Surfcam surface finishes

[jmill]

does anyone have any issues with surfcam and surface finishes. am currently useing 5.1 , 5.2 has major issues. the issues are just 3D related, looks like ripples? in the part, i can see them in the toolpath, can not get rid of them

thanks

[moldcore]

Try setting your Surface and Curve (for 2D) Tolerance to a smaller number. I use .0002. It will increase you file size and may slow down your machine but most modern machines today can handle it.

[jmill]

am running at .0005 right now on fadal, step over at .003 to .006. machining aluminum right now, useing 2 flute carbide, will try lowering tolerance to see

thanks

[moldcore]

.0005 is too high from what I’ve experienced. You’ll see a big difference. Some people use .0001. Also if you use “Scallop” instead of “Increment” you may see an improvement depending on the situation. The increment step over would depend on the size of the ball of course. I don’t understand why Surfcam still has .001 as a default tolerance considering the processing power of today’s computers and machine controllers.

[jmill]

ya really dont get the .001 thing too, wont even let you change in options. do you use the arc filter feature, i have before, in earlier versions with no luck. will definetly lower the tolerance

thanks again

[moldcore]

Surfcam has a lot of room for improvement. I use the arc filter on occasion it works pretty good. I only use it for X,Y plane. It has bit me a few time too. I once tried to run multiple Filtered programs as one program and it tried to run through the part between programs. For some reason it ignored the rapid plane. After that I only run one at a time. Not sure if that has been fixed.

[jmill]

do you know of any other filtering programs, the fadal uses a finishing option that i run with it, works ok, can definetly see a difference.

[jmill]

just got done with first part at .0002, it does look better, but will have to see how it does on a more radical surface, this one has a nice gentle slope to it.

[machiningweasel]

Originally Posted by jmill does anyone have any issues with surfcam and surface finishes. am currently useing 5.1 , 5.2 has major issues. the issues are just 3D related, looks like ripples? in the part, i can see them in the toolpath, can not get rid of them thanks

if you look under any of the surfacing tool paths you will see a surface tolerance, you need to adjust it to like .0001 or .0005 , should give you alot better finish, oops didn't read all the posts sorry

[ToyMaker94566]

I will use the "arc filtering" feature when I post if my cut allows me. I also believe you can set your tolerance .00001 if you really want it smooth and can work with a ton of code.

[dynacam]

Are you using 3d Offset?

[jmill]

Originally Posted by dynacam Are you using 3d Offset?

i have used 3D offset but for this i was useing planer