[GregS]

can someone give me a helping hint on how to do this?

this was drawn in solidworks. I am super new to standalone mastercam and dont really know much about drawing in it.

I am trying to contour around the entire solid body, but when selecting the loops, it selects the arcs on the loft ends and not the extents on the body if looking from the top view down.

[Superman]

Ok...lets go the begining

When importing, you have the option of solids or surfaces..always chose the solid over surfaces whenever possible.....at the same time you can opt to create wireframe geometry ( lines,arcs, splines etc )...make sure these are created from the soild body ......as when wireframe geom is created from surfaces, each surface edge generates wireframe, so taking from a solid elininates double geometry and end-point errors when chaining

To flatten a 3D chain etc....use the "Xform Project" ....this has many uses, but the main ones are:
- projects a 3D wireframe entity onto a flat Z plane
- projects wreframe entities onto surfaces

and the one you want is:-

To create a boundary... and is done with a C-hook
-this is only done with surfaces, you have to create them, 1st change levels and colors, then "Create" --> "Surfaces from solid", select the solid icon on the user toolbar, select the "By Solid", de-select "By Face" ( depressed means active ), then chose the solid body and accept.
-now for the boundary --> select a new level and color
- [alt C] -->opens the C-hook directory.... search for and execute the "Create boundary.DLL"......it then asks to select the surfaces that you want a boundary from and accept when finished selectin. This should create a flat 2D boundary at the Z-plane that goes around all edges of the surfaces, even the holes, ( if they exist )...or a 3D boundary

This 2D contour is used to contour around your part to get rid of the outer stock


Hope this helps

Havw a play with it to get a better understanding

[GregS]

Thank you!

I will give this a shot. I VERY much appreciate your detailed help!