[piratebrian]

I've been using MasterCam for about a year and I have be unable to answer the following questions. I have a 3 axis router, large table. I do all my drawing in SketchUp, export as iges, open in Mastercam, clean, then add toolpaths based on surfaces and newly drawn lines. If you can help me answer a few that would be of great use and I appreciate it. When I return to work this week I will post some screen shots to better detail my probably mundane issues.

1. My process to import at .IGES file involves importing the file, the raw file as imported only has a few points visible at seemingly random intersections of 3 surfaces. (say a cube that has 8 vertexes will only have 5 points visible at those vertexes). I manually draw new points at important places so that I can latter snap to these points when I draw a line between these points. This new series of lines is then used to base future cut paths off of (contour mill etc.) as the IGES format doesn't seem to yield concrete lines. (I may be wrong in this impression) Is there some way to auto insert a point at the intersection of 3 surfaces so that when I draw lines they auto snap? Or is there some way to auto insert selectable lines at every intersection of every surface?

2. How do I move a lead in cutting path to a more desirable location along the outside of a part? Right now I simply select chains along similar lines to ensure the lead-in plunges are in the same location.

3. How to grab one toolpath from a completely different file and plop it into the file I am working on? I run into a problem due to not being able to open more than one file at a time.

4. How do I let the program automatically choose between a 1/2 ball end mill for shallow slopes and a 1/4" ball end mill for areas of steep slopes. It seems to me that there are extreme time savings to be had allowing the machine to auto choose. I am aware how to do it with defining two different cut paths using individual tools guided by a slightly overlapping, allowed, activity angle defined for each bit ( 0-60 degrees for the 1/2ball and 58-90 degrees for the 1/4" ball).

5. How to delete an unused machine group from the tree on the left side of the screen? I have a second created machine group populated with good toolpaths.

6. Is there a select all connected surfaces option?

7. When I contour cut a 3d surface the retract height is based on the lowest depth of cut for that toolpath, not the top of the uncut material. This entails that in 1.5" thick material, with my settings, will lift up to 1.6", move over to the new location, -z plunge down to the surface at the -z cutting speed (not at a rapid). I always rough cut to reduce load on the ball end mill. Likewise at sculpted surfaces at the top of the geometry, the head must then lift up 1.6" into air for the next cut. If I input the material height into the toolpath parameters concerning step over height instead of retract height, there are instances of gouge. This is not clear to me after trying multiple inputs. My current slow technique is:
retract height (height tool moves between tool passes) = 1.6" on a 1.5" thick raw stock
feed plane (vertical z axis rapid before z feed starts) =.1"
clearance (master distance tool moves to the part) =not sure what I put here, but it seems to not correct instances of gouge.

8. Is there a way to see the quantity of lines of code that each toolpath contributes to the total without doing the normal G code export with only one toolpath selected?

Hey, thank you and I appreciate your time!

[Tony T]

What system were you using before? Just curious. What version? It makes a big difference. It doesn't sound like your iges export is set correctly. Mastercam will only see what was output in the iges. Unless you change the import options in Mastercam. So check those options. Anything automatic in Mastercam is not necessarily better. Lead ins will depend greatly on which particular cut you are using. Most have a point selection as to where to start. It sounds to me like you need to do a lot or reading and playing.

[cadcam]

You sound like you need some training as you are asking allot of details.Have you taken any class's at all. Are you getting surfaces from your sketchup software.
I went to there site and they really give no info on what this based on. can you get solids from it are you really getting surfaces and not poly mesh data.

Lets see a file from what you bring in. I still have X5 on this box.

[piratebrian]

Thanks Guys!
I have attached two example files.
On the file named Example 2 my question is: 1. How can I get the "First Rough Pass" not to plunge and rapid so much after taking a layer (I think it is about .3 in.) at a time? A spiral pattern beginning on the outside and ending near the surface is desirable. 2. The design tree window shows two machine groups when only one is being used. If you can figure out a way to delete the unused one, let me know.

On the file named Example 1 my question is: I may be having a problem with the IGES export plugin in SketchUp not exporting all points as CadCam had mentioned. If you orbit to the underside of the part the peripheral edge of the part lacks points from which to draw a line. Again the annoyance may be in the SketchUp world not here. Is there a way to simply use the outside edge of a surface to then cut contour lines? Is there a better way to clean out material for my deep cutting with my tool holder?
And again, Thank you for your time, I appreciate it.

[Tony T]

Hi-lite the group you want to delete. right click on it and go to groups/delete

[cadcam]

I will look at your files today. as for removing the extra machine group select it and use that cool key called "Delete" on the keyboard to remove.

[piratebrian]

It does not delete. I will check to see if there are sub-groups that need to be deleted first.

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Thanks Tony T