[wheelieking71]

well, i got myself in a little deeper than i am used to. anybody savvy with wrapping around the 4th axis up for giving a little guidance?

[kmpstr]

I have pieced some notes together on what worked for me. Basically what you do is create a curve using the curve wizard - curve from a surface and select surface edges.

Then back in curve wizard you select curve from a curve - select unwrap feature, select the curve and you are on your way.

One problem I had after that was when you create the feature and you select a side, I had to make sure feature recognition was not selected - caused problems

After you get to "side Properties" in the dimensions tab you will check "wrap feature on X axis".

See where are you at now . . .

Dennis

[wheelieking71]

thanks for the guidance! i will go mess around with it a little bit and see if i cant learn anything. its kind of a crazy part, and its one of those situations where the engineer is not a machinist. therefore ease of manufacturing was definitely not considered.

[wheelieking71]

okay, so i got it to work, kinda. now, new problem. i generally love FeatureCAM. really i do. but there is one message that occasionally pops up on the screen that makes me want to shoot my monitor. "curve must lie in X,Y plane". ohhhh, i hate that! now here is what is really frustrating. when you dont change your UCS, yet you are able to create a "groove" feature with said curve, but you are not able to create a "pocket" feature from the same exact curve! that is frustrating!

[wheelieking71]

made huge strides before i left the shop tonight! finally figured out once and for all how to beat the dreaded "curve must lie in X,Y plane" message! that was a huge milestone. also got the wrapping pretty much down pat. the part i am actually working on is pretty crazy. it began in solidworks, 2200miles away LOL. designed by a guy who is not a machinist. so i am starting with a solid, that really has very few workable surfaces to create realistic curves from, in order to actually machine the part. so i have had to create the curves i could. then unwrap. then curve to geo. then mod geo. then new curves. its those new curves that bring the dreaded message. so then its curve from curve, project to UCS to create another curve. and finally that curve is usable. its ALOT of steps, but it is working. and considering how complex the part is, and my limited 4th axis experience, i am very happy!

[kmpstr]

What was your solution the XY plane error? I like FeatureCAM, but wish the 4th axis layout was better, but I'm not on the newest version either.

The feeds turned out to be a mess here, with no way I have found to enter them, it spits out wild feed rates (for inverse time I guess), but it isn't close to what it should be. So the post has to be edited right now until I can come up with a better one.

Dennis

[wheelieking71]

to work around the X,Y plane error: open the curve wizard, select curve from curve, project to UCS, pick the proper UCS, and plane, finish. this creates a new curve that is an exact duplicate of the one that wouldn't work. select this new curve instead, and it should work. i have done this workaround about 30 times in the last 24hrs, and it has worked every time. but i still don't understand why the original curve wont work. it has to have something to do with being unwrapped, or the fact that it was created from surface edges that were wrapped around X. i don't know for sure. what i do know is that I am starting to see the need for two soft-wares! FeatureCAM for 2.5D and light 3D. and MasterCAM for everything else. this is way more work than it has to be! dont even get me started on the fact that i spent 7hrs creating an .STL file to import for stock to eliminate allot of "air-cutting", and it still cuts all that air!

[wheelieking71]

i am learning. there is alot to figure out with this whole wrapping the 4th axis bit. maybe part of my problem is the part that came accross my desk that necessatated it is pretty complex. but thats okay. i was getting kinda stagnant at work with the same ole' stuff. and anything that ever went on the rotab was always pretty simple. so, i am learning, and that is AWSOME! but, it sure does seem to be alot of unecessary key-strokes to accomplish what i need to do. its complex, but its not that complex. and most of the tolerances are wide open. i just need to get efficient toolpath. and that is where i have always found FeaturCAM sub-par. toolpath manipulation is overly complicated. and it just doesnt always do what you tell it to. it likes to argue LOL. regardless, i believe i have gone far enough to put together a quote, and i will see where it goes from there. i know i had a much easier time with turn-mill than i am with this! i had turm-mill figured out in one day, and made all kinds of crazy stuff. and did a buch of wild engraving on complex surfaces. i figured the rotab was gonna be a piece of cake LOL.