New Feature - Match Curves page (WIRE)

FeatureCAM tries to match up the upper and lower curves for 4-axis features. You can edit the default match on the New Feature - Match Curves page.

Note: A Side feature must have at least three moves in it including lead moves. If it does not, then no feature is displayed in the wizard start page.

For example, if you are creating a feature from a single line, you must change the start point and end point so that the feature has three moves.

FeatureCAM attempts to match up the points of the upper and lower curves of a 4-axis feature. If the curves are not matched as you want, then you can manually match the two curves.

Before starting to manually match your points, first make sure that the start points of each curve are close to each other when viewed from the top. Use the New Feature - Start page to do this.

To match two curves:

1. Click the Pick curve point button. All of the endpoints of the two curves are displayed as green dots and existing connections are shown as thick green lines.
2. Click an endpoint on the lower curve.
3. Click the corresponding endpoint on the upper curve. These points are connected with a green line.
4. Repeat these steps until you have matched all the points you want to change.
5. If you want to see how the feature looks with your new matches, click the Next button. If you want to make further changes, click the Back button and repeat steps 1-4.

If you want to connect a point on the bottom curve to multiple points on the top curve, hold down the SHIFT key when you select the bottom point and each top point.

Note: You cannot change the start points of the curves by adjusting the matching points. Use the New Feature - Start page to change the start points.

Curve Pieces Management

To break a curve piece into equal pieces:

1. Specify the number of pieces you want by entering the number or using the arrow buttons.
2. Click the Pick curve piece button.
3. Select the curve piece that you want to break, in the Graphics window.

To add a single point to a 4-axis wire curve piece:

1. Click the Pick curve piece then location button.
2. Select the curve piece in the Graphics window.
3. Slide the cursor along the piece and click the location.
4. A new point is inserted at this location.

To remove curve pieces from a 4-axis wire curve:

1. Click the Merge broken pieces button.
2. Click the first curve piece.
3. Click the last curve piece. The portion of the curve is highlighted as you move the cursor to preview the selected region of the curve.
4. All internal points within these pieces are removed.

Note: You cannot remove the segment that contains the start point.