Geometry

The ‘Geometry’ section of the Advanced tab enables you to:

Decide the action taken by CAM Assist if it encounters an error due to a faulty model.
Indicate if CAM Assist is to compute a toolpath strategy for the full part or only for those faces selected by you.

Features

The following table describes each option in the ‘Geometry’ section, as shown in the above screenshot.

Option

Description

How to Use

Action on model with errors

Errors can occur due to a fault in the model, or due to an incompatibility between the underlying CAD systems used by Mastercam and CAM Assist.

For the majority of error instances, CAM Assist will continue to compute toolpaths for most or all of the part.

Available options:

Fail on errors - returns a description of the model problem.
Proceed with errors (default) - process the model as received. The generated program may miss geometry or be incorrect in areas where the model has errors.
Attempt to fix errors - CAM Assist will try to fix the model's geometry. This can fix errors, but can result in modifications to the geometry that mean the program misses geometry or is incorrect.

Click on the action you would like CAM Assist to take.

The better option between ‘Proceed with errors’ and ‘Attempt to fix errors’ depends on the specific part and error. In many cases, the best approach is to first try ‘Proceed with errors’ and, if that output is not correct, try ‘Attempt to fix errors’.

Machine full part

Checked (default) - CAM Assist will produce a toolpath strategy to machine the full part.
Unchecked - CAM Assist will create a toolpath strategy restricted to those faces selected by you, using the Select faces (0) button.

For step-by-step instructions, see Machine full part, below

Select faces (0)

This feature is only displayed if ‘Machine full part’ (see above) is unchecked.

This button is used to select only those faces on the part for which you want CAM Assist to compute a toolpath strategy.

For step-by-step instructions on using using the ‘Select faces’ feature, see Machine full part, below

Machine full part

For ‘Machine full part’, you have the following options:

Checked - CAM Assist will create toolpaths to machine the whole part (see Machine full part - checked, below).
Unchecked - CAM Assist will create a toolpath strategy restricted to those faces selected by you, using the Select faces (0) button (see Machine full part - unchecked, below).

Toolpath type restrictions
Keep in mind that ‘Machine full part’ is restricted to the toolpath types that have been checked.

Machine full part - checked

When ‘Machine full part’ is checked, CAM Assist will produce a toolpath strategy to machine the full part.

Machine full part - unchecked

When ‘Machine full part’ is unchecked, you must indicate those faces on the part for which you want CAM Assist to create a toolpath.

For this option, CAM Assist enables the selection of multiple faces.

Take the following steps:

Uncheck Machine full part.
- The ‘Select Faces (0)’ button appears to the right (as shown in the screenshot to the right).
Click Select Faces (0).

Within Mastercam, click on the part’s face(s) that you want to be machined.
- The screenshot to the right provides an example with several faces selected.
When you have finished selecting faces, press the ESC key.

On pressing the ESC key:

The Clear selection button is displayed - click it if you wish to remove your selection of faces.
- To reselect faces, start again from step 2 (above).
‘Select faces (0)’ changes to ‘Select faces (n)’, where n is the number of faces you selected.

With the faces selected, you are now ready to continue the configuration of CAM Assist.