Surfaces

[camtd]

Hi

Is there a way to sew or knit surfaces 2 or more surfaces to create 1 surface
from that?

Thank You

[championp]

you can use edit-join, but it sometimes alters the surfaces in a bad way so save before you try. How complex are these surfaces? If you pm me the file I could tell you more. sometimes you can use the wireframe to create a new surface in place of two.


Chris

[mdlmkr]

IMPORTANT--- There is no undo for join. I have gotten burned by this a couple of times. If you are joining many entities make sure that you save often.

[Cammotion]

Originally Posted by mdlmkr IMPORTANT--- There is no undo for join. I have gotten burned by this a couple of times. If you are joining many entities make sure that you save often.

Another technique I use is to copy the surfaces you want to work on to another layer, then you can edit and not worry about it.

I do this often when I want to finish a non-planar surface that has a hole, but I want to keep the cutter from "diving" into the hole. I just copy the surface to its own layer, untrim it, and the hole goes away, then retrim back to the original outside edge wire frame. Layers are your friend!

[championp]

I think that the lack of "undo" in surfcam is one of it's weak spots. I think it wastes a lot of time to have to deal with saving and copying to another layer, etc.


Chris

[Cammotion]

Originally Posted by championp I think that the lack of "undo" in surfcam is one of it's weak spots. I think it wastes a lot of time to have to deal with saving and copying to another layer, etc. Chris

That's been one of my complaints for years too. Why not a global undo that lets you undo/re-do everything you've done in a whole session? Before Solidworks became the modeler for Surfcam, there was Surfcam Solids, which would let you do just that! There is an undo function for a lot of actions, but it's not global. My Surfcam rep. told me undo has been written in for some time, but Surfware hasn't turned it on.

[mdlmkr]

I know that it not true. The issue with Surfcam and undo is deeper than that. Surfcam was written in DOS, long before Windows existed. "Undo" is a feature that is linked to windows and its applications. I have spoke to the Surfcam main office about this issue and they told me that they are working on implementing it. In the mean time, I guess I just wont make any mistakes. .

[Cammotion]

Originally Posted by mdlmkr I know that it not true. The issue with Surfcam and undo is deeper than that. Surfcam was written in DOS, long before Windows existed. "Undo" is a feature that is linked to windows and its applications. I have spoke to the Surfcam main office about this issue and they told me that they are working on implementing it. In the mean time, I guess I just wont make any mistakes. .

Well, they should get it implemented as far as I'm concerned. Folks have been complaining about it for a long time. That said, I still think Surfcam is a great piece of software, and getting better. I'm anxious to see how TrueMill and Step Reduction Milling work together. That'll be something!

[championp]

I imagine, for z-rough, it would take z slices of the part and create a different velocity pocket for each depth. So theoretically, you can do this already if you have the time and desire. Has anyone used the feature save z slices to layer ?

SRM never does quite what I want, unless it is on a part with a boss on top. I assume combining velocity and SRM would be a z rough cycle followed by a z finish and rest machining with stock to leave? We can do this already using the method I described above (theoretically). I work the night shift, maybe I'll get a chance to try this and post about it tomorrow.

Chris

[mdlmkr]

I have tried it. It does work pretty good. The way that I did it was I created trim planes at all the Z levels I wanted to cut. Then I created surface intersect splines where the trim plane and the part met. I used those splines as boundries for the truemill path. Then I use trumill reference to clean up the corners.

This is a pain in the neck. I hope they put this in soon!

[JDEMPSEY]

Lots of times when you want to undo you can click delete undelete and it will bring back the element in its previous state then you can delete the trimmed screwed up one away. It will not always take care of it but sometimes it does work. Hope this helps.

[lagrandebug]

I use surfcam for some nasty parts the best way to get those surfaces together is not to join them it moves and alters them way to much. The best way is to create a spline thru the wire frame boundaries and then go to create, surfaces, DRIVE SURFACE that will let you pic what contour along what shape you would like your suface and where you want them to attach that will then create one big surface that you will be able to then do a 3axis cut on. Let me know if you need any help with it would be happy to show you. ALSO if you go to join surfaces and get burned there is a way to UNDO that. People learn the software before you go saying it can't do something that is how it gets a bad name. Let me know if you want to know where the UNDO BUTTON is.