Plunge angle for Profile milling? SC 2008

[KevinWilkins]

I finally getting around to learning and using the SolidCam 2008 I bought with Solidworks a while back. I have a vertical Haas Mill.

One thing I do a lot of is cutting parts out of plate stock like cookies out of the dough.

With most materials I never plunge directly into the stock but rather ramp down into the material at a particular angle depending on type of material and cutter used.

I'm having a real hard time gtting SolidCam to do this.

Let's say I define a part that's 6mm stock and want to cut a rectangular part out of the middle. After defining the Cam Part I choose add operation, then Profile.

Then select the rectangular geometry, the tool (let's say a 4mm mill), then set the depth level.

Then I come to the Technology page. The only Depth Type to try is Helical but I can find no option to set the angle of the plunge. Normally I use between 2-6 Degrees but here it seems SolidCam chooses whatever angle it wants.

Or am I missing something?

The graphixs in the simlation are also jerky and hard to follow, even at the slowest setting...

Thanks for any help!

[Brakeman Bob]

The depth type "Helical" will ramp down to the step depth over the length of your profile, so the angle will be very shallow. The only contol of ramping I am aware of is in either Pocket or 3D jobs. What you could do is set up a routine in your post, perhaps selected via a Job Option, to ramp down from your Lead on point at an angle you specify. It would take some doing, but it can be done.

[KevinWilkins]

Well, I guess at least I wasn't just too dumb to find the box to click or something!

I like to be able to ramp down into the stock and then cut using the entire cutter and not just the leading edge and bottom. I guess I'll have to try and see how the helical cycle works in practice.

Right now the post processer they sent for my Haas machine won't output proper code, so that's being fixed ... hopefully. Then I can finally make some chips with the software.

[Brakeman Bob]

Kevin, how about this. You use HSM Constant Z with the boundary set to auto-box and the pass depth set to deeper than your part and the pass angle set to low 89° and high 90°. That should only generat code for the vertical walls and HSM generates ramping automatically. It might work (I haven't tested it).

Bob

[KevinWilkins]

Thanks Bob!

I just checked and I don't have HSM in my version.

I thought there would just be a ramp angle box somewhere. But it does appear the constant helix is my only option.

I'm still waiting for my Post Processor to be fixed so I can cut a test part ... but as my mill crapped out yesterday, I have to get that fixed too.

This week is looking kinda dicey...

[Brakeman Bob]

I have thought of another way that doesn't use HSM. You could create a job option switch for profile jobs that caused the post processor to loop out the move between the initial point and the Z step down and apply a feedrate (say "Feed/2"). Then in the links tab you set a big number (relative to the axial depth of cut) and tis would give you a straight linear ramp. The trouble is it wouldn't show up in simulation, only in the generated G code (but you can always backplot that).

If you are having your post edited to suite your machine it's worth a go.

[ddk114]

How about using 3d milling and use angle between paths. Helical is OK but can waste time. I use this quite a bit to get the job done. St the feeds both the same so it keeps moving.

[KevinWilkins]

That sunds like an interesting option, I will check that out.

I just discovered that the post processor I received with SolidCam outputs code which won't work on my Haas mill. So I guess I'll be starting a separate post about a Haas post. As it stands now, I can't make any parts with the program anyway.

[mattpatt]

I just discovered that the post processor I received with SolidCam outputs code which won't work on my Haas mill.

I Have a Fanuc control on my Fadal 3016. I've tweaked the (generic Fanuc) gpp file over time. When I got my Haas VF2 a few month ago I just tweaked the Fanuc gpp file very slightly and it works on my Haas without issue.

[KevinWilkins]

It's that "tweaking" part I don't exactly know...

[mattpatt]

I'm no expert but with a lot of (much appreciated) help from guys here, you can pretty much get the gpp file to output whatever you want.

In the .gpp file in the @init_post you will see the line

; trace 'all':5

Remove the semicolon ( and regenerate your code and it'll display all the info that is being used to give you the code. You can then look through this and read through the gpp help and figure out what's going on and what you need to change to get the code you need.

First thing is to read through the gpp help file.

[KevinWilkins]

Thanks! I did read the Gpptool PDF doc, some of which I actually understood.
I figured out the ; designates a comment line.

I'll try the trace all line you mention and see what happens...