Noob Mastercam Question

[canyon289]

When selecting contour chains theres a dropdown box to select whether the tool is inside or outside of the chain. However there's also options for intersection, inside +instr and outside +instr.

What are those options for and when do you use them?

[machinecrasher]

The tool inside is for which side of the chain you tool will cut on. Inside would make your part smaller and outside would make the part the size of your specs. Not sure on the other part, as I am just learnin master cam. Hope this helps ya. Actually goin back and checking what ya were talkin bout, i may be wrong. I was thinkin of somethin else. Sorry for that.

[Superman]

Are we talking about the pull-dowm, on the upper toolbar for seleing screen entities ?

or
the operation's chaining dialog box ??

if the pull-down...... it has nothing to do with tooling, toolaths, or what side you want the tool to be on
- it has to do when only selecting screen entities, to preform an action upon ie Xform, delete, attribute change, blank, etc
the default is to select only those entities that are wholly within the selecting boundary ( window, polygon, free hand spline etc)
+instr means any feature that your selecting boundary "crosses". So "Inside +" means everything inside is selected PLUS what your boundary lines have touched.

I hope I picked the right one
PS what version of Mastercam ? or is it Solidworks with Mcam addon ?? sceen shot ?

[canyon289]

Mastercam X4. The screenshots are posted. Additionally what does the wait checkbox mean?

Thanks for the responses.

[Superman]

Originally Posted by canyon289 Mastercam X4. The screenshots are posted. Additionally what does the wait checkbox mean? Thanks for the responses.

screenshots didn't come up

You seem to be talking about the "Chaining dialoge box" when prompted for entities when contouring / pocketing

Navigating hints ( main ones)
- top left corner ( corporal stripes ) extends the box for adjusting the start entity of closed chains
- 2D / 3D is a filter to switch between planar chaining or 3D chains
- wireframe box / solid box for switching between wireframe entities ( lines, arcs, splines etc ) or feature on a solid entity

the chianing selctions,
- normal chaining (upper left ), chaining stops at a branch point where you decide what direction the chain should next follow
- point, for adding a point before/ after a chain - can be used as the descend/retract tool position
- single, as it says, one entity
- wait ( lower right ), you select the fist entity, then the last, then it stop at any branch point that needs a choice to be made by you

the screen arrows on the selected chain
- green arrow is the starting entity & direction
- red arrow is the end point of the last entity

after accepting the chain as OK
- big green arrow is the chaining direction
- small green arrow ( side pointing ) is the offset side of the chain, the operation will place the tool on that side ( by how far depends on the XY offset )

[canyon289]

Just put the screenshot up. My question is on that dropdown menu.

I didn't know about half that stuff though and that clears a lot up. Thanks a ton

[Superman]

The drop-down in this dialoge box refers to when you window to select the entities

typically, you want to select chains to be able to keep the tool down, to minimise the number of retracts, to get 1 continuous cut motion.

Windowing has it's own drawbacks, it is easier to select many entities, but you have to be careful as to direction ( side ) the tool will cut, & you don't get much of a say in what order the entities get machined in ( you get to pick a starting point & thats it )

For noobs, it is a good idea to understand the difference in the choices,
- when to window a chain,
or
- when selecting on top of a specific entity to start the chain

eg
engraving the numeral (1)
there are 4 entities , windowing it can make the tool plunge & retract 4 times, but, if I chain by seleting entities in the correct order I can get it done in 1 plunge & retract
this greatly reduces the machining time ( if you look at many numbers on a large quantity of parts )