Need Help!- Sprutcam Question

[saabaero]

I know this is the wrong forum for this question but I have tried numerous times to register on the Sprutcam forum without success and I know there are a lot of Tormach owners using Sprutcam.

I know that this has to be easy to do but for the life of me I can't seem to get it to work.

I import an .igs part in which represents a flat plate with a large number of holes in it. When I do a drilling operation I cannot seem to select the holes or their center points. The only way I have been able to accomplish this in the past is to go into the 2D creation tab and place circles on the top edge of each cylindrical bore. I was able to then select them in the machining tab to do a circular pocket with larger holes but this doesn't seem to work with smaller holes that I need to drill. I tried putting points in the center of the circles but this doesn't seem to work either when drilling.

Even if I were to get this to work when drilling I have a lot of holes in the part and creating circles and points manually on the surface of the model is very time consuming (I could probably drill them manually more easily). I must be doing something wrong because I can't believe there isn't an easier way to select points for drilling on the 3D surface model directly.

Thanks in advance for any help than anyone can offer.

[Cairns]

If you are just doing 2D work, don't create a 3D drawing. In your part, go into sketch edit mode, hit CTRL-A to select all and copy that to the clipboard. In Alibre open a new drawing, not a part, a drawing, go into sketch mode, select everything and delete it (the drawing borders, title block, etc). Paste the stuff in the clipboard and export the drawing as a DXF file. Import that into SprutCAM and and create your holes off of that.

I also got stuck in the "everything should be in 3D" train of thought. If it's 2D or 2.5D just stick with a flat line drawing and set your depth in the parameters window.

[Cairns]

One more thing, you might try using the Hole Machining operation in the Roughing group. I've had better luck with that over pocketing. I'll also say that if you've got a hybrid drawing with both 3D and 2D or 2.5D stuff, create and import both the iges and a flat 2D drawings. Holes and 2D contouring work much better with the flat line work. Unfortunately I haven't been able to figure out how to get anything but the flat line work in on the X-Y plane, X-Z and Y-Z still elude me.

[wvines]

Here's what I do:

1. Create a "Hole machining" roughing operation
2. Click "Job assignment"
3. Click on the "! Find" button

A dialog pops up with a list of all the holes near your selected drill size.

[MarkWink]

...when running the Find

you can set the min and max diameter of the hole your looking for (helps to select the correct holes when there are multiple sizes)

[saabaero]

First off I'd like to thank everyone for their replies!

Cairns,
I haven't tried working much with 2D geometry in Sprutcam yet. I model in Autodesk Inventor and tried saving my model as a DXF and importing it into Sprutcam without success. I also tried taking a drawing file and making a DXF out of it and importing it into Sprutcam and that didn't work either. I can select the circles and add them to the list but when I press "Run" there is no toolpath generated.

I can try cutting and pasting as you suggest but I would like to find an easier way (hopefully with using the iges surface model) first. I tried working with the same Inventor model brought into Mastercam at work and it found the geometries for the hole drilling without a problem.

wvines,
I am using Version 4 "Expert Edition" of Sprutcam.
Where exactly is the "Find" button. I'm not quite sure what you are referring to as "Job Assignment" Is that the "Job List" or is it in the lower window where I would select the features?

MarkWink,
That sounds similar to what I was able to do in Mastercam but first I need to be able to 'find' the "FIND" button in Sprutcam.

I have to wonder if things are done that differently in Russia because I cannot find anything intuitive about the Sprutcam application. I have spent less time with Mastercam and been able to accomplish a lot more.

I haven't even been able to register on the Sprutcam forum. When I enter the number of machines I have it tells me that the number I entered was in the wrong format. After trying various values for about 15 minutes I think I entered "0" and the registration went through. Its been a couple of weeks now but I never received the 'email' from them to complete the process. The cost of Sprutcam through Tormach is appealing but (at this point) I cannot imagine paying the normal retail price.

[MarkWink]

saabaero

I do not use 2D only 3D right from Inventor (use addins for the ipt,iam import)or iges.

Once you have selected hole machining and it's listed under your machining - expand it to see the menu items under it - you'll see job assignment - select that - now you will see some options in the lower window - "find" will be one of them

Sprut has a thick crust to crack, keep at it and you'll find it was worth it.

[MarkWink]

I just picked up that your using ver 4

Download the Sprutcam 2007 demo it's much improved over ver 4

[saabaero]

MarkWink,
Is that maybe why I'm having so many problems and cannot find "Find"?????

Is the new version that much better?

Thanks. I'll give that a try.

It's surprising because I hear about how hard to learn and more complicated Mastercam is but I have been able to learn so much with it in a short time. It's just that buying a license for home is way out of my budget.

[MarkWink]

saabaero,

Sprut UK (Dave P) does his own tutorial forum (Tormach uses him too)

http://www.download.sprut.co.uk/Supp...ex.php?act=idx

It's a pay site, but for about $40 US you get access for a month


...and yes 2007 is much improved

[_swede]

Originally Posted by saabaero Is the new version that much better?

I've been using the SprutCAM 2007 Master edition available to Tormach owners for a few months now and I've been able to quickly pick it up. I also used MasterCAM before now, and I'd have to say my new preference is SC.

I searched around in the SprutCAM portion of this forum (http://www.cnczone.com/forums/sprutcam/) and from what I can tell the differences between Version 4 and 2007 are pretty drastic. i.e. 2007 is a lot more user friendly.

I was able to create a moderately complicated 3D part using the Waterline Roughing and Complex Finishing operations. I taught myself using the built-in tutorials (located in the Help menu) in about 30 minutes. People seem to be satisfied with the 'pay-for-video' tutorials too, but so far I've been able to manage using the free stuff.

Have you tried seeing if there are built in tutorials in your version?

Also, since you already have a license of SC, you should try contacting them to see if it's possible to purchase a service pack or upgrade to 2007 at a reduced cost.

[David Bord]

I dont see a reason to bring in both 2D drawings and 3D models. You can simply select the model face after importing and "project curves" and it will create a 2D set of curves/drawing that you can use for 2D machining, pocketing, etc. In addition, you can then export those curves to DXF if you like.

As others have stated 2007 is MUCH better than V4. I still find bugs on occasion but they are usually fixed in a reasonabke time once reported.

David