Surfacing question

[frunple]

Hello,
Let me first say I am totally new to CAD/CAM designing so I will probably be asking some stupid questions here. sorry!

Anyway, I have a drawing that I want to add(??) a planar surface to and everytime I try to, it says all chains must be closed. I asume "chains" are the lines that create the image (told you I was new), and when I check, they are all connected (I assume thats the closed part). So my question is, How can I find out what chains are causing me not to surface the drawing??

Another question I have, Is there a way to permanently connect the chains so that they are all one instead of the 30 that I have in the drawing?

Thanks for any help.

[frunple]

How 'bout if I start out a little easier.....
What does "all chains need to be closed" mean?

Thanks

[Verfur]

closed like a full circle. And actualy a chain (feature) is a the difenition of the selected lines of geometry. the chain (feature) will actualy be only one inity when completed. It is like highliting the map for the roads you intend to drive on. Not every chain of features will need to be closed, mainly those that are for pocketing will be closed to containe the tool path inside it or outside of it (I.E. an Island in the pocket).

what cad/cam do you have?

Most cad/cams have a help file try Features in the search.

Hope this helps some

[frunple]

Ok, thats kinda what I thought, closed as in every chain touching the next. I go to a scale of .0001 and followed the complete outline and there are no openings and yet when iI go to apply a surface, it still tells me all chains need to be closed!!??!! I dont get it.
I'm using bobcad 20.5, I highlight the area I want to surface, go to create surface, then select planar surface, hit next and all chains must be closed....and they are closed!!
I'm wondering if its some kinda bug in the software but I really dont know enough about CAD to know if I'm doing something wrong.
BTW, the help section really sucks on bobcam!!!

[Verfur]

Hum I have not used bob cad But in Esprite when you creat the features you select the plane first then make the features. Is the part flat? if so You may want to project the feature to a flat plane at the hight you want and give that a try Or change surface type. it sounds like somthing is not on plane.

Just a thought

[ger21]

Just because they are all touching doesn't mean they are closed. There may be a command to close the chain. But I don't use BobCAD, so not sure.

[ddmf]

If you select the chain and direction, the chain will terminate at the break, trim extend to connect and repeat for each break, also the end of each chain must connect to the next chain.
bobcad has free support and can help when getting to know the software.

[CNCdude]

BobCAD V20 does have an close chain function for 2D geometry. Not for 3D geometry. You simply need to make sure that the geometry is connected properly if you are attempting to create a surface with one of the surface functions. Do you have the training videos?
CNC Dude

[youngfg]

Hold "shift" down and click the chain, it will select everthing that is connected. This will help you see where the problem is.

You can also manually select all of the chain and goto "change",reorganize"," clean up and optimize" or try, "change","reorganize","make arcs tnagential". This has fixed it for me before.

You can also goto "file","environment","general" and change the value in "Chain Gap" to something larger.

If those don't fix it either trim the line, or redraw the line using join line.

[frunple]

Verfer:
Yes, it is flat, actually it's a 1/2 inch thick but I tried to surface it with just the z0 plane and it wouldnt work. Tried with the full 3d also.

Ger21:
I was kinda hoping there was a "close" command but cant seem to find it. If anyone knows please tell me.

CNCdude:
Where is the close chain function? No training vids.

Youngfg:
Ok, the "shift click helps a bit but its gettin me even more confused?? If I shift click one chain it highlights the whole design, but if I go around and shift click othe chains, some only highlight 2 chains or 3??? Why is that? any ideas?
I did the "change",reorganize"," clean up and optimize" and "change","reorganize","make arcs tangential" and now it says failed to create planar surface but not chains must be closed....gettin closer maybe.
I also changed the chain gap to .5 and it still did the same.
Thanks to all for the help!!

[frunple]

To all:

I figured it out!
I had one line that was doubled. It wasnt closed with any other chain. I deleted each chain one at a time and did a repaint after each delete and sure enough there it was!!
Thanks again for all your help.

[ErnieD]

Hi,
Try this: Highlight your strings then go to the change menu, select reorganize then select cleanup & organize.

Ernie