Mastercam-Level-Exporter

🚧 Work in progress 🚧

This is a 'NetHook' (chook) made for Mastercam 2021.

It can automate the process of exporting CAD entities within levels to individual files of a specified CAD format.

Similar to the Save Some function within Mastercam; it would be used when you want to save a CAD entity as a separate file of a certain CAD format.

Note: If you clone or fork this repo and you are using Visual Studio, there are post build events which require admin access; therefore you must either run visual studio as admin or remove the post build events if building in debug mode.

Compatible Mastercam Versions & CAD Formats

• Mastercam 2020
• Mastercam 2021
• Mastercam 2022? (seems to work)

❔ Note: This chook may be compatible with Mastercam 2018 & 2019 if the NETHook3_0.dll reference is updated to the proper file location for those versions; this has not been tested yet

Supported CAD Formats

Installation

Download the Level-Exporter.InstallerMC2021.msi from releases and choose the Mastercam 2020 or 2021 chooks directory.

Usually located at C:\Program Files\Mastercam 2021\Mastercam\chooks

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Alternate Installation Method

Download the zip from releases and extract the files to the Mastercam Chooks directory, usually located at:

C:\Program Files\Mastercam 2021\Mastercam\chooks

The Mastercam chooks directory should contain

1. Level-Exporter.dll
2. Microsoft.Xaml.Behaviors
3. Level-Exporter.ft

Debugging the NEThook

⚠️ Note: Visual Studio must be run in Adminstrator mode due to post build events which copy the necessary files to the Mastercam directories

💡 See the Readme folder (Level-Exporter/ReadMe) within the project for additional context on debugging

1. Clone this repository
2. Install Visual Studio 2019
3. In Visual Studio, open Level-Exporter.sln (located in Mastercam-Level-Exporter/Level-Exporter)
4. Right click the Level-Exporter project and set the Debug properties
   • Make sure to point to the proper Mastercam.exe and working directory
   • 
5. Set configuration to Debug/x64
   • 
6. Click the Start button or press F5
   • Visual studio post build events will try to copy the necessary files to the proper Mastercam directories
   • A debug session of Mastercam will open and you will be able to set breakpoints and test things out.
7. If you get errors related to the NETHook3_0.dll, you may have to update the reference, see the Readme folder.

⚠️ Note: The NETHook3_0.dll is usually one level up from the chooks folder: C:\Program Files\Mastercam 2021\Mastercam

Adding the Level-Exporter to the Mastercam ribbon or context menu

By adding it to the context menu, it will appear in the right click menu.

How to Use the Level Exporter

1. Organize the CAD entities of your Mastercam session into different levels
   • ⚠️ Levels that have no entities are ignored, and will be cleared from Mastercam
   • When naming levels in Mastercam, avoid using symbols (such as ()%#* etc.)
   • If the level names in Mastercam are left blank, they will be named 'level' in the level-exporter
   • You can name levels within the level-exporter, to use for the file export (this will not affect the level names within Mastercam)
2. Open the Level-Exporter by using the Run Add-In feature under the Home tab, and look for the level-exporter.dll
   • Alternatively if you've added it to the Mastercam ribbon, click on the icon
   • Alternatively if you've added it to the context menu, right click and select the Level-Exporter
3. Click on the Get Mastercam Levels button
   • If you update the levels in Mastercam, you can click the Sync Mastercam levels button to update the list in the level-exporter
4. Select the checkbox next to the levels you would like to export (select the checkbox in the header to select or deselect all levels)
5. Select a CAD format from the drop down menu
   • If Stl is selected:
     • Default resolution is 0.02
     • Value must be a value between 0.02 - 5.0; a lower value means a bigger file size.
     • If set to 0, Mastercam's system tolerance will be used (from Mastercam configuration)
   • ⚠️ If Iges is selected, a dialogue for a comment will open in Mastercam after clicking export; you must fill in a comment and press enter.
6. Select a destination/output directory
   • ⚠️ If this is left blank, a Save Some dialogue will open for every level selected; you can then select the name, file extension, and destination for each level.
   • The level names in the level-exporter will be used for the exported file names.
7. Click Export Levels

🥳 📁 Each selected level will be saved as a separate CAD file to the specified directory. 🏁