Hi All, I have a Tormach mill and have been making parts from SolidWorks using SprutCam 2007. Can anyone help with a few simple questions?

1. Usually, I want to cut the outline of a part last so that it stays attached to the clamped stock until the very end. Is there a way to tell SprutCam to leave the outline of the part until the end?

2. Similar to 1 - is there a way to create "tabs" to hold my part in place during machining?

3. It seems like I spend a lot of time fooling with the Lead In/Out parameters to get rid of collisions. Is there some secret to this?

4. If I'm cutting a part out of a "box around part" piece of stock, SprutCam seems to want to mill away 100% of that box. This often means lots of unnecessary milling since it could just cut around the part. Is there a solution to this?

I've attached an example STC file (Star Trek Comm Badge for my kid) with my machining passes. Could I have chosen better operations?

Thanks!
-Bill

Hi Bill, I haven't had much time to look at your SprutCAM project, I've taken a quick look and done some quick mods to show you an alternative way of tackling this job.
There are lots of different ways of doing it.

>1. Usually, I want to cut the outline of a part last so that it stays attached to the clamped stock until the very end. Is there a way to tell SprutCam to leave the outline of the part until the end?

Yes, either use a Fixture (Hole) to keep the machining inside the part, or, use a workpiece which has nothing outside of the part.

>2. Similar to 1 - is there a way to create "tabs" to hold my part in place during machining?

Yes, there is a couple of ways, I have used some 2D Fixtures to do it in the modified project.

>3. It seems like I spend a lot of time fooling with the Lead In/Out parameters to get rid of collisions. Is there some secret to this?

Never really had a problem with this. If they aren't doing what you want - switch them off.

>4. If I'm cutting a part out of a "box around part" piece of stock, SprutCam seems to want to mill away 100% of that box. This often means lots of unnecessary milling since it could just cut around the part. Is there a solution to this?

As a general rule, the roughing operations want to machine the workpiece, so if your workpiece is a box around part, that is what it will want to machine. As with my answer to 1, change your workpiece, or use a fixture to keep the machining to / from an area.

I hope your kid enjoys the Star Trek comm badge...........cool.

Dave

Thanks Dave! That's really helpful. It took me some time to figure out how to define the curves (first project them from the 3D model tab, then extrude them in the machining tab). Once I got the curves defined properly, everything else fell into place.

Cheers,
-Bill