{04/03/2012

Please download this file for use in today’s demonstration of building a spoon.

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{ 9:00 am

A review of how to prepare your panel for machining on the 3 axis CNC router. Topics covered include:

• exporting from Rhino into MasterCAM
• configuring MasterCAM settings
• using the parallel finish toolpath operation
• using the contour toolpath operation
• previewing your results with the “verify” tool
• displaying toolpaths
• using “backplot” to estimate machining time

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This video will cover the basics of using the contour toolpath in MasterCAM. The Rhino file and MasterCAM file from this tutorial are available for download here.

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A short video introducing MasterCAM. This video will cover some important settings that must be configured when creating toolpaths for the 3 axis CNC router in the BEB, including:

• Setting up the correct Machine Group
• Configuring tool settings
• Setting up the appropriate tool library

The video also demonstrates how to dynamically change your view of the model space, including:

• zoom by scroll wheel
• rotate by click and drag middle mouse button
• pan by alt + click and drag middle mouse button

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I’m sharing with you all a PDF that I created for another class that might be a handy reference for you as begin working in MasterCAM. It has descriptions of what many of the parameters for the parallel finish and contour toolpath operations mean, but keep in mind that this was created for another class and some of the notes or instructions may not be relevant to this project. You can download it as a PDF here.

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This video will review how to set up your file when exporting from Rhino to MasterCAM. Of particular importance are the following:

• The origin of Rhino’s coordinate system should be coincident with the top of your stock’s thickness
• The X and Y dimensions of your stock should extend in the positive (in top view, X+ = to the right, Y+ = upwards) direction from Rhino’s origin
• Use curves (a rectangle and a vertical line) to indicate the “bounding box” that represent the size and shape of your stock

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