[Machineit]

Hi All,

I'm running V23 and I have a question about arc segments and arc moves.

I did a mold recently and on a 180 deg arc at about 1 inch radius instead of a simple G02 or G03 arc move, it programmed in arc segments and it was 88 lines of code to perform that half circle arc move.

I looked for a way to have it program this without the segments, but I could not find any way to change that. Is there some global setting I can change?

This was a Z Level Finish Feature by the way.

Thanks in advance

Cheers---Mike

[2002maniac]

Sounds like it could be an issue with your solid model. What file type is it? I've seen some solid models with line segments put together to create arcs. Talk about a lot of code!

[Machineit]

No solid model, it is just a simple half circle I drew and made into a surface.

Mike

[SBC Cycle]

Does V23 have an "Arc Fit" box in the Posting tab?

Try that out.

[jrmach]

I drew an arc and surfaced it and ran Z Level Finish with the defaults ann had 261 lines of code.I then did the same with the arc fit button in and got 35 lines.In V23 it is under the posting parameters in Z Level Finish.

[Markced]

The reason you are getting so many lines of code to machine the arc,
is because you or not actually machining the arc in a Z-Level cutting operation.

You are actually machining the surface feature not the Arc.

When you machine an arc feature the code will post out a circular interpolation command such as G2 or G3.

When surfaces are machined the moves are interpolated (broke into smaller moves) controlled by the defualt curve tolerance set in the system to keep the moves within a set tolerance of the curvature of the surface. All the moves will be G1 moves not G2 G3.

If you want less code, machine the arc wireframe in 2d mode, or use arc filtering which will in a sense turn the G1 moves into G2/G3 arc moves where ever possible when it can still satisfy the arc tolerance.

[BurrMan]

Your post can also be set to break things up. Look at lines 221 and 223. Some controllers dont want full arcs code. But mostly, what he said.

[mikemolnar]

No solid model, it is just a simple half circle I drew and made into a surface.

Mike

Arcs converted to surface elements become an array of line segments. You must do a PROFILE in CAM to keep it as an arc.

I still use the Stone Age version 21. It works.