[Mortek]

Do any of the cam systems have the capability of following the contour of this part and following the floor which is not level in Z. In other words something besides Z-level or Planar alone, but a combination of the two.

[HuFlungDung]

Hi Ken,

Why wouldn't planar work all right for that?

[Mortek]

I want to step down the wall finishing the contour taking off the remaining .020 and still follow the floor of the part thus not creating steps in th floor by taking say .150 depth of cut in z-level finishing would, or planar would because you have to pick an angle to cut with planar and there are obviously two different anles here. I haven't seen a system that can do this. The floor was finished with z-level roughing while sitting level with a 3/4 end mill. Then having only 3-axis I set the part on an angle to finish the angle of the wall in this section and left a little stock to make it blend well

[HuFlungDung]

Planar cut will cut it. The option to pick an angle in planar cut (in Onecnc Mill) is simply the direction of "zigzag" pattern, relative to the X or Y axis. It has nothing to do with angles of your workpiece.

Mind you, planar cut (with ballnose, naturally) is going to take a very fine stepover to get a flat surface which you have created by the method you used. Time to get a 4th axis, I guess?

[Mortek]

The flat surface is already done, I don't want to cut that again, I only am concerned about the wall and mostly the fillet being smooth. In other words I want to do a z-level type path on the wall and fillet but not have to be level in Z. So to describe it better a contour finish following the Floor of the part to create a smooth fillet.

I did create a 3d chain by extracting the edge of the fillet and then selected 3d chain and a roughing cut option. However I like using solids or surfaces, whatever you want to call them and just being able to select a surface or surfaces and do whatever I want to them and not have to worry about gouging something by creating my own toolpath.

[HuFlungDung]

If I picture this correctly, you intend to use a planar type cut (which will follow a 3d contour), but you want to blank out the areas that you have already machined flat?

I also assume that you will be using a ballnose cutter to machine these filletted corners, with multi-passes, or are you attempting to use a quarter round filletting tool?

It is really too bad that you already went to the trouble to machine the flat areas, since the finish you will achieve with a ballnose on the fillets is going to be what you would have gotten on the flats, without the trouble of reorienting your part, too.

It is possible to restrict the planar finishing to certain areas, but you will still get some wasted feed moves. What you can do, is "obstruct" the areas that you don't want to re-machine with a solid that occupies that area, and extends up above "top of job".

Then force all cuts to stay below top of job, and at least the cutter won't waste time doing feed moves over top of the obstruction. It will still want to plunge feed down all the walls of the obstruction, though, so it is not ideal.

[Mortek]

Where are all the mastercam guys? Will mastercam do this? Or Cimitron, Or Surfcam, Maybe Unigraphics? I want to know which cam program is versatile enough to do this?

[Rekd]

Mortek, Mastercam will do that and more. It's a simple 3d contour.

'Rekd

[CAMmando]

MasterCam can toolpath the part in several ways. Probably would use "Surface Paralell" which follows the selected drive surfaces. You can use a "pencil" toolpath to provide high quality definition of the fillets at the surface intersections (fillets).

[Mortek]

another view of the part.

[Mortek]

yet another

[HuFlungDung]

Yikes, that is one complicated "mofo"

[keithorr]

Since I "only" have onecnc2003, I would manually draw an offset toolpath to simulate a pencil cut. I don't think it would take that long to draw.

[cadcam]

Mortek,I cut that type of areospace parts all the time.
I teach poeple how to cut that type of stuff with Mastercam.

What software are you trying to use or are you looking to get software that can do this stuff.

Hope this helps.

[wms]

Ken,
In Mill2000:
Why not use "Autocut 3d chain"?

You just extract you floor boundary and use that as your chain.
You can use roughing with this also or cut it in one shot.

Xp series has other options.

[cadcam]

This is some of the kind of work I do.

[Mortek]

Whenever you are working mostly with surfaces, the last thing I want to do is create a custom drawn toolpath. There is just too much risk in gouging into a wall somewhere that you don't want to. I thought I got rid of hand drawn toolpaths and tool offsets a little over a year ago. I really would like to see a demo of a program, any program where you could just pick the surface and have enough options to create the kind of toolpath you need. I have a friend who used to sell Surfcam. He has impressed me with what its capabilities are. I'm wondering if Mastercam is as capable as Surfcam and if it has as many tool choices?

[cadcam]

Motek, I am hearing a challange brewing...

[cadcam]

Motek, as for mastercam making this cut we can do a surface contour on those surfaces and use te floor as a check surface.

if the end is undercut then I would still do a surface contour and make the under cut at the same time say with a full radi key way.


I would like to know what software you are using at this time?

thanks for your time.

[Mortek]

Cad Cam,
I have seen some amazing things done in Surfcam, and it seemed fairly simple to do. Frankly I'm interested in upgrading again to something that won't frustrate me and that I won't be spending lots of time trying to machine a part by creating boundries and hand drawing custom toolpaths. So yes I'm interested. How do you put a file on the ftp? I only have a 56K connection, but I'm sure it won't take that long. I own a draft ver. of mastercam 6.1 So I can't play with the toolpathing, but when I load the file some of the fillets are upside down. The entire part will be an IGS file created in ONECNC Mill Prof 2000.