Can't highlight drawing for inside planar finishing

[williamsmotower]

Just as title says...trying to highlight a oval thats basically cut in half and want to machine it out.

I select planar box... asks me to select curves... I try and select and nothing gets highlighted.

Seperate issue... I have 4.3 according to verifying version... but my toolbar is 4.0 I think. I've tried to search and load toolbar but can"t find any newer version.

All the screenshots I see on here list what version madcam is in toolbar... mine does not.

[svenakela]

I'm not sure what you're trying to do, could you post an image on the model?
Or maybe if you can post the model somewhere (download site or similar) and PM me the link, I can have a look.

-S

[Dan B]

Are you using the curves as a region curve? Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you are trying to do, but if you are using the half-oval as a region curve to control the cutter, make sure the half-oval is a closed solid. If you've trimmed it with a line and haven't joined it, it will not select.

Like Svenakela mentioned, post an image it helps a lot. Like the saying goes, "a picture speaks a thousand words".

Dan

[williamsmotower]

Trying to machine out the inside of these... madcam won't highlight them at all. i could email the file if someone needs to see how I drew it.

[svenakela]

Add it on RapidShare AG, Cham, Switzerland (it's free, just upload) and PM me the link.

[svenakela]

Oh BTW, if you want to mill the inside only you have to prevent the mill from going to the outside. You can do that with Select region curves.

[williamsmotower]

http://rapidshare.com/files/434554202/madcamtest.3dm

[svenakela]

I think your problem is that you are trying to use a mm cutter library in a model that uses inches. When you choose cutter, change the Cutter Library to Cutters_Inch by changing the path with the button with the three dots in the Cutters dialog.

I copied your objects to a mm-model and then everything worked with my settings.
Then I re-opened your model and changed my Cutter Library to the inch library and voilá, works also.

[williamsmotower]

Still not getting it to work.

I'll play around with cutters somemore... but I think it's correct.

Did it work for you right away?

[williamsmotower]

Sorry, I click on "select region curves" and then try and click on those objects... and they don't highlight for me

[svenakela]

Originally Posted by williamsmotower Still not getting it to work. I'll play around with cutters somemore... but I think it's correct. Did it work for you right away?

Your file didn't work as it was, but if I did as mentioned earlier it worked fine. Either switch to a mm-model or the Inch cutter library and it worked.

[Dan B]

Here is the procedure I followed:

I turned on the layers to show the whole part. Then I selected the part and the stock box (green) encapsulated the part just as shown in your screen shot.
Then I created a .25" ballnose tool (because your units are set to inches). Then I picked the "set region" button and then proceeded to select all the region curves that I just made. Notice that the green stock box should shrink to the extents of the pockets. I then ran a roughing toolpath and it worked fine.

Don't expect the surfaces that make up those pockets to highlight. You aren't actually picking those surfaces, you've already done that when you activated the part in the first step. The region curves are the key to getting your paths to be isolated to the area you want to cut. But remember, they must be closed.

I will attach a couple of screen shots that may help. The paths are a little rough because I didn't adjust my file tolerances to suit the inch system (I work exclusively in metric, so inches are foreign to me).

I hope this helps. Let me know if you need more clarification.

Dan