[25ncjimmy]

I have 8 pairs of similar objects I need to produce all pairs vary slightly. Each pair will need 7 different operations to produce them. What is the best way of reusing all the operations I have set up for the first pair?

Fairly new at this lark so sorry if there is an obvious answer

Jim

[mike sr1]

I would be very interested in the answer to this one as well......

[dkaustin]

Jim, a couple of ideas come to mind. They may or may not be what you're looking for. . .

If you don't mind creating separate project files for each of the eight pairs, you could get the project for the first pair working to your satisfaction, then make seven additional copies of the project. Tweak each copy as required. You wind up with eight TAP files, one for each pair.

If you want a single project to encompass all eight pairs, you could create a project file containing all operations for all eight pairs, then enable or disable individual operations as required for each pair. You still wind up with eight TAP files, one for each pair.

A little more info on the nature of the job might suggest other solutions. I'm sure others on this forum can suggest other, probably better, approaches.

[mike sr1]

I have 8 pairs of similar objects I need to produce all pairs vary slightly. Each pair will need 7 different operations to produce them. What is the best way of reusing all the operations I have set up for the first pair?

Fairly new at this lark so sorry if there is an obvious answer

Jim

I think I have it figured out.....
I loaded an existing project, in the model tab select the part, then reset center to (another), I put 4 in the box, hit enter.
This moves the original part down by a factor of 4.

Then I imported the changed file, set zero to the top of the part as I would for a new drawing, then there are two drawings on the screen, select the unwanted file and delete it.

The job assignments have to be deleted in the operations colum, reselect those, hit run, simulate and it all works!

It is a bit of a procedure to do it but it saves going thru all the ops and possibly missing a setting etc that you had in the original setup.

I have a 2 x 4 (wood) endmill holder that I needed to change a couple of holes, it worked fine.

The biggest gain for me is being able to keep all the operations and their related settings........

I tried it without reselecting the holes and contour edges, it still had those for the original part position, after reselecting them it appears to be ok........

[25ncjimmy]

Mike/DK

Thanks for the suggestions and pointers in the right direction so following your advice but deviating somewhat. I selected part in the file tree which brings up the part file in the lower left hand window I deleted that which means the main part file is empty in the file tree. Imported the new .stl file and away I went.

The only thing that seemed to have hung around from the previous project were the hole job assignments and the 2D geometry I had created for restricted zones. Once I had deleted them I was left with a clean slate.

The two pictures are of the two projects uploaded I used the most extreme iteration to make sure I had lost the previous geometry entirely. In most cases the clevis’s are far more alike than this.

Jim

[MichaelHenry]

I've been making similar versions of the same part for the past couple of weeks. Once I get one of the parts set up the way I want in SprutCAM I save that and then do a "Save As" of the file to a new file name. I then delete the original model for the Model tab and import an IGES model of the next version of the part that I want. If I'm lucky the face (and other feature) numbers are identical between the two different versions and it is only necessary to do a "Run" from the Machining tab, verify the results in the Simulation tab and then generate a post processed file from the Machining tab.

If I'm not lucky, some of the face or other feature numbers have changed and those have to be re-specified in the Job Assignment section. Usually nothing else needs to be changed unless one of the features has changed in a major way - say hole diameter, where a diferent drill bit needs to be set as the Tool to use.

Overall, this can save a lot of time for parts that are nearly identical.

I think that there is also a way to save an operation so that it can be recycled to other projects. I believe that Eric covered it in one of his SC tutorials.

Mike

[mike sr1]

Good suggestions guys!

Deleting the model will delete it but the Job assignments still remain, I still had to clear those and reselect them, that really isnt a big deal for me, loosing all the parameters that have been set is a big deal for me. This method saves me a lot of trouble selecting new operations and their parameters......

Thanks for asking the question Jim, as I have learned something new as well, from all the good advice of others.