Tech Tips

Let’s take a look at new options added to Bounding Box in Mastercam 2021. Bounding Box now allows you to create stock limits using an auto option. This will allow you to take parts that have odd shapes and quickly create rectangular or circular stock that will fit the selected parts as tightly as possible. In practice, you can use this Rectangular or Circular boundary to quickly align the part for milling or lathe operations. [...]

This post will explain how to use a solid model downloaded from the tooling vendor to define a custom face mill profile in Mastercam. When downloading the solid model to define the face mill some of the tooling vendors will offer a detailed and simplified version of the solid models. To define the face mill in Mastercam the simplified model is preferred. However, if we use the model with the default settings to define the [...]

Recent releases of Mastercam have implemented some big improvements to the Sweep function within the Solid Modeling function. Prior to these releases, Sweep operations required a fillet between entities on the Along curve when there was a change in direction of more than 5 degrees. Sweep is ideal for cylindrical-shaped parts. Fixtures, propeller blades, door handles, wheel spokes, exhaust pipes, and engine ports are some examples. To ensure you are taking advantage of the newfound [...]

A new toolpath called Mastercam Chamfer Drill has been added to Mastercam 2021. This new Chamfer Drill toolpath allows you to use a chamfer tool, spot drill, or drill to chamfer multiple size holes in a single operation. In practice, this will allow you to use a single spot drill to make the desired root chamfer on many holes in one operation. This new ability will allow you to significantly reduce the number of toolpaths [...]

This article will cover using Mastercam Air Regions when cutting open geometry in the 2D Highspeed Dynamic toolpath. With multiple open sides many times programmers will try to select the inside edges of the open Geom. In this example, we will select the geometry along the two walls. This image below illustrates the preview chains utility that shows what the toolpath is calculating to be cut. With the machining region set to cut from the [...]

Let’s take a look at how to use Mastercam Slot Mill to program undercuts using settings in the depth cuts utility. For this example, we will use the Circle Mill toolpath. Open the Circle Mill toolpath and select the geometry. The depth cuts are going to be set as step ups from the bottom to top, using the top of the slot mill to create the undercut. You can select either the upper or lower [...]