part in the first step. The region curves are the key to getting your paths to be isolated to the area you want to cut. But remember, they must be closed.

I will attach a couple of screen shots that may help. The paths are a little rough because I didn't adjust my file tolerances to suit the inch system (I work exclusively in metric, so inches are foreign to me).

I hope this helps. Let me know if you need more clarification.

Dan

[svenakela]

I did it similar to Dan's procedure, except that I used the edges of the "bowls" as regions instead of making separate curves.
I didn't create a new tool, I used one of the existing tools in the Inch cutter library.

[williamsmotower]

I have to fire up my cad computer later and try it out... but wanted to say thank you very much for the detailed work both of you guys!

I really like your blue backround Dan, what color did yo umake the grid... same as background?

And how do I turn on that Z line in rhino?

I hope to become proffecient in Madcam and be able to help others in the future like you guys do!

[Dan B]

I had 2 posts after this one but they are gone now. What's that all about???

E-mail me and I will give you the specifics of my display settings.

Dan

[williamsmotower]

This still is not working for me.

There has to be some setting that isn't right somewhere.

[Dan B]

Can you list, in detail, the steps you are taking and what the results are? For example, you open the file, activate the part, and what happens?

If you create closed region curves and pick the appropriate icon for region curves what happens? Does the green stock block shrink to the extents of the region curve? Can you even select the curves?

Are you using a tool that's small enough to get into those areas? I used a Ø1/4 ballnose for my tests.

Are you doing all the steps, you run the path, and there are no paths?


Dan

[williamsmotower]

the first thing i do is select surfaces. it makes the green box the size of the whole part.

then i select a .375" ball nose cutter that i built in my cutter library

i then select region curves... try and click the half ovals of the part and nothing happens. it just doesnt recognise them.

[svenakela]

I just retried my test and this is what I did to get it to work, remember I run mm as standard.

1. Opened the test file I got from you
2. Highlighted the bowls and clicked the MadCAM Workpiece icon to reactivate the workpiece.
3. Selected a tool from the Inch Cutter library (had to change from mm).
4. With the halfs highlighted I ran the command Join to get complete surfaces instead of pieces.
5. Still having all halfs highlighted, ran the command DupBorder to get the edge of the bowls as polylines.
6. Now when all edges are selected, I choose Select region curves.
7. Selected 3D roughing. Toolpath generated.

[Dan B]

Let's take this one step at a time:

"the first thing i do is select surfaces. it makes the green box the size of the whole part."

good, that's right.

"then i select a .375" ball nose cutter that i built in my cutter library"

okay so far.

"i then select region curves... try and click the half ovals of the part and nothing happens. it just doesnt recognise them."

Here is where your mistake is. The "select region curves" command requires closed curves. It won't work with surfaces. You need to either do as Svenakela mentions and use the DupBorder command to extract the edges, or do as I did and just join the curves on the edges into a closed curve. I do that with a macro I made a long time ago: ! Join Crv. That will allow you to just pick the edges and join them as you go along.

Try that and see if it works for you.

Dan