xp custom tool paths

[Mortek]

Just curious for you guys who have xp. Please try to explain how custom toolpaths work. The demo isn't real clear on how this happens. Do you just pick a particular surface and it machines only that surface or do you pick a surface and then pick the surfaces that you want to avoid?

[steveg50]

You make a 2D tool path , I use the boundary , make sure it iis a seperate layer and directly over the surface you want to machine. It will then follow that path only on the surface . This is better than projecting a curve since it will prevent your tool from gouging the surface on sloaps,ect . As far as making the tool path you can use a backplot from the toolpath section . Or if like me you also have Mill Pro 2000 ( maybe even Bobcad ) you can draw manual tool paths and import them into XP. I have been in touch with the man downunder and he says version 5.20 will add more of these older features for use with this funtion. If you do alot of surface cutting you'll end up loving this function .

[Mortek]

doesn't this also work in 3d? Then do you have to draw the boundary or can you select other surfaces that you want it to avoid as in surfcam?

[Mortek]

There is a picture of this part under the "I'm shuttin my mouth about onecnc" thread, listed under my name. I'm trying to machine the boss on the back side without touching the flat surface. Also I couldn't get the fillets create. I need a 3/8 fillet on the front of the boss and a .125 around the rest of the boss.

[steveg50]

That is a 3D surface , the tool path layer ( the 1st box that comes up with this fuction ) is the orange part in that picture. The green is the back plot and you can't see the surface . Heres one with no back plot or tool.

[steveg50]

Heres a front view

[steveg50]

I think with alittle trial and error and the custom funtion . Along with manual tool paths and or backplots you could finish that. I have found the only thing that limits me is me .

[HuFlungDung]

Originally posted by steveg50
I have found the only thing that limits me is me .

Hi Steve,

That looks like a good line for a signature. Want to claim it?

[steveg50]

How would I do that?

[HuFlungDung]

Just go to the top of the page "My CNCzone" click, and select edit profile and then cut and paste your remarks in the signature dialog.



Mortek, so far as which surfaces get machined, what I do at the present time (not saying this is the way) is create a quick "cover plate surface" to put over top of any area where you don't want the tool to descend in to if it lies inside your main boundary. In some cases you can limit the tool movement by specifying a bottom of job that is not the "real bottom" but will serve nonetheless to prevent further pathing downwards where you may not want it to go.

Each case is a special case, so it's next to impossible to give a hard and fast rule about it.

It should never be necessary to use another program to create the 2d path. Once you have a boundary, create a quick planar surface beneath it, and then perform a pocket routine inside your boundary, at the fixed depth of the surface. Backplot this code and save it on a new layer as the custom path you intend to use. You can delete the nc process that you used to create this backplot.

Does this sound reasonable? I haven't done it but I think this would be my (newbie) approach to it.

[HuFlungDung]

Mortek, just studying your part in the other thread a bit, about filletting, I too have troubles with that. I can envision the problem with the spots where the 1/8 and 3/8 fillets might meet. Also, I suppose the boss is just sitting on top of a large flat surface?

I've got a theory right now that you need to have intersecting surfaces, but not overlapping surfaces, because the overlap cannot trim properly for the fillet. This would involve breaking up your large flat surface into chunks that mate with a single given surface of the boss, kind of like equalizing chains before skinning in Bobcad.

In a situation I was working on, I could not draw the fillets, but I could cut them okay with a ballnose tool, so I didn't sweat the details of filletting. It looked right in the simulation, that's all I needed to see.

For your custom 2d path, you would create a boundary that represents an offset around your boss as an island. Then, when you create the 2d path, you would use this boundary as an island and the outer perimeter boundary as the outside of your pocket. Then follow the procedure I outlined in the post above.

[Mortek]

I can't do that in mill 2000. What I have done is created a surface of the .375 fillet so that when I finish it with a .25 ball mill I will get my .125 fillet around and still maintain a .375 fillet in the front face (where the hole is). I've created a boundary to keep the tool from wandering out where I don't want it to. I just happened to see my customer take my model in surfcam and pick the surfaces he wanted to machine, then he picked the surfaces he wanted to avoid. It created the tool path without creating a boundary, it was so slick I couldn't believe how easy it was. He didn't have to set a tool path angle either, which I have to do. Of course I believe Surfcam is about $15,000. It better have a few better features for the price. I just wanted to know if XP addressed custom tool paths simularly.