[Marcutous]

Hi Cnczone followers.

I'm currently thinking of changing CAM software.
I've mastercam V4 at the minute which machines surfaces.
Thinking of going to Delcam.
I do alot of fine detail work with mastercam through machining surfaces.
People are telling me machining surfaces is a think of the past.

I guess what i'm asking is, has anyone recently made the change from machining surfaces to machining solids?

is there any advantages to going in that direction?

[txcncman]

I don't get the question. Solids have surfaces. The surfaces of the solids are what are selected for machining. MasterCam already can do this.

[Marcutous]

Mastercam generally works in surface models.
Your part is a series of individual surfaces.
For example, a cube with 6 sides has 6 independant surfaces.

The likes of delcam works in solids.

Import a cube and it comes in as 1 complete solid piece, or 1 surface.

[txcncman]

Maybe you are missing out on how to turn of the surface selection option when creating a tool path when working with solid models?

[PatM]

surfaces are just that
solids are not so they are based on features
a cube for instance would not be six surfaces
but one extruded feature