Can you mirror a toolpath?

[atypicalguy]

I thought I saw a video at one point where Joakim was working on a mold with two mirror images, and he generated a toolpath for one, then mirrored the whole part and toolpath to get the other. But I tried it, and in the simulator it will not cut the mirrored toolpath, despite redefining the stock, copying the new toolpaths into their own layers etc. Is this possible, or am I under the wrong impression? Maybe I have to copy the mirrored toolpaths into the existing layers?

Thanks,
Karl

[svenakela]

There are two ways to do it. Either you make a copy of the toolpath and rotate/move the copy it into the new position, OR you do a mirror command and then Group repair.
To see the the new path in the simulator you have to reselect all the parts.

I did an example for ya:
MADCAMCNC: Making a mirrored toolpath

[atypicalguy]

Edit - I figured out how to do it.

I had about seven toolpaths on a single surface I was trying to mirror. Mirroring them all is fine. But as far as I can tell, you have to choose each individual toolpath and repair it to its mirror, rather than selecting them all and then repairing them all at once. If you do the latter, you may get a Rhino crash like I did when you try to simulate or postprocess. In any event, saving the file after you make the mirror is probably a good idea.

Doing them one by one works great.

Thanks very much for the demo Joakim.

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OK, there were six toolpaths on the one half. I mirrored the entire surface and all the toolpaths, then repaired each toolpath to its mirror. Unfortunately, it broke my file. It will neither simulate nor postprocess the toolpaths now and it crashes Rhino; something about an access violation in the MadCAM rhp plugin.

I guess I will delete all the toolpaths and the mirror and start over.