I'm in the final stages of bringing a new product design to market that is on the older MadCAM 4.3 platform (I wish I could migrate this to 5.0, but that it not an option I'm allowed to consider until after initial product release)

I discovered last night that pocket tool paths are suddenly being computed in a totally different way than they were earlier this week. Previously all pockets cut into the center of a pocket area with a ramp, and then 'spiraled' out to the contour edge. This has been the stable behavior for the past 18+ months. What is now happening is that the ramp initiates in the center and then spirals out until it is about a cutter width away from the contour edge, then the tool path lifts and ramps back into the pocket with two spiral paths to cut the outermost boundary

I have not (knowingly) changed any of my Rhino or MadCAM settings, have not installed any Rhino or MadCAM updates, and the tools selected are unmodified since creating them eons ago. If I open an earlier model, the tool path generated for a pocket is like this new pattern instead of the previous way.


Does anybody know what could have changed in my settings to cause this behavior?

I'll add a couple before/after images and a reference model if need be. Let me know


Thanks for helping me get back on track!

All the best,

R