before all the Mastercam guys switch over and we'll lose our competitive advantage :)

Originally posted by HuFlungDung
before all the Mastercam guys switch over and we'll lose our competitive advantage :)

I never thought about it that way.;)

I'm not sure I can keep my mouth shut.

Love the new "Title" and the new sig.


How about: When the going gets tough, the smart get OnecncXP.

One thing we'd really not want everybody to know is how much information goes along with each XFA file.

What I mean, I was just browsing through a bunch of sample files that come with the program. Usually, in my experience, sample files are included to run with a tutorial. But in OnecncXP, there is enough information that you can extract by using "edit" in the NC manager, that you can practically see everything that they do to create the toolpath.

I didn't know how to use custom toolpath before, but now I see just draw a basic 2d path above your 3d surface and it machines the Z component automatically, more like a projection of the 2d path onto the surface, except you don't have to do the task of doing the projecting.

I learned this from the sample file only, I did not read the "helptease" :D

That could never happen.:p

PEACE:D

Time for a MasterCam and OneCNCXP Cam OFF. :)

Time for a MasterCam and OneCNCXP Cam OFF.

Oh not another comp? Oh well I have done it before I can do it again.

So let's get ready to RUMBLE.. :boxing:

All fun aside each softwares have there place..
So it all good.

But I will still for fun rumble again.:boxing:

:boxing: :wave:

Not bad Ward, looks like a lot of fun. Here's one of my latest projects.

Ken:o

Here is one for a customer of mine..
All from loft data.

Here's a shot of the finished part. Now she goes to the polisher.:D

Designed and cut in OneCnC XP.

Got a picture of it installed on the bike if anybody wants to see.:eek:

Come on Ward show us a shot of it on the bike. Pretty expensive luggage carrier don't ya think? Very impressive work.

Its beautiful, Ward.

So give us a ballpark estimate of the amount of time you spent creating the model and preparing the nc code? Also, give us an estimate of what you might call "your percentage proficiency" with using OnecncXP at this time. By this I mean 100% = "I just couldn't have done it any faster" :D

Thanks guys,
Here's a pic of it on the bike. Sorry it's not to good as I took it in the sun. Bout blinded me. :D

It took about 10 to 12 hours to design. That was with a couple of changes. You know how that goes.

Code took about 2 more hours total for all the parts.
That was the easy part, writting the code. :banana:

About 126 minutes total machine time for the 7 parts. ( 1 ea assembly)


I'd say that I'm at about 60 to 70 percent "proficiency". with XP.
I will say that the nc manager saved me tons of time. Every time I needed to make a change, what a snap to do. And I don't even check the code. Just load up the file and hit GO.

Ward that is one nice piece of work, talent and artistic ability.

You never cease to amaze me!

I would be happy at this point just to get my CNC to rapid to XYZ :) Boy I have a looooooooong way to go!

G00 X-15 y-4 Z-6 ?

Ken

I've been working on designing this pump impeller. Whether it will work properly, I have no idea, but it was fun to make it

Originally posted by HuFlungDung

So give us a ballpark estimate of the amount of time you spent creating the model and preparing the nc code? Also, give us an estimate of what you might call "your percentage proficiency" with using OnecncXP at this time. By this I mean 100% = "I just couldn't have done it any faster" :D

Ok HU,
It's your turn to tell us.
Looking good!:D

Clue us in on your filleting secrets.;)

Yeh,

I second that ward. The last part I posted here, I could not get to fillet. So tell us HU.

Ken

My current CAD proficiency on this project has risen from 5% to about 50%, comparing my first attempt to my third. :D

Things I have learned that have saved me a lot of time: don't waste time trying to trim wireframe or surfaces. Simply draw at least as much as you need, and wack it off later with a solid cutter in the form of a "trimming block", as I call it.

In this case, I drew 1 complete turn of the helix (this seems to be the default minimum of the "draw helix" function anyway) even though I wanted only approx 180 degrees per blade. I created all the surfaces using the "4 edge function" which works really well in this type of part. Later on, I positioned my "trimming block" in such a manner that one of its faces lay exactly on the plane I wish to trim on. Then it is simple as pie to use solid cutter to trim off the unwanted parts.

One trick: hit repaint after each "solid cutter" operation and the part you have trimmed off will disappear, otherwise it kind of hangs around and makes you think it didn't work.

Second trick: make sure your trimming block is large enough to completely enclose the portion that you want to cut off. Otherwise, any portions of what was formerly one surface on both sides of the solid cutter maintain a mysterious relationship :) I'm not certain if there is another way to get rid of an unwanted appendage.

So far as filletting goes, my previous attempts were to draw the blades as solids, and draw the hub as a solid, but that is very difficult to fillet where they butt, if not impossible. So the simpler way is to draw a short bit of wall at right angles to the blade surface. This is best done just by extracting the curve of the blade edge, and translating it vertically. Then simply join that edge to the first edge, and use "create surface/4 edge" to make the short wall. Then, fillet works easily on these perfectly trimmed intersecting surfaces. Make sure you draw at least enough "vertical wall" because the new fillet will be a seperate surface, and any leftover wall above that can simply be deleted.

So what this boils down to, is that the blades are not, in fact, filletted to the hub, the fillet surfaces simply lie near the hub, perfectly matched, and the hub is a simple solid, just sitting inside the arms of the fillets.

Here is the surface I begin with

step 2: make a trimming block by creating a rectangular plane and extruding it (makes a solid) upwards high enough to encompass half of the helix surface prior to trimming it:

step 3: the results of using the "solid cutter function". Solid cutter does not trim wireframe, but it is a simple matter to extract the truncated edge of the surface to create a trim line to trim to the helix wires, if desired.

step 4: copy and move the inner "helix wire" upwards preparatory to making an inner surface "wall". Simply join the ends of the two chains and use 4 edge to make this into a vertical surface

step 5

step 6

step 7: the fillet function creates the fillet, and also trims excess "vertical wall" into a seperate surface that we can delete, since later, the actual solid hub will occupy this area.

step 8: delete the un-needed portion of the inner wall left over after the fillet

Where I have my most trouble is when I have two inside corners meeting and the radii of the fillets are different say one is .250 and the other is .125 and these two fillets meet each other in the corner.

I am always getting the message can't create fillet try different fillet size. But I can't change the fillet size because of print limitations.

So many times I will just create wireframe of the fillet and then use four edge surface to create the fillet surface. I don't really need to trim the surfaces because the cutter will never go beyong the fillet anyway.

Ken

Mortek, I'm not sure I can picture what a proper fillet of such an internal corner should even look like?

Do you draw the intersecting surfaces with a 45 degree mitre where they meet, or how do you attempt this?

You can likely trim one to the other (solid cutter trimming), but it won't be a machinable corner because it won't be blended.

Post a simple pic of what you are starting with before you attempt the fillet.

Things I have learned that have saved me a lot of time: don't waste time trying to trim wireframe or surfaces. Simply draw at least as much as you need, and wack it off later with a solid cutter in the form of a "trimming block", as I call it.

Hu,

Great job on the impeller. Cool trick on filleting.

I too use these "trimming blocks". Real handy to modify your surfaces and solids.;)

Second tip: This is a very important point.

Second trick: make sure your trimming block is large enough to completely enclose the portion that you want to cut off. Otherwise, any portions of what was formerly one surface on both sides of the solid cutter maintain a mysterious relationship I'm not certain if there is another way to get rid of an unwanted appendage.


If you have a solid, then you can use "remove outside surfaces" to get rid on these appendages.
But as you stated it is better to not have appendages by using a sufficent sized trimming block.:eek:

Here is a view of my custom toolpaths laid out to machine this impeller. This couldn't have been simpler to do, I am amazed at how easy OnecncXp makes this to do.

The advantage of using custom toolpaths is to gain control of the primary direction and shape of the toolpath. In this case, I wanted the finish pass to run parallel to the helix of the blade surface. This would help make the impeller work properly with more pronounced tool scallops (ie, fewer finishing passes) remaining on the part.

Although it is not necessary to blank any part of the model, I felt it was still a good idea to draw an inner boundary to avoid creating toolpaths across the face of the hub. It is also necessary to offset the toolpath extremes just a hair larger than the inner boundary, to avoid a problem with the tool rapiding up and down along the vertical wall of the hub. This is not any kind of a technical failure of Onecnc, it is simply to optimise a toolpath that I felt would be most efficient.

Boundaries are violet, roughing path is yellow, finish path is green

Here is the toolpath preview of what the roughing path looks like. Note, I did not have to do any more manual toolpathing than just the basic layout shown suspended above the part as shown in the above photo.

Here is the finish pass preview.

HU,

:D :D :D :D :D :D :banana:

Hu are you planning to actually machine one of these or just playing around with oneCNC ?, if you do I would sure like to see it.


Ken

Yes Ken, I am planning to machine a prototype in aluminum. I'll take a photo when its done and post it here.

In the meantime, I redesigned the impeller yet again because I had some missing surfaces that were allowing the tool to enter, so this time I've filletted everywhere and closed up all holes.

I learned an important step in surfacing over difficult areas, and that is to break them up into small polys with 3 or 4 sides, and create individual surfaces. This makes a much better representation of a smooth contour. Projecting some surfaces onto a temporary plane also allowed me to create the "missing edge" for some of my truncated fillets. This may not be a good paying project at the rate I'm going, but I'm really grabbing onto some new concepts that I've never thought about before. :)

Here is a pic of the machined unit.

And the under side.

This is the prototype, so not everything is exactly what I wanted, but it will do for the customer's evaluation. He wants to see if it will pump water through holes in the ice to make "ice roads" across frozen lakes in the North.

I learned lots on this project, something far more complex than I ever thought I would have the software to design and cut such a thing.

:)

Another view, different light

just trying out to see what shows up the best here

Wow Hu, I can see that this project was no small amount of effort yet shows just what one can do with patience, experience and of course OneCNC.

Nice work Hu a definite thumbs up.

But I am worried about you HU, clean desk, no coffee stains, paper, notes etc. what is with you HU !, please tell us you threw everything on the floor with a single swipe of the arm, right? :)

final offering :D

Originally posted by Ken_Shea
Wow Hu, I can see that this project was no small amount of effort yet shows just what one can do with patience, experience and of course OneCNC.

Nice work Hu a definite thumbs up.

But I am worried about you HU, clean desk, no coffee stains, paper, notes etc. what is with you HU !, please tell us you threw everything on the floor with a single swipe of the arm, right? :)

Thanks Ken,

Heh, actually, I took it home and took pictures of it on the dining room table. I had forgotten to install my camera software at work.

Nice job HU.

I'll bet it was fun to watch that baby get machined.:banana:

Pretty neat to be able to design and machine parts like that.

Thanks for sharing the photos.

Again nice Job. Hats off to Ya.:D

Hu, you did a very nice job!!

Klox

I have a newbie question...sorry. Awesome work both of you.

Hu...how did you machine both sides of that impeller?

Have a fixture and flip it over and run a seperate program for the underside?

:confused:

Yes, Nervis1, two seperate programs.

The first fixture was simply a 4 jaw chuck, the other one was a dedicated fixture made to engage a slot in the work.

Wow.


I wish more people would post their work and maybe even give small how-to's, pictures etc.

That's great stuff.

Thanks.

Latest project of interest: a mold for producing a packaging tray (from enviromentally friendly pulp), designed to hold some little widgets.

The part was designed by yours truly, in OneCNC, and of course, machined using OneCNC.

Although the design looks complex (it is to a degree), it was basically created by superimposing two cross-sectional surfaces at right angles, then letting the computer crunch away until it merged the two surfaces.

Maybe a little better view up close

I know that this thread is pretty old but I really enjoyed seeing picture of what is possible with the right software and some know how. I cnat imagine being able to do the impeller with bobcad and I hope that someday I will be able to afford "Real" software like OneCnc, but it would be a bit hard for just playing around. Thanks again for the great pictures!

Nice bump trevorhinze, I had never seen this thread b4.

Beautiful work Hu and WMS. That's inpiring stuff.

I'm convinced as I mentioned in another thread that looking at the end results is the best way to evaluate CNC options whether they be software or the machines. OneCNC has some of the most impressive projects I have yet seen. The ones here are great, but if you go register on their UserClub board on their site there are even more incredible things being done with this software.

Best,

BW