Using the 'Geometry' section

The Geometry section enables you to redefine the geometry to include aspects of the original model that you wish to include or omit from CAM Assist’s toolpath strategy.

For an overview of this section’s features and functionality, see Geometry.

This page uses examples and instructions to help you use the features of the ‘Geometry’ section:

‘Advanced’ tab - Geometry section

Action on model with errors

To use this feature, take the following steps:

Hover over the chosen ‘action’
1. A drop-down box will appear, as show in the image to the right.
Select one of the options from the drop-down box (for details, see Geometry)

Drop-down for the chosen ‘action’

Machine full part

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

Checked - CAM Assist will create toolpaths to machine the whole part.
Unchecked - you indicate the faces for which you want CAM Assist to compute toolpaths.

Machine full part - checked

When ‘Machine full part’ is checked, CAM Assist will produce a toolpath strategy to machine the whole part, as shown in the following screenshot.

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

Machine full part - unchecked

When ‘Machine full part’ is unchecked, you must indicate which faces on the part that 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 Geometry ‘Face (0)’ button appears at the bottom of the section (see screenshot to the right).
Click ‘Face (0)’
Click on the part’s faces that you want to be machined.
- ‘Face (0)’ changes to ‘Faces (n)’, where n is the number of faces selected', as shown in the screenshot below.
When the configuration of CAM Assist is complete, click Run.
- CAM Assist will compute a toolpath strategy but for the faces selected (given the ‘Toolpath type’ restrictions).

The following screenshot shows an example selection set on the part and the resulting appearance of the ‘Geometry’ section.

Note that the Geometry selector has changed form Face (0) to Faces (11) to reflect the number of faces that have been selected on the part.

Same physical part

For ‘Same physical part’, you have the following options:

Checked - CAM Assist will treat the selected setups as being associated with the same physical part that is to be machined.
Unchecked - CAM Assist will treat the selected setups as distinct parts to be machined.

In the following ‘Design’ screenshot, there are two setups for the same part (one setup for each side of the part).

Same physical part - checked

When ‘Same physical part’ is checked, CAM Assist will treat the selected setups as being associated with the same physical part that is to be machined.

To use the ‘Same physical part’ option, take the following steps:

Within CAM Assist:

‘General’ tab - ensure that the respective ‘Setups’ are checked (see the screenshot to the right)
‘Advanced’ tab - check the box for ‘Same physical part’.
Click Run.

Insert screenshot of Advanced tab

In the ‘Manufacture’ workspace, you can only see one setup at a time. To illustrate, the following screenshots shows CAM Assist’s computed toolpath strategy for both setups.

Same physical part - unchecked

If ‘Same physical part’ was unchecked, CAM Assist would not know that the setups were for the same part, in which case the error message shown to the right would be displayed during CAM Assist’s toolpath strategy computation.