MasterCam and Centerpoints

We are having a heck of a time picking centerpoints of cylinders when
they have spline edges. We are bringing native SW files into
MasterCam. The holes are radially displaced about a cylinder. We are
using the C axis tooling on our Haas to make the holes.

Does anybody know a good way to provide the centerpoint data to
MasterCam.

TIA

 

P,
Forgive me if this sounds simplistic, but I've let the obvious go before
only to learn that the person didn't know.

So... Try Modify>Cnv to arcs, and that should turn any splines that are arcs
to arcs.

HTH,
Muggs

 

P

You mean that the circle boundary is represented by a spline on the cylinder
surface, Right ?

If the hole has a bottom, you can put a point there, and project the points
onto the cylinders surface (3D const., create- point-center). you may have
to create a temporary cylindrical surface from the solid to do this. If
holes go all the way through, you may have to create a "intersection" curve
(circle). Create a planar surface perpendicular to one of the holes, and
slightly below the surface of the cylinder. Create a curve at the
intersection of the two cylinders.

If the pattern is equal, you only need to program one hole. You can then
rotate the operation using the "tool plane" option. This should put the
correct rotational moves (C or A depending on the post and control) between
the drill cycles.

Mastercams geometry creation/manipulation tools SUCK after using SW or
Pro-E. You can program anything with it though

Regards

Mark

 

I'm not really the MC guru so feel free to be simplistic.

Since the edge of the hole is at the intersection of two cylinders on both
the ID and OD I doubt that those edges could be converted. I found that
sending IGES preserved 3D points so we went at it that way. Is there a way
for MC to recognize a cylinder and it's axis?

 

I'm with MM, I almost never (well OK never) draw anything in MasterCam
anymore.
But I think what I would do is create a surface just on the cylinder at both
ends then do Create>Line>Intersect to make two arcs (circles) and then in 3D
Create>Line>Endpoints at the centers of each of the two arcs to give you an
axis for your cylinder.

But again maybe the best way is to just sketch a center line in SW and then
export as IGES with export sketch entities checked.

Muggs