[machineitright]

Hi All,
I am trying to machine a solid that will wind up being a feed screw and not having much luck at all. I am using a older version(2007) that the boss had and has no intention of upgrading, says it is supposed to be able to do this type of part and that is why he got it. I have went through the GSM and done the tutorials but not anything on 4 axis milling, could someone please help me with this? I'm at that stage of pulling the hair out.

[wheelieking71]

you need both 4-axis, and 3D support to make that part. you have your stock set up and indexed properly. check your evaluation options and make sure you have 3D. if you have 3D, and feature recognition, you should be able to get toolpath with just a few clicks. sorry, I only have "3D-lite", so i cant help you beyond that. that is a complex part. very complex depending on how true to the solid you need to be.

[dcalp]

My first thought would to be rough out with 2 setups 180* apart using z level and then work with your fourth axis continuous but my computer couldn't handle that feature.

[machineitright]

Thanks for the reply's
I have 3D and about everything else turned on with this version and have tryed to use feature recognition but have had no success getting it to machine this with the taper cone that is the base feature of the part, not having any advanced tutorials is really hurting my ability to know how the software handles these kind of features or how you change the tool path when it is not machining in an efficient manner. I have read and reread the help files but can't seem to figure out exactly how to zlevel rough the part using the fourth axis feature.