Need Help!- Roughing program

[blmmdes]

Hi,

This seems to be a very small thing but i am completely bowled over.

Hard Milling with a Dia6 Ballnose and using outer edges of cavity as my boundary. Using Hypermill 9.5 on MDT.

I have a stock model (see attached fig1) and want to create a cavity profile like fig2.

Roughing program makes a lot of air travel across the block because it is considering machining level throughout cavity. I want the tool to cut only the area where the material is and inside the specified boundary. I think my 50% time is wasted because of air travel.
Can anybody give me an idea about saving this time. Am I using the right roughing option?

Regards,
Ananth

[Alan L]

The arbitrary stock roughing cycle will address your needs. By tracking the stock shape (initial or resulting from a previous cycle), air cuts are brought to a minimum.

[blmmdes]

Thanks Allen for that info about Arbitary Roughing. It really works and my CNC time is considerably less now. I was mis-informed that its not possible in hypermill. I will not be fooled by my hypermill programmers anymore regarding this matter.