Newbie- igs file importing into mastercam

[hedgehog23]

Bear with me, im real new to mastercam, or any other cad/cam programing.

when i import a part into mastercam (igs file) i cant "snap too" the center of a hole when plotting out a drill routine (wrong word)

all the video tutorials i have show this snap to feature to locate the center of a hole. seems as though i cant select any one line of the part, mastercam has made it solid or one piece.

any help would be great . thanks

[thebowman]

Originally Posted by hedgehog23 Bear with me, im real new to mastercam, or any other cad/cam programing. when i import a part into mastercam (igs file) i cant "snap too" the center of a hole when plotting out a drill routine (wrong word) all the video tutorials i have show this snap to feature to locate the center of a hole. seems as though i cant select any one line of the part, mastercam has made it solid or one piece. any help would be great . thanks

Do this from the Mastercam Menu:

Screen. Then pick Combine Views from the Screen Menu.

Do it again to be sure it got everything.

Now try selecting and see if you can snap to the center of a hole.

If the above doesn't work use Analyze Entity and see if your hole "circles" are arcs or splines.

[warrenb]

IGES = "I Guess"

Sometimes you just have to get a different format.

[hedgehog23]

Originally Posted by thebowman Do this from the Mastercam Menu: Screen. Then pick Combine Views from the Screen Menu. Do it again to be sure it got everything. Now try selecting and see if you can snap to the center of a hole. If the above doesn't work use Analyze Entity and see if your hole "circles" are arcs or splines.

thanks very much, ill try both of these suggestions on my days off work. i remember one thing though , when zoomed right in on the hole they didn't appear round. More like many small flats to form am circle.

[Mike Mattera]

IGES surfaces dont generally have wireframe geometry that you can snap to. You can Create - Curves - 1 Edge then grab the surface and slide your cursor to the edge where you want to create an arc, line or spline.

Mike Mattera

[Mike Mattera]

IGES surfaces dont generally have wireframe geometry that you can snap to. You can Create - Curves - 1 Edge then grab the surface and slide your cursor to the edge where you want to create an arc, line or spline.

Mike Mattera

[hedgehog23]

Originally Posted by thebowman Do this from the Mastercam Menu: Screen. Then pick Combine Views from the Screen Menu. Do it again to be sure it got everything. Now try selecting and see if you can snap to the center of a hole. If the above doesn't work use Analyze Entity and see if your hole "circles" are arcs or splines.

tried combining views but no luck. im no expert with mastercam and my skills with the analyze feature shows it.

[thebowman]

Originally Posted by hedgehog23 tried combining views but no luck. im no expert with mastercam and my skills with the analyze feature shows it.

Then perhaps as Mike indicated you don't have wireframe geometry on the surface edges where the hole is you wish to snap to. When you turn off your surfaces do you see wireframe (arcs or splines) where the hole was? If you see no wireframe where the hole was, you will need to create curves on the edges of the surfaces where you wish to pick the center of hole. Follow Mike's instructions on how to do this.