Overdrive Pro Material Collections
Material Collections
Concepts
Some manufacturers have parts that are made up of several different sub-parts, each being comprised of different materials. A simple example of this would be a plastic laminate door that needs to be edgebanded before the plastic laminate is applied. As a result, the plastic laminate overhang will need to be machined. To do this, you will need a piece of particleboard for the core and two pieces of plastic laminate for each face of the door. The plastic laminate will need to be oversized so that it can be applied to the core and then routed flush with the edgebanding. As a second example, perhaps multiple parts are to be assembled resulting in a collection of parts needing to be machined as one unit. The cabinet side needs to be made up of six sub parts: a core, two veneer skins, and four solid wood edges. “Material Collections” make it possible to enter only one part in the parts list, but to specify that it is desired for that one part to be made up of many other “child” parts. Using Material Collections in the job drawing, the program will draw only the finished parent part, which in actual practice will be made up of all the “child” parts. Although only the parent part will be drawn, the cutlist will include all the child parts in the associated reports and will give the option of either including or excluding the parent part. As a third example, imagine that you need to build an elliptical conference table with buildup underneath on all sides. The best way to accomplish this would be to use the Microvellum Material Collections. One of the differences between a “Product with Individual Parts” and Material Collections is that the products with individual parts display all their individual parts when drawn, whereas the material collections do not. The Material Collections will cutlist all the parts making up the collection, but will draw in 3D only the end result as a single AutoCAD solid.
Collection
Creation To create a material collection, open the material file. In the right “Material Inventory” window you will create a new inventory material. You should name it something that will remind you that it’s a collection material. For this example, create a new material named “-material collection”. (If you want this new material to draw, but not be added to the cutlist or generate G-code, put a hyphen in front of the material name as in this sample name.) In the left Material Pointer window, add a pointer that has "COL_" as the first four characters of the name. For this example, create a pointer named "COL_Door". Next, create two more material pointers, one named "COL_DoorCore" and the other named "COL_DoorSkin". You will notice that both of the secondary, or “child” pointers, have the same required first four characters that the primary, or “parent”, point has (COL_). Beyond that, the entire name of the parent pointer is contained in each of the child pointers (Door). After the pointers have been created, it is necessary to link, or assign, a material inventory item to each one by dragging an inventory item from the right Material Inventory window to the left Material Pointer window on top of the desired pointer. Finally, open the Parts List and in the Material column for that part, associate the new pointer called “COL_Door” to the door. This can be done by double-clicking in the cell desired and double-clicking to pick an item from the pointer list or inventory list.
Material Pointer FunctionWhen processing the report for a job, if the program comes to a material pointer that has "COL_" as the first four characters of the pointer name, it will look for other material pointers that are considered to be a match. “COL_DoorCore” and “COL_DoorSkin” would match because they both contain the letters “COL_Door”. If the program finds a pointer called “COL_DrawerFront”, it will not consider it a match because it does not contain the letters “COL_Door”. Matching pointers will cause the multiple sub-parts to be created, making up the parent part. We can control the name, quantity, and size of these additional parts. Right-click “COL_DoorCore” and select “Collection Values”. Here it is possible to use formulas to control the quantity and size, as well as, to indicate whether the additional parts should inherit the edgebanding and/or machining characteristics of the parent. If you check the “Inherit Edge Width 1”, you are specifying that you want the edgebanding information for that specific edge to appear on the labels. If you check the “Inherit Machining”, you are specifying that you want that child part to take its machining information from the parent part to which it’s attached. It’s not necessary to enter “Collection Values” in the parent pointer. In the first example above, you need twice as many skins as cores. The skins need to be 1" larger than the core in both width and length in order to trim the overhang. Remember, since we are working in the material files with the collection names, when referencing a prompt name, “L!” must precede the actual prompt name for the program, but not for the dynamic part names referred to below. This makes it possible for the program to find the desired “external reference”. These dynamic part names are: “CutPanelWidth”, “CutPanelLength”, “PanelQty”, “PanelWidth”, and “PanelLength”. The differences between the names specify whether you want the formula to read the panel size in its pre or post edgebanding size (cut or finished size). They are dynamic in the sense of referring to the size or quantity of any given part as the job is being processed. For example, as the “Base Left Side” is being processed, “CutPanelLength” refers to its length before edgebanding. When processing the “Base Bottom”, “CutPanelLength” refers to its length. The same name is used in both instances, but the difference is that those names have different values, depending on which particular part is being referenced. Also, since the defined names “CutPanelWidth”, “CutPanelLength”, “PanelQty”, “PanelWidth”, and “PanelLength” are dynamic in relation to any particular part that the pointer is associated to in the parts list, these names will generate “NAME” errors in the material file until the time of processing. The errors are in the display only and will not affect processing. To eliminate these display errors, simply define any or all of these three names in the “Prompts”. As an example of a formula using these names, a formula could be created in the single material pointer named “COL_DoorSkin” causing two skins to be entered in the cutlist, one for the front and one for the back of the panel. Also, the formula could cause those two skins to be entered in the cutlist 1” larger than the finished size of the parent part, to account for the trimming required in this instance. Open the material file, right-click the pointer “COL_DoorSkin” and click “Collection Values”. Click in the “Part Qty” text box and enter the formula =PanelQty+1 in that box. Click the “Apply Formula” button and then click in the “Part Width” text box and enter the formula =CutPanelWidth+1 in that box. Click the “Apply Formula” button and then click in the “Part Length” text box and enter the formula =CutPanelLength+1 in that box and click the “Apply Formula” button. Close and save the material file.
Processing ResultsNow that there is a material collection for the first example above, after processing you would get 3 child parts for every parent part in the parts list referencing the material pointer named "COL_Door". There might be one child part made out of a material called “3/4 p.b” that would make up the core of the part. There might be two more parts made out of a material called “face color v-32”. You may prefer to omit the first part from the parts list since it is a duplication of information. To omit the first part, edit the inventory item assigned to the “Collection parent pointer”. In this case, the material named “material collection” should begin with a negative sign (-material collection). As explained above, materials beginning with a negative sign are ignored when reports are being processed. The cutlist will now display the part name, followed by the collection name, followed by the size information relative to the formulas that were entered in the collection values. |
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