Creating surfaces from .iges files

[homebrewCNC]

Hi guys and gals,

I'm a mastercam newbie and a newbie to the whole CNC thing, but I try hard to learn. I am currently limited to creating 2d toolpaths from contours, but can make 3d objects as well.

I REALLY want make a 1/4 scale keychain baretta from an iges files that are available from justin at his CNC gunsmithing homepage.

My question is can mastercam take an iges file and model a surface without me having to define each surface area as loft, ruled, etc? Will mastercam also create the toolpaths for me?

Also if any of you can recommend a good book with visual references that easy to understand that would be great!

Thanks for any advice you can give me. I am sure this may be a valuable thread for beginners like me.

[rickyt]

Have you checked out tipsformanufacturing.com they offer training CD's and they are great. Im sure that you will learn a thing or two from them.

[Matt Berube]

Homebrew,

.igs files can have surfaces and/or wireframe geometry in them. The answer to your question depends entirely upon what type of entities were placed in the .igs by it's creator.

In other words, if the file has nothing but wireframe in it, that's what you'll get when you open it. There is no way for Mastercam to automatically create surfaces from wireframe data. The other possibility is that whoever created the file may have modeled the surfaces already... Have you opened the file yet ? Can you post a link to it ?

[homebrewCNC]

Thanks for responding to my question. The .igs is a wireframe. My problem is not that I do not know how to create a surface, but this a complicated model. Thanks for your help.

[Matt Berube]

Homebrew,

That file is not a wireframe. It looks like a wireframe because you didn't "shade" it.

Open it in Mastercam and press ALT-S to turn on shading...

The file consists of 409 trimmed surfaces.

So what do you intend to do with it ?
Are you going to just cut the profile in 2-d ?
Or are you going to cut it in 3-d ?

[homebrewCNC]

Hi Matt,

I was hoping to cut the profile in 3D, so the model would be cut in half. I have made some progress with your help so far. I guess I will have to rough surface the model using the various toolpaths. Hopefully I may accomplish this before next year. I appreciate any help or tips you can give me.

Thanks, Homebrew

[Matt Berube]

Originally Posted by homebrewCNC so the model would be cut in half.

I am not sure what you mean by that... You'll machine half then flip over ? Or actually cut 2 separate pieces and screw together ? Or only make half and forget the rest ?

To get you started roughing, create a rectangle the size of your stock and make a surf rough pocket toolpath using the rectangle as your "boundary". This is my favorite roughing strategy.

[homebrewCNC]

Sorry Matt for my lack of detail. I would just cut half like you would before you flip it to cut the other half, but I would not cut the second half

I defined the stock using the bounding box and I performed the rough surface pocket and the tool cut out the pockets of the model, but not the shape. I still have a long way to go, but progress has been made.

[cadcam]

I figure you are not trying to make a new gun correct. I would like to see the rest of the files for this like the slide do you have that?

when you set the Define stock did you have it as lines to if so use that as your boundry for the rough pocket and it will do the hole shape.
Let me know if you need a sample.

[homebrewCNC]

Cadcam,

I do not have the files for the slide. The slide and internal components are puchased from a gun shop. I am not machining a scale replica gun as of now since I do not have a firearms licence, etc. Have you checked out cncgunsmithing.com? Justin does incredible work with his machines and cad programming.

Yes, I defined the stock as the outer boundry for the model and the toolpath cut the pockets, but did not remove any other material other then the trigger pocket and the pocket in the handle.

Any samples would be great! I can look through the different toolpaths to see what you did to remove the material. I like figuring things out for myself, but I just seem lost when it comes to 3-D modeling since I am accustom to working with 2-D models. Thanks for your help.

[homebrewCNC]

Thank you all for your help. I finally have the roughed out model! I am actually becoming fairly decent at surface modeling, but still have a long way to go. What would be the best finishing toolpath to use for this type of model?

[Beaker]

Homebrew

Can ya post some pics of your progress, I'm interested in your project.
I'm thinking of making something similar to fire bb's ,something low powered.