Multiple Plaques

[highpockets]

I've tried several times to figure out a way to do this with no luck. I could sure use some advise.

Say you have a plaque design with multiple static components. Now you want to make several instances of that plaque with one component that's different on each plaque.
One way to do it would be to create a separate file for each plaque. But the problem is if you make a modification to the base plaque then you have to go back and modify each plaque.
The other way would be to have the base plaque and all one time use components in one file. This way if you make modifications to the base plaque you only have to do it one time.
The problem comes in when you start creating multiple Roughing and Finishing Toolpaths. You have to make sure only the base plaque and select one time component are active before recalculating each Roughing and Finishing Toolpath or the results will be a mess.
I hope this makes some sense.
I can't figure out a way to associate components to a specific Roughing and Finishing Toolpath.

Don't get too critical over the example, it's just an example....

Base Plaque

Alligator Plaque

Eagle Plaque

Component levels

Toolpaths. Ignore the Plaque Toolpath it's just for this demonstration.

[garylmast]

Why don't you just do all of them at once? Unless I'm missing what you're saying.

Gary

[highpockets]

Gary,

That may work for a couple, but say you had 10 or 20 or the plaques (or what ever) are too big to do all at once?

[garylmast]

There's nothing wrong with stacking your material. Here's an example I needed to make holes in 4 pieces of wood for a butterfly I did for my granddaughter. Worked great, even thought the picture makes it look crooked.

Gary

[highpockets]

Gary, I like the look.

[SteveNelson46]

Unless I missed something here, why not just create the components and only make the ones you want to show in the toolpath visable. Then create different toolpaths for each.

[highpockets]

Hey Steve,

That's the way I do it now.

Now imagine having to make a change to the base plaque and you have 10+ plaques to check/uncheck the components that are different for each plaque, recalculate the roughing/finishing toolpath, rinse and repeat.

I'm just trying to figure out a better way.

Thanks for the reply.

[mtylerfl]

Maybe you could use Layers to organize things.

You can make a “Master Layer” with just the plain plaque that is visible all the time.

Then make a separate Layer for each variation, with the components (and vectors) for each variation on that particular layer.

Turn on/off visibility of the appropriate layer when required. You may want to associate Toolpaths to each distinctively named layer, as well.

[highpockets]

Michael, thanks for the suggestion, I did try that. The 3D View and Roughing/Finishing toolpaths don't honor the Layers with respect to Model components.