Need Help with Mastercam X Please

[DustinG]

Hello all,

Thank you in advance for viewing this thread. I am currently working on importing an Inventor file (.IPT) into Mastercam X. The file is for a turned part, and I am having no trouble getting the file into Mastercam.

Where I am having trouble is when I am trying to delete the wireframe and retain only the body of the part. I recall having to do something with the levels, but I am getting lost after that point. I currently have 1 level with all of the entities and I have created a level 2, but I cannot figure out how to delete all of the extra entities and retain only the body. I am assuming that it is called the body (The blue lines).

What I am trying to do is make the 3D into a 2D. I'm just trying to retain the outside profile.


Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much!

[Matt Berube]

Well, the easiest way would be during the import of your .ipt file. Select ipt format and click on your *.ipt file then press the "options" button in Mastercam's FILE OPEN window. In this dialog box you can select whether to import a solid or trimmed surfaces and also specify whether the wireframe should be included.

Another way of dealing with this would be after the solid and wireframe are imported into Mastercam selecting DELETE , then press the ALL button and select WIREFRAME...

Or if you desire to keep the entities but move them to a different level...

Right-click on the "level" area at the bottom of the screen. This produces a prompt asking you to select which entities you would like to change the level of. Here you can press ALL then select WIREFRAME and specify which level you want it to land on...

Hope this helps.

[DustinG]

Dear Mr. Berube,

Thank you! I appreciate the rapid response!

Still seems that I have a problem; it does work exactly how you described, so I've got that step down, but for some reason or another it is not removing the "frame." It does copy over one entity, but on the screen it is still displaying the "frame" but the visability of the Level with all of the entities is turned OFF.

What you suggested did work, but I'd like to get the file into 2D, but it's still showing it as being in 3D.

Are there any other techniques of removing this and leaving ONLY the outside profile? Am I missing something here?


Thanks again, I really appreciate this.

[Matt Berube]

Hi Dustin,

There's no need to PM me. If we keep the discussion in this thread others can learn from it in the future.

Do me a favor...

Press Screen, Statistics in Mastercam and tell me what the report says...

[DustinG]

It worked for what you said but the statistic for that level is "1 solid" I no longer want the drawing to be a solid.

It is one entity of a solid, but all of the lines are still being displayed. When I goto do a toolpath it shows as just a solid, but when I do not do a tool path it's still showing all of the lines.

[Matt Berube]

OK great...

You have one solid on screen.

You're describing all the "lines" but that is just how the unshaded solid model looks.

You can toggle shading on and off with ALT-S...

Now to get you some geometry you can use to make a toolpath... (bear with me I'm not a lathe guy)

I figure there are 2 things you could use for this task...

The simplest would probably be "Create Curve Slice"... This will give you a planar section curve along the solid at a plane you define...

Another option would be to use the function "Create, Solid to 2-D Profile"..... This function should work for any lathe task but my understanding is that it really shines on geometry that has lobes such as a crankshaft or camshaft in an engine...

In any case you'll need to be proficient enough with Mastercam to be able to define the center of rotation or the slicing plane and based upon your earlier posts I am afraid you may struggle with this...

You might look into taking some beginners classes or getting somebody local to run through some things with you...

Anyway, give it a shot and report back here and perhaps some lathe guru will show up and give some better advice...

I'm going offline for the night but I'll try to check in tomorrow...

[DustinG]

Yes, I was just about to mention the curve slice, that is the process I am looking for. Thank you

[DustinG]

Okay piece of cake. We got it, thank you for your input. That's the function I was looking for the create curve slice.


Thank you for your help once again