Circular Pattern panel
Use Circular Pattern to copy a solid body or feature around a center point. You can create the copies as bosses or cuts. You can place copies by specifying the angle between each copy, distributing the copies within a specified angle, or distributing the copies around a full circle. The following picture shows that five copies of the boss have been created, distributed along a 180-degree arc.
Each operation has three components:
- A target body. This is the solid model upon which the copied features will be applied.
- One or more tool bodies. These are the solid features or operations that will be copied.
- One or more results. These are the copies of the solid features that have been created.
Mastercam prompts you to select the target body as soon as you enter the function. If only one solid exists, Mastercam automatically selects it as the target.
- Edit the default Name as desired. This is the label that will be used for this operation in the Solids Manager.
- The Target field lists the name of the solid that has been selected. Click the highlighted button to select a different target solid, if desired.
- If the feature that you are copying is a separate solid body from the target, you can choose Solid body boss to add the shape to the target body, or Solid body cut to remove it. If the selected feature is part of the target body, these options will be disabled.
After you select the target, Mastercam asks you to select one or more features on the model that you would like to copy. Select one or several features, and click End Selection to return to the function panel.
- You can select entities from the graphics window, or features from the Solids Manager.
- Your selection at this time is not final; you can select additional features, or remove them, from within the function panel.
Mastercam lists the selected features or operations in the Selection window. Right-click in the window or use the highlighted buttons to add new features to the list, remove them, or clear the list completely. Click on an item to see it highlighted in the graphics window.
Defining the locations of the copies
The default behavior is to distribute the number of copies along an arc whose center is the construction plane origin.
- Specify the number of copies that you want to create in the Instances field.
- Enter the desired Center point of the arc if you do not want it to be (X0, Y0). The outer radius will be the center of the selected features to be copied.
Use the other options to control the distribution of the copies along the arc.
- Choose Full circle to distribute the number of Instances around a full circle. When calculating the spacing between the copies, Mastercam includes the original feature. For example, if your goal is to create six boltholes arranged in a circle, create five copies (Instances = 5); Mastercam then creates the copies at 60-degree intervals.
- Select Arc and enter a value in the Angle field to apply the copies to only a portion of the circle. You can apply the copies to the arc in two ways.
- If you select the Limit to total angle sweep option, Mastercam interprets the Angle field as the total sweep, and fits all the copies within it. For example, if Instances = 4 and Angle = 120, Mastercam will create four copies spaced 30 degrees apart.
- If you do not select the Limit to total angle sweep option, Mastercam interprets the Angle field as the spacing between the copies. For example, if Instances = 4 and Angle = 15, Mastercam will create four copies spaced 15 degrees apart for a total arc sweep of 60 degrees.
A positive Angle value means that the arc extends in the counter-clockwise direction, when seen from the top. Select the Reverse direction option or enter a negative value to create the copies in the other direction.
Mastercam lists each copy in the Results window. Click on an Instance to see it highlighted in the graphics window. Click the left button to remove it, or the right button to restore all of the copies.
Using Advanced options
By default, Mastercam updates the graphics window as you make changes to the list of items in the Selection and Results windows. You can turn off this behavior by deselecting Automatically preview results. When this option is turned off, click the Preview button to update the graphics window.
Also by default, Mastercam creates an entry in the Solids Manager for the operation. You can prevent this by selecting Do not create model history. However, if you select this option, all of the solid history will be removed, not just the entry for this operation.
