Partial curves on a surface

[John@CRDM]

Hi.

Why is it that sometimes when I create a curve on one edge of a surface the curve doesnt flow along the whole edge and only a small segment is created and are there any ways around this situation other than creating loads of partial curves?

Many thanks

[Superman]

You will probably find that where the curve was created was where a mating surface joined.

Take a cube for example.(surfaces)
<create curve one edge> will create 1 curve on one edge of the selected surface
<create curve all edges> will create curves on all edges of the selected surface/s

Note! creating curves on surfaces that share common edges, you will create curves on both edges, so, there will be double wireframe entities at these edges.

To avoid this, try creating curves from a solid entity, not from surfaces ( your wireframe will be more accurate and will chain better

[John@CRDM]

That doesnt sound like the problem im experiencing.

I often copy surfaces onto a new level to create electrodes. Sometimes ill create a curve on one surface and MCAM will create a nice constant curve along the edge and sometimes ill go to create the curve and it will only make a partial curve along the edge despite the fact it was only previously attached to one surface.

It seems that the more complicated the geometry, the less likely I am to get a decent curve.

[BigDamo]

I get that too sometimes, I have had that type of problem since version 5 way back when still in DOS. One solution is to use the option to make an edge curve around the whole surface, not just one edge.
Damo

[John@CRDM]

Yeah...its an option. I just wondered if there were any definitive solutions or tolerance changes I could use.

Sometimes I just find the less curves you have the easier it is for chaining for trimming and creating new surfaces etc....all the fun stuff with making electrodes using surfaces

[BigDamo]

Sometimes you just have to do things the hard way. Solids are much easier, but then it's not always possible to have a good solid model to make electrodes from. I find trimming surfaces a bit of a pain sometimes in Mastercam. One other software package that was popular here awhile ago is Powershape. It is very good at trimming surfaces, but then again to do something as simple as sweeping a surface down 2 rails and it couldn't do it. Have fun.
Damo