You can create a rotary relief from any assembly item in the Project Tree, whether or not an ArtCAM model is already part of the project. ArtCAM creates the rotary relief from all visible meshes in the Project Tree associated with the selected assembly.
To create a rotary relief from an assembly:
- In the Project panel, ensure that all of the meshes in the Project Tree associated with the assembly from which you want to create a rotary relief are visible.
- In the Project Tree, right-click the root
Assembly or assembly
from which you want to create a rotary relief, and then select
Create Rotary Relief from the context menu.
Note: If there are no meshes associated with the assembly or the associated meshes are not visible in the Project Tree, Create Rotary Relief is unavailable in the context menu.If the group of visible meshes is found to contain an inner-diameter and is currently aligned with either the Y or Z-axis, a message dialog is displayed confirming that the group of meshes is recognised as ring and asking if you want to align the resulting rotary relief with the X-axis of the model.
- To align the resulting rotary relief with the model's X-axis, click Yes. The message dialog closes and the relief creation process continues.
- If the group of meshes is not a ring or you do not want to reposition the resulting rotary relief, click No. The message dialog closes and the relief creation process continues using the current orientation.
- If you no longer want to create a rotary relief from the group of meshes, click Cancel.
A set of two relief layers is created from the group of meshes. If a flat model is open, or there is no model open in which to create these relief layers, a new model is created in the Project Tree. The model is given the name of the assembly from which the rotary relief is being created.
Note: You can set the resolution of the model resulting from the mesh using the Options panel.The highest triangle in the group of meshes is converted into a new relief layer at the top of the layer stack that builds the composite relief representing the front surface of the piece, while the lowest triangle in the group of meshes is converted into a new relief layer at the top of the layer stack that builds the composite relief representing its back surface.
Where there is a distinguishable inner-diameter in the group of meshes, ArtCAM creates a rotary relief in which the X dimension is equal to the inner radius and the Y dimension is equal to three times the width of the ArtCAM model containing the ring.
Where there is no clear inner-diameter in the group of meshes, ArtCAM creates a rotary relief in which the X dimension is equal to the outer radius and the Y dimension is equal to the width of the ArtCAM model plus a border equivalent to 10% of its original size. The base height is equivalent to the radius of closest point to the world centre.
Both of the relief layers are given the name of the assembly from which the rotary relief is being created, with the Top suffix applied to the layer associated with the front surface of the piece, and the Bottom suffix applied to the layer associated with its back surface. Each layer is visible.
The Merge High relief combine mode is applied to the layer associated with the front surface of the piece by default. The Merge Low relief combine mode is applied to the layer associated with the back surface of the piece by default.