The Compare Dialog

image1 Comparison between the design part and the in-process stock is only available with a MRS (Material Removal Simulation) license available and enabled via the VM pane on the GENER and CERUN launch panels. The MRS license provides the added functionality to compute the effect of the cutting process of the tool on the rough stock. The resultant shape is called the “in-process stock”.

The Boolean excess and overcut results can sometimes be misleading, since it can be difficult to judge the thickness of the excess or gouge material. VM provides a Simulation»Compare (Ctrl Alt Q shortcut) color graduated part/stock comparison feature to address this issue. The comparison colorization settings are applied only to gouge and excess material, which must first be enabled by selecting one or both of the Simulation»Show»Filters»Boolean Overcut and …»Boolean Undercut filters. Select the …»Colorized Boolean filter to compute and view the results.

The comparison is done by sampling the surface of the gouge and/or excess material, and computing the shortest distance to the part. The distance is then used to assign a fixed or graduated color, as defined using the various options of the Compare dialog. If the sample size is small, or the part very large, the colorization process may take a long time to compute. The comparison can be cancelled at any time, in which case the displayed results will be incomplete (but perhaps still useful).

The settings of note on the Compare dialog are:

  • Units: Specifies the units of measure for all numeric values in the dialog.

  • Sampling steps: Specifies the maximum distance along the surface between comparison measurements. Using a small value may greatly increase the computation time and complexity of the resulting colorized object.

  • Scale style: Defines how the excess and gouge distances will be colorized. Three excess and three gouge zones are available, at increasing offsets from the part. With the Solid color and Gradient color settings, each zone is represented by a single user definable color (using the color buttons to the right of the scale). With the Gradient zone setting, the inner two zones can individually be color graduated between two colors.

  • Track measurement…: If selected, the measured distance between stock and part under the cursor will be shown and dynamically updated as the cursor moves. You can also toggle this feature on and off using Ctrl Q.

Those surfaces on the colorized in-process stock that are neither gouged or excess will not be shown, unless the Simulation»Show»Filters»Transparent Zero filter is enabled.

When viewing the gouge material in combination with either the part or the in-process stock, it helps to select the part with the mouse so that its surface becomes transparent, allowing the gouged material surface to be seen.

The Simulation»Chip and Split (Ctrl Alt C) feature can be used to remove uncut in-process stock fragments from the simulation before performing a comparison.