Can't highlight drawing for inside planar finishing

[svenakela]

You keep information out, William...

[williamsmotower]

You keep information out, William...

Not intentionally... Im just a newbie!

What other info do you need?

Dan... There's like 6 different options for cplane.. i spend 2 hours a night on madcam. Im getting there thanks to all of your help.

[Dan B]

Those are just Rhino Cplane commands. There is no difference. You can use any Rhino Cplane method to set it for madCam. Refer to the Rhino help file on how to use the different commands. Then pick one you like. I use CPlane 3Point a lot.

Dan

[williamsmotower]

i just keep getting same thing.

the 5 axis trunnion is there... but part is offset from center and like a foot away from table. I thought setting cplane would put it right on rotary table?

also part doesnt rotate or tilt... just cuts like it would in standard 3 axis

[williamsmotower]

[Dan B]

You're getting there!!

First, the part is not on the table of the simulation, but that can easily be fixed. Your Cplane is not a factor for placing the part on the machine. It couldn't be if you think about it. If you have 6 different construction planes on a part, how would that place the part on the machine? You would need a separate simulation for each path. All you need to do is move the simulation in relation to your part. We do this with WorkNC too (I would say all CAM software requires some step to place the part into the proper position). In madCAM you do it in the options page. See the screen shots (but don't pay attention to my numbers. I switched the model to metric because that's what I'm used to).

Remember, you are moving the machine in relationship to the part, not the other way around. That's very important. Stop and read that again!!

So if my part appears to the left of the table, I need to move the machine to the left (- value). If the part is behind the table, I need to move the machine back (- value) and so on.

As for the lack of rotation, that could be a couple of things. First, make sure you are doing your operations in the right order:

1) activate the part
2) set the axis in the options to your machine configuration
3) pick your tool
4) pick the index option
5) set your Cplane
6) pick your region curve
7) make your path

If you follow this order it should work. We do indexed machining every day with madCAM and this is how we do it.

If you do this and it still won't rotate let me know and we'll dig deeper.

Dan

[williamsmotower]

Again thanks for your time! I'll be messing with this later tonight... but one question before I play with it.

Ok, I get moving machine to the part... but how am I supposed to get it perfectly centered over 5th axis rotary table? Am I just guessing so drawing looks correct? Does it really matter? Or is this just a visual thing?

[Dan B]

It's just a visual check. It has nothing to do with the posted code.

Dan

[williamsmotower]

I think where I'm failing is these parts:

4) pick the index option
5) set your Cplane

the index option is the blue axis lines between the 3d and 5 axis cplane icons, correct?

when I do click that I don't know what to click? to me clicking the XYZ lines would make most sense... but that doesn't do anything. I drew a line in the middle and tried highlighting that... still no go.

[Dan B]

No, that icon is for revolution toolpaths. You need to pick the 5X icon (the command is Set_Indexed_mode). Once you pick that, madCAM will be set for positional 5-axis (more often called 3+2 axis). You won't need to pick any lines. You were being prompted to pick lines with the revolution toolpath to define the axis of rotation and the tool direction. That's not what you want to do here.

Dan