Interactive Reposition
Inside the Punch tab, navigate to the Interactive Reposition icon.
When you switch to this mode, MetaCAM draws a red outline to show you the sheet boundary. One or more dotted green rectangles show you the frames. The size of each green rectangle (each frame) is equal to the stroke of the machine. For clarity, each frame is drawn slightly offset vertically from its predecessor. The work holder positions in frame 1 are shown in solid lines, and the other frames are shown in dotted lines. The repositioned pads are shown as blue circles with crosses in them. In this mode, you can perform the following operations:
- Click on the left edge of a frame and drag to move the frame to the left or right.
- Hold down the Shift key and click to insert a new frame. You can drag the mouse to position the frame before releasing the mouse button.
- Hold down the Ctrl key and click along the left edge of any frame to remove that frame.
- Click on any of the work holders in frame 0, and drag it left or right to change the clamping position. The work holders in other frames also move to follow suit.
- Click on the repositioned pads and drag them to change the repositioned pad positions.
During all these operations, the status line displays the precise coordinates that you are moving the frame, work holder or repositioning pad. If the Check for Interference setting is enabled in the Clamps page of the Part Properties dialogue, MetaCAM checks if all tooling can be processed. To be able to process tooling, it must not interfere with the dead zones of any clamp, and it must lie completely within at least one frame. Tooling which cannot be processed either because it lies outside any frames (overtravel) or because it fouls with the clamp dead zones (interference) are marked in red. Every time you move the clamps or frames, MetaCAM recomputes this cutting feasibility for each tooling item and redraws it. This allows you to interactively move the clamps, and frame positions around until there is no overtravel or interference condition.
