Cutting arcs and circles

[inaman]

Hi i'm New to gibbs cam. every time i cut a arc or circle using a gibbs post it it is not smooth it is divided into segments. is there a way correct this?

Thanks ian

[cadman]

Are you sure you are cutting arcs & circles? Sounds like they are actually splines. Are you using geometry or an imported solid for toolpath creation?

[inaman]

Ya i am importing a solid from solid edge and doing surfacing and the curves seem to have steps in it.

ian

[cadman]

If you are doing surfacing, keep in mind that unless the model was created with arcs and circles, it will almost be composed of splines and nurbs curves. Machining with the surfacing tools will also use the 3D engine, which will output splines. The Lace Cut tool does have an option to output arcs.

If the imported model has arcs and circles but comes in as splines, select the body, go to the solids menu and click Simplify, keep the body selected and click Remove Uneeded Topology. This may or may not convert nurbs curves to arcs & circles depending on how the model is made.

If you need to cut arcs and circles (contours, pockets) it is better to extract and use geometry rather than select faces or bodies. You will always get true arcs & circles using this method.

If you are just having visual problems (faceted bodies), go into the Preferences menu and in the Bodies section change the chord height. The default setting is something like .01". Whatever setting you do have here, it does not affect the toolpaths themselves. It is a visual setting that also increases or decreases the file size depending which way you go. If you change this setting after the file is open you may need to change the models individually (select, right click menu).

[inaman]

Thanks for the help i did my first cut on my soild that i imported using surface flow cut. i did the second part using the lace cut much better.

thank you
ian