STL file with multiple parts?

1

Hi all,

I have ordered my Nomad883 and I assume it will be December when it arrives. Anyway I have a question regarding STL file format and Meshcam.

I’ve created an assembly of a ships frame in Solidworks the blue line represents the Flip Frame inner dimensions, my question is will it be possible to machine all these parts in meshcam on one STL file as it will save me a heck of a lot of time?

Thanks

Tim

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@timtom1, MeshCAM will only add supports extending from a part outwards to the stock boundary. It will not place supports between parts. If you can model your own supports between parts there would be no problem. One thing you might try is to place the parts at different depths within the stock and see if MC will place supports then. Or are these parts the actual thicknes of the stock you’re using?

EDIT:: OK, that was a silly idea. Even though MC will grow the supports (think of them as growing inwards from the perimeter to the geometry, the supports overlap the other parts.

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Thanks Randy the stock will be about 1 cm depth or larger. I will have a play around. Thanks

4

TimTom
Heres a screen capture of my rhino workspace, with supports holding the parts to a childs set of sunglasses.
I modeled and placed the supports inside my cad file.
I also modeled the interior of the flip frame, and then offset by 1/2 inch in order to keep a frame around my work, allowing me to flip the parts.

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thanks guys will do that

6

I’ve been playing with the trail version of mesh cam and I’ve got good results with the supports on my parts. I just need to wait and see when the nomad arrives. Will post a picture later.

I’ve managed to arranged the parts on the same depth and have support. It’s a bit fiddly but works in theory.

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Tim, I’ll be glad to see your solution. I’ve been a fan of MeshCAM’s supports since the beginning ( Splines for 2-sided milling ) but have only used them with single parts.

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Randy would this work?

Tim

9

That should work fine, Tim. Use Machine Geometry + with a margin of .75 to 1.0 cutter diameter to leave just a little kerf around the parts. On the right side of the assembly there are two places where a support comes close to another part and I’d just watch there to see if MeshCAM does anything weird there. But that looks like a good and creative solution.

Randy

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Thanks for the help Randy, just waiting for the nomad now :slight_smile: