[MetalShavings]

I've been setting up a part on Sprutcam that is basically a cylinder with three flutes along a short section of its length. (it's a home made reamer)

Everything appears to be working out well enough when I run the simulation of this part.

My questions is this:

When I run the simulation with the the Machine-Tab/Icon pressed and the part is shown mounted in the simulated 4th Axis rotary table, I noticed when looking at it dead-on from the right side view, my cylindrical part doesn't show as being directly centered in the chuck of the rotary table.

It actually looks like my part is off-center to the right in the simulation view of the rotary table.

Is this something that can be adjusted? If not; will this have any affect on the actual machining of my part?

As I stated initially, the machining simulation in the SprutCam software looks good and the tool paths appear to be working as they should. If I hadn't clicked on the Machine-Icon I would have never noticed that the image of my part in relation to the center-axis of my rotary table was off.

I was just wondering if the Rotary Table and the part itself can be aligned with each other ?

Thanks.

MetalShavings

[MetalShavings]

In so doing I managed to create even more problems.

I've included some images to help explain what I'm talking about.

It seems that when I use the "Primitives" tab to create a cylinder around my part it does so quite nicely. The problem arises when I switch to the "Simulation" mode.

That "Primitives-Cylinder" around my part then becomes a sort of Semi-Rectangle and I can't figure out why. Can one of you more advanced SprutCam guys help me out?

Also; while in the "Simulation" mode I now have the Error icon lighting up and here too I cannot seem to find the cause of this problem.

The simulation itself appears to run fine. Even when I run the simulation frame by frame I can find no step in the tool path that would indicate a crash of any sort. A little help please.

MetalShavings

[mayhugh1]

I used to see this same workpiece anomally in the simulation mode quite a bit. I found that changing the simulation method to Voxel 5D usually fixes it fo me. -Terry

[MetalShavings]

I used to see this same workpiece anomally in the simulation mode quite a bit. I found that changing the simulation method to Voxel 5D usually fixes it fo me. -Terry

Hi Terry:

And thanks for the reply.

I've never heard of "Voxel 5D." Is this something I can find by navigating in
or around the SprutCam software?

How does one change to this "Voxel 5D" method? At this point I'm willing to give it a try.

Thanks again.

MetalShavings

[Gerry Sweetland]

Click where it shows Voxel 5D in my screen cap on your computer and a drop down list will open, choose Voxel 5D


You can also set it in the simulation tab...


Gerry

[MetalShavings]

Thanks Gerry:

I'll give it a shot.

MetalShavings

[MetalShavings]

Thank you gentlemen:

I gave that "Voxel 5D" thing a try and it seems to have worked.

Now I need to figure out the cause of the "Stop Collision" icon. I can't see
anywhere in the simulation where a collision might occur. Unless it's due to the use of a 1/4" end mill with to short of an overhang.

I thought that this may have been the cause so I went into the tool list and changed the length of the end mill to see if this might turn off the warning icon.
No luck on that yet but, I'm moving in the right direction.

Incidentally, I noticed that my part is now showing as out of alignment with the center-axis of my rotary table again. The way I fixed that before was simply to put my pointer on the side I needed to move the part to and right-click.

This time around however, that didn't seem to work any more. So, my part is out of alignment again. I'm wondering if this mis-alignment is what's causing the Collision Icon to come on?
Thanks again.

MetalShavings

[MetalShavings]

These must be even tougher questions to answer than I thought.

This post/inquiry has gotten over two-hundred view with only a couple of well needed replies.

I even tried calling the SprutCam wizards at tormach and have yet to hear from them. Their automated answering machine stated that they couldn't get to my call that day so I left a message. Maybe they're out sick again.

Just an update on my SprutCam problems:

My original inquiry was about the semi-rectangle being displayed in the simulation mode of this project. Thanks to Mayhugh1 and Gerry I was able to remedy that problem.

I still have not figured out what's causing the "Stop-Crash" icon from coming on so yesterday I went ahead and set up a test part on the mill. On my lathe I turned down a piece of Delrin to the shape of my part.

I spent the day cutting air just to see if my tool paths were correct. The tool paths went off without a hitch despite the "Stop-Crash" icon that was displayed while in the SprutCam software.

Today I'm going to go ahead and cut the Mock-Delrin part and if that goes as I hope I'll set up my actual metal part and have at it.

Also: I still have not been able to align my part into the very center of the 4th axis rotary table that the SprutCam software displays when the "Machine" icon is activated.

I guess it's not anything of great consequence otherwise when I was cutting air I would have been able to see the part spin out of round when it moved to each new position.

I'll be able to confirm that once I've machined the Mock-Delrin part I'm using as a test dummy.

I'd still like to get the answers to my two unanswered questions. If any of you think of anything please let me know.

MetalShavings

[Gerry Sweetland]

Can you upload your project file (the .stc file) where you see the crash icon?
Don't know if I can help but it would be easier to see what is happening in your project file.
Gerry

[Scott_M]

If you hover over the red exclamation mark it will eventually pop up a dialog that says what the problem is. Usually "contact with part on rapid" in my experience. which is usually cured by changing the safe z height.

Scott

[MetalShavings]

I milled the Mock-Delrin dummy part this morning. I got no crashes to speak of. Everything went as smoothly as it did when I ran the simulations in SprutCam.

I did notice on my Mock-Part that if I tweaked the tool paths a little I'd get a better looking and more functional part. By "Tweaking" I mean that I changed from a regular carbide end mill on the second operation to a ball nose end mill.

Also; I changed the angles of approach that my end mills were starting their respective cuts at.

Oddly enough, when I changed the angle of approach for my end mills the "Stop Crash" icon no longer came on. Maybe SprutCam was detecting a crash that I just wasn't seeing; even in the slow motion simulation.

I had tried changing the "Z-height" like Scott_M suggested. This was done a couple of days ago when I was still trying to find the cause of the problem on my first and second attempts.

I had the day off today so after lunch I went ahead and set up my actual metal part. Everything went off without a hitch.

I'm happy to report that for my first time using my 4th Axis setup, I didn't have any major mishaps; just software struggles. There's always room for improvement though, so next time I mill a part like this using my 4th axis I think it won't be so much of a hit and miss affair.

Now all I have to do is heat-treat the metal and I'll be able to use it as a reamer.

Gerry; in my Original Post I included a zip file with the SprutCam file you're eluding to. Unless it somehow got corrupted when I uploaded it to this site you should be able to un-zip it to extract the SprutCam file.

Many thanks gentlemen for your willingness to help a newbie out.

MetalShavings.

[Gerry Sweetland]

I milled the Mock-Delrin dummy part this morning. I got no crashes to speak of. Everything went as smoothly as it did when I ran the simulations in SprutCam.

I did notice on my Mock-Part that if I tweaked the tool paths a little I'd get a better looking and more functional part. By "Tweaking" I mean that I changed from a regular carbide end mill on the second operation to a ball nose end mill.

Also; I changed the angles of approach that my end mills were starting their respective cuts at.

Oddly enough, when I changed the angle of approach for my end mills the "Stop Crash" icon no longer came on. Maybe SprutCam was detecting a crash that I just wasn't seeing; even in the slow motion simulation.

I had tried changing the "Z-height" like Scott_M suggested. This was done a couple of days ago when I was still trying to find the cause of the problem on my first and second attempts.

I had the day off today so after lunch I went ahead and set up my actual metal part. Everything went off without a hitch.

I'm happy to report that for my first time using my 4th Axis setup, I didn't have any major mishaps; just software struggles. There's always room for improvement though, so next time I mill a part like this using my 4th axis I think it won't be so much of a hit and miss affair.

Now all I have to do is heat-treat the metal and I'll be able to use it as a reamer.

Gerry; in my Original Post I included a zip file with the SprutCam file you're eluding to. Unless it somehow got corrupted when I uploaded it to this site you should be able to un-zip it to extract the SprutCam file.

Many thanks gentlemen for your willingness to help a newbie out.

MetalShavings.

Glad to read you got it done w/o a hitch, or collision as it were good job.
And I did look at your original upload and it is a .iges file, I wanted to see your SprutCam "Project" file, the .stc file.
Gerry

[MetalShavings]

Thanks Gerry:

Sorry about the mixup on the file upload.

MetalShavings

[TXFred]

Oddly enough, when I changed the angle of approach for my end mills the "Stop Crash" icon no longer came on. Maybe SprutCam was detecting a crash that I just wasn't seeing; even in the slow motion simulation.

I've seen Sprut indicate some false crashes.

Sometimes when simulating, the 3D software will glitch and leave a bit of material behind that would have in reality been cut away. On the next pass, that bit can hit the tool shank or holder and trigger a crash.

And sometimes Sprut will see a crash because the tool is moving at full rapid into the part, but only to a depth of about 0.001" This isn't anything that would break a tool, but it does trigger Sprut's crash detection.

Frederic

[MetalShavings]

"And sometimes Sprut will see a crash because the tool is moving at full rapid into the part, but only to a depth of about 0.001" This isn't anything that would break a tool, but it does trigger Sprut's crash detection."


Looking back now I think this may have been the case.

My end mill was cutting from left to right and when the tool ended the cut on the right end of my part it would "Rapid" to the rear-left starting point were it would give a slight plunge with about 1/4 of the tool's cutting face engaging the metal.

When I tweaked my tool path I swept it out farther away from the metal so that my tool would engage the next cut from the outside edge and angle it's way into the cut rather than plunging downward into the part.

MetalShavings