Meshcam 7 stalls "reordering toolpath"

Hey all - I’m having a problem generating toolpaths in MC 7 (build 5, mac os x) - I’m on a 2.7ghz machine with 16gb memory, so I don’t think that’s the problem.

I’m trying to cut a logo (about 3" dia) with some amount of detail on it, but nothing crazy. I import a bitmap into MC, and let the art functions do their thing to create geometry. But when I go to generate a toolpath (using auto wizard or manual), MC goes through all of the digesting and then the last step is “reordering toolpath” where I’ve left it sit for an hour and it never finishes doing it.

I’ve come up with some kabuki dance where I export 3d/STL from MC, pull it into meshlab where it “unifies matricies”, save it back out, re-open it with MC - then sometimes if I switch either waterline or pencil finish on/off that also helps. Major PITA tho.

But I’m at a loss for how to get past this step, and I’ve not gotten a response from either Rob, nor has the moderator approved my question for grz forums - so I’m posting here.

Chris (Nomad)

I suspect Rob is taking a couple days for the holidays - he’s usually really good about answering questions. GRZ isn’t big, I think it’s just Rob.

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I sort of figured it out - if the geometry of the piece is such that waterline doesn’t make sense (ie. the piece is small, or perhaps the ratio of the waterline tool size to the piece size is not right), waterline will just spin. On the one piece I was doing (2"x2"x0.125", lots of detail on an .030 ball mill), waterline was just not happening - leaving it off allowed things to work.

I just did a larger piece (2"x5"x0.25", much less detail on an .063 ball mill), waterline works fine, and produces a good cutting plan.

So, I think if it’s hanging, try waterline off.