Workflow for Multibody Part names from Solidworks to Mastercam

[tsmith]

Is there a better way to get individual part names from SW to Mastercam? Trying to eliminate the old drawins and a sharpie method.

Current workflow is to manually name the Cut List folders AND individual parts in SW. Then, in Mastercam use the auto part names feature in Geometry Nesting.

SW refs only the Cut List folder names in BOMs (check 'detailed cut lists') but Mastercam will only ref the cut list names.



(IMHO, Detailed BOMs work better than weldment cut lists as it parses the list down to only the parts shown in the selected view, our multibody parts have a lot of 'multi'.)

But really, getting the names onto the parts in the most efficient way possible is the goal.

[gupta9665]

Have you explored a macro to rename the bodies in the cut list based on the folder names or some cut list property?

There is an option to rename the folders based on the description property value of the body in the cut list.

[bradb]

Maybe there is something the way SW or Mastercam handles cut lists or BOM's. When I export assemblies from SW as parasolid and then import into Mastercam the first part in the tree (even if it's in a subassembly) goes on level one, the next part on level 2, the next on level 3, etc. Mastercam lets you have the same name on more than one level, before cleaning it up there may be 20 levels with one component each all with the same name.

If I merge a parasolid file into an existing Mastercam file (ex. updating components or geometry) where geometry already exists on a level it adds the new geometry onto whatever the first open level is.

Don't know if this helps or not, my knowledge of Mastercam is limited, I just get the geometry into Mastercam and onto the correct levels per our procedures for the guys in the tool room, they do all the black magic stuff.

[TTevolve]

First, why would you import into Mastercam as a parasolid? Are you running a really old version of Mastercam? Mastercam can open native Solidworks files. I just drag and drop the files into Mastercam from file explorer.

Secondly, why are you importing an assembly into Mastercam? Tool paths are typically done on parts, I have never had to do anything on an assembly level that couldn't be done on the part? Only assemblies I have seen are for fixtures and are only visual to show collisions.

I did just import and assembly and it separates all the parts onto their own level in Mastercam. Even parts with the same name get the <1> or <2> after the name like solidworks does when you add a second instance of a part.

[TTevolve]

I just imported a 150 part assembly just to see what would happen, each part has it's own level in Mastercam.

[bradb]

We write out the entire mold assembly as one file, in mastercam we move the different components onto the proper level (A plate level 2, B plate level 3, Ejector cavity level 100, etc.)

On the floor if one guy is doing the A plate he pulls that part from the master file and creates his own file for machining, same thing for whomever is doing the B plate, and so on. This way everybody works off the same master file of the full tool to see how everything interacts.

To be honest, I've been doing this since before Mastercam could read native SW files, and since it works i saw no reason to re-invent the wheel. I have to move everything around once in Mastercam anyway so it's not that big of a deal to do it. An added plus the export gives us a history of when we wrote it out. I will try it direct as you mentioned and see how it works.

[TTevolve]

If your creating separate files for each mainlined part then you should just do the import per part. Since each part is being machined you just need the geometry for that part to do the programing. Zero locations will be specific to the part for each operation/setup anyways. If each part has the correct filename in Solidworks, when you drop it into Mastercam that will be the default name it will save it as with the .mcam extension.