Exact point locations
 

I am trying to program a CNC mill at the moment to cut out a wheel. I have made the wheel in SolidWorks but sense I am not home at the moment I started on writing the G Code for it. I got about 15 lines in when I realized that I was going to need to know the EXACT points of everything in order to get it to turn out right. Because I am not home at the moment I was hoping that someone would be able to save me the hunting time when I got home and tell me an easy way to find the exact location of a point.


Thanks,
-Rion

Re: Exact point locations
 

Well since you have the wheel drawn out in Solidworks, why not toss it into a CAM program such as MasterCAM, CAMWORKS, SurfCAM etc...

Yes I know that CAM programs cost money. We got a copy of CAMWORKS from our engineering sponsor, Blue Dolphin. I believe the student license is about ~100 bucks.

-RC

Re: Exact point locations
 

I would be happy to do that. Except I don't have a spare 100 bucks. Or a sponsor of that type. My best bet would be to do it at Francis Tuttle, except the program is currently down there. So the best way I can think to get this done withing a few weeks would be to write the code myself. Which wouldn't be to hard if I just knew how to get the exact points..

Re: Exact point locations
 

You can use Evaluate->Measure to determine a feature or point's distance from any other feature or the origin. This will also measure radii and other important pieces of information.

You can also dimension a drawing to suit your needs and work from that.

Re: Exact point locations
 

Thank you VERY much Madison! :D That is going to help SO much. :D I didn't want to have to break out the pen and paper.. :ahh:

Thanks again,
-Rion