I cannot form a closed loop.
- Your data may be too complex to use the double-click interface. If double-clicking (or single clicking in
Closed Curve mode) does not work, click the start segment, then click the next segment you want to add to the curve, and proceed until you have selected the complete curve. If there is only one simple path between points, click a couple of segments apart and
FeatureCAM finds the path that connects them.
- The whole target curve must be visible on screen. Show the additional geometry if it is not displayed.
- If you are working with data with many small pieces you may need to increase the
Double-click Depth or
Single Click Depth in the
Chaining Options dialog. To see if this is the case, go into
Select mode and then pick pieces of your geometry. Increasing the
Endpoint tolerance setting should also help.
- Arcs and fillets need to be tangent or chaining may choose the other branch. Make sure that the geometry is really tangent by recreating the geometry that does not chain by using the
Snap to tangent snap mode. You may want to turn off the other snap modes to ensure that you are truly snapping to the tangent.
- Gaps between the endpoints of geometry objects must be less than the
Tolerance value, which you can specify in the
Chaining Options dialog. Look for blue squares in the chaining data. They indicate that the curve is not connected to another piece at that point. Zoom in on that data. Select the pieces in the gap. If there are no pieces, you may need to increase the
Endpoint tolerance.
The loop that is selected is wrong.
- If double-clicking is selecting the wrong loop, the data may have sharp corners or the algorithm may just be making some wrong decisions. If double-clicking does not work, you can click the start segment, then click the next segment you want added to the curve and proceed until you have selected the complete curve. If there is only one simple path between points, you can click a couple of segments apart and
FeatureCAM finds the path that connects them.
I cannot pick the pieces.
- You are probably picking pieces that are already curves. You must use
Curve join.
Chaining does not work in 3D.
- When you enter
Chaining mode, select the
Unrestricted button in the dialog bar. This enables chaining to pursue links that are not planar.
Chaining is working in the wrong plane.
- The
Grid,
UCS and
Setup buttons restrict the plane of chaining. Select a plane and re-chain.