Hello,
Attached is a file i generated from a customers geometry. I need a way in solidworks to create arc segments and lines from this path for our machinists.
They use some old version of mastercam and say that the splines generate very huge file that our machines can not directly take due to memory in the machines, and DNC is not and option. Each part has average of 11 profiles to capture and we have 25 parts to create programs for. It is a involved process to manually create the arcs and lines. Is there any way to do this in solidworks? maybe a macro or something? We only have Solidworks 2017 in engineering to work with. and I can not directly download and install any other programs. too many rules from management, The manager wants the toolpaths to be generated in solidworks only, so that there is no translation back and forth between software so using draftsight would be out of the question anyway.
Well, there is a way to do it, but you may not like the result. Save the model as a dxf, and in the export, click the Options button, and make sure to set it to convert splines to poly lines. You can also do this in Tools/Options/Export/DXF. Then reimport it to the SW model as a sketch.
This is kind of barbaric. CAM software should be able to deal with this type of data. If I were you, I'd explain to the boss that you need to modernize your CAM.