Mastercam Version 9 SolidsTutorial - Part 2 potx

Designing a Chair Seat Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial 5 2 Designing a Chair Seat In this chapter, you will use existing wireframe geometry consisting of points, lines, and arcs to generate the following solid model of a chair seat. You will learn how to perform the following skills:  Creating a base solid (Extrude)  Cutting material from a solid (Sweep)  Creating constant and variable radius fillets on solid edges  Propagating a fillet to tangent edges  Correcting fillet overflow conditions  Checking radius values along a filleted edge  Verifying solid selections  Viewing a solid operation history  Shading a solid Exercise 1 – Starting Mastercam 1. Choose the Start button from the Windows® Taskbar. 2. Choose Programs, Mastercam 9, then select the program that you added Solids onto (Design, Mill, Lathe, etc.). The main Mastercam screen displays. Chapter 2 6 Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial The following picture shows you some of the main features of the Mastercam workspace. Learning about the HASP and NetHASP Mastercam uses two types of licensing: single-user licensing and network licensing. If you are using single-user licensing, you need to have a special piece of hardware called a HASP (sometimes called a dongle or SIM) attached to your parallel or USB port. If you get an error message like the following: Toolbar Each button is a shortcut to a common menu command. Hold the cursor over a button to see what it does. Main Menu You will select most of your commands here. Menu buttons Use these two buttons to navi- gate menus. Secondary Menu Use these 10 buttons to organize and control drafting operations Prompt area Mastercam uses this space to tell you what information you need to enter. Whatever you type also appears here. Graphics window Your part and toolpaths appear here. Designing a Chair Seat Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial 7 this component is either missing or not configured properly. Refer to your installation instructions (included in a separate document) or contact your dealer for assistance. If you have a network license (NetHASP), you must have at least one Solids license programmed on the NetHASP. If you see either of the following messages, you may need to update your NetHASP. See your Mastercam dealer for more information.  Error checking out a Solids license. No licenses have been purchased for this product.  All available licenses are in use. Controlling part display in the graphics window Mastercam provides several different ways to control how jobs display in the graphics window. In the toolbar, the buttons below let you control the display scale of the part in the graphics window: Zoom with window Use the cursor to draw a box around the area to be enlarged. Unzoom Return to the display scale before last zoom. Unzoom by 0.8 Reduce the display scale by 0.8. Fit to screen Enlarge or reduce the display scale to fill the screen. Repaint Redraw the screen and remove remnants. Chapter 2 8 Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial To the right of these buttons in the toolbar are green buttons that control the graphics view (Gview), which is how you view the part in the graphics window: Note: The graphics view does not affect the plane in which the part geometry exists. In Mastercam, this is called the “construction plane” or “Cplane”. Please refer to Mastercam’s online Help for more information on Cplanes and Gviews. When you right-click in the graphics window, a menu appears that lets you control the display in a similar way to the toolbar buttons and also provides some additional controls: You will use these controls throughout this tutorial. Zoom control Enlarge the display scale of the windowed selection, or reduce it b y 50%. View control Choose the top, front, side, or isometric view. Dynamic rotation Use the mouse to rotate the part in the window. Isometric view Top view Front view Side view Draw control Enlarge or reduce the display scale to fit the screen, or refresh the screen. Dynamic controls Use the mouse to spin (rotate) the displayed part, to move the view right, left, up, or down, (pan), or to zoom in or out. AutoHighlight Highlight any entity under the cursor. AutoCursor Snap to the nearest entity for selection. Designing a Chair Seat Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial 9 Exercise 2 – Defining the seat’s basic shape The first operation that you perform when creating a solid is referred to as the base operation. There are many ways to perform a base operation, which defines the initial solid. In this exercise, you will define the chair seat's basic shape by extruding, or driving out, a chain of curves along a linear path. The shape of the curves defines the shape of the resulting solid. Turning on the AutoCursor and AutoHighlight features The AutoCursor feature aids the process of entering points in Mastercam by automatically detecting entity positions, such as midpoints and endpoints. AutoHighlight makes it easier to identify entities by automatically highlighting an entity when the cursor is over it. You will turn on both of these features before you create the chair seat. 1. Right-click in the graphics window. Mastercam displays the following menu. Chapter 2 10 Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial 2. If the AutoCursor and AutoHighlight options do not have check marks next to them, choose each option to enable it. Mastercam closes the menu after each choice, so right-click again if you need to. If the option already has a check mark next to it, the feature is already turned on, so click in the graphics window to close the menu. Chaining the geometry and setting the extrusion direction 1. Choose Main Menu, File, Get. 2. Navigate to your working folder: Mcam9\Tutorials\Solids Tutorial\Metric. 3. Select chair-wireframe-mm.mc9 and choose Open. 4. Choose Main Menu, Solids, Extrude. The Chaining Methods menu displays. 5. Select the dark green geometry at the position shown in the following picture. Mastercam highlights the selection. 6. Choose Done. The Extrusion Direction menu displays. 7. A direction arrow on the selected chain indicates the extrusion direction. Check to be sure the arrow points up. If it does not, choose Reverse It. Note: The default extrusion direction is normal, or perpendicular, to the plane that the chain lies in. 8. Choose Done. The Extrude Chain dialog box opens. Designing a Chair Seat Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial 11 Setting extrusion parameters The base operation results in the creation of a solid. Therefore, the only option available in the Extrusion Operation section of the dialog box is Create Body. You will extrude the shape of the curves a distance of 24 millimeters. 1. Check your settings against the following picture. Make any necessary adjustments. 2. Choose OK to create the solid body. Your part should look like the following picture. Chapter 2 12 Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial 3. Press [Alt + S] to turn on full-time shading. Your part should look like the following picture. 4. Choose Main Menu, File, Save. 5. Navigate to your working folder: Mcam9\Tutorials\Solids Tutorial\Metric. 6. Type chair-solid-mm.mc9 for File name and choose Save. Designing a Chair Seat Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial 13 Exercise 3 – Creating indentations in the top of the seat Once you have performed the base operation and defined the initial solid, you can perform additional operations to customize the model further. In this exercise, you will create indentations in the top of the chair seat to make it comfortable and attractive. You will use the Sweep function to remove material from the extruded solid. Selecting the section chain and sweep path The Sweep function requires you to define two sets of geometry. The first set consists of one or more chains of curves. These chains are called section chains because their cross-sections define the shape of the resulting solid, cut, or boss. In this case, you will select one section chain to use as a cut. The second set of geometry consists of a single chain, which defines the path along which the section chain is swept. 1. Press [Alt+S] to turn off shading. 2. Choose Main Menu, Solids, Sweep. The Chaining Methods menu displays. 3. Define the section chain by selecting the red geometry at the position shown in the following picture. 4. The system prompts you that it has reached a branch point. Choose End here, Done to complete the selection. Chapter 2 14 Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial Note: A branch point is the position where the endpoints of two or more entities meet and where there are different paths that the chain can take. 5. Define the sweep path by selecting the red geometry at the position shown in the following picture. The Sweep Chain dialog box opens. Setting sweep parameters Now that the file contains the extruded solid, you have the option to perform another base operation (Create Body), in which case a second solid would be created. You can also modify the extruded solid by removing material from it (Cut Body) or adding material to it (Add Boss). For this exercise, you will cut the extruded solid. 1. Choose Cut Body. [...]... Choose OK to close the Solids Manager 12 Save the file You have created your first solid model using Extrude, Sweep, and Fillet operations In the next chapter, you will create a solid model for a plastic cap To complete this model, you will learn new methods of creating and modifying solids Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial 29 Chapter 2 30 Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial ... the following picture Make any necessary adjustments 9 Choose OK to fillet the edges 10 Turn on shading Your part should look like the following picture 22 Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial Designing a Chair Seat In addition to the selected edge, Mastercam filleted the tangent edges along the interior curve However, the fillet stops at the non-tangent edges along the front of the seat Smoothing the... should look like the following picture 2 Click on the first VERTEX in the Edge List area Mastercam highlights the corresponding endpoint in the graphics window, as shown in the following picture Note: Move the dialog box to see the highlighted vertex Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial 17 Chapter 2 3 Enter 72 for Radius 4 Click on the second VERTEX in the Edge List area Mastercam highlights the corresponding... the propagate fillet feature to minimize selection time 1 Choose Fillet from the Solids menu 2 Select the edge at the position shown in the following picture Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial 27 Chapter 2 3 Choose Done The Fillet Parameters dialog box opens 4 Enter 12 for Radius 5 Set Overflow to Default Mastercam determines how best to resolve any overflow conditions for this operation 6 Check your... you click to select it 6 In the prompt area, type 144 for the radius, then press [Enter] 7 Repeat steps 2 through 4 8 Position the cursor crosshair over the point at the position shown in the following picture, and click Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial 19 Chapter 2 9 In the prompt area, type 28 8 for the radius, then press [Enter] 10 Choose Done to return to the Fillet Parameters dialog box The... you identify the correct edge 9 Toggle Verify to N 10 Select the horizontal edge at the position shown in the following picture Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial 25 Chapter 2 11 Choose Done from the Pick Solid Entity menu The Fillet Parameters dialog box opens 12 Enter 24 for Radius 13 Set Overflow to Maintain Edges This option prevents the fillet operation from failing in cases where a fillet is... menu 4 Choose Cycle from the Fillet Edit menu Mastercam highlights the first vertex and displays its radius value in the prompt area where you can edit it, if necessary For this exercise, you will accept the values you entered previously Press [Enter] four times until you have cycled through all of the radius values ( 72, 144 ,28 8,480) 20 Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial Designing a Chair Seat 5 Choose... Make any necessary adjustments 7 Choose OK The system fillets the seat’s top outer edge 8 Turn on shading Your part should look like the following picture 28 Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial Designing a Chair Seat 9 Choose Solids mgr from the Solids menu The Solids Manager opens 10 Double-click on Solid to expand the list of six operations that you performed to create the solid model of the chair... of the front of the chair are not all tangent 1 Turn off shading 2 Choose the Screen-Zoom toolbar button 3 Click at opposite corners of a rectangle around the front of the chair seat, as shown in the following picture 4 From the Solids menu, choose Fillet The Pick Solid Entity menu displays Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial 23 Chapter 2 5 Select the horizontal edge at the position shown in the following... fillet, and propagate the fillet to all tangent edges Smoothing the chair seat’s inside edge 1 Turn off shading 2 From the Solids menu, choose Fillet The Pick Solid Entity menu displays 3 Select the edge at the position shown in the following picture Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial 21 Chapter 2 4 Choose Done The Fillet Parameters dialog box opens 5 Choose Constant Radius 6 Enter 48 for Radius 7 Select . create the chair seat. 1. Right-click in the graphics window. Mastercam displays the following menu. Chapter 2 10 Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial 2. If the AutoCursor and AutoHighlight. should look like the following picture. Chapter 2 12 Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial 3. Press [Alt + S] to turn on full-time shading. Your part should look like the following picture to your working folder: Mcam9TutorialsSolids TutorialMetric. 6. Type chair-solid-mm.mc9 for File name and choose Save. Designing a Chair Seat Mastercam Version 9 Solids Tutorial 13 Exercise