Programming suggestions

[TERRYH]

I am programming a headliner mold and was wanting to use a surface finish constant scallop to do the part cutting outside in 2 different areas I'd like to do from outside blue boundary to the inside purple boundary and then do the sunroof area in its own program to get a better finish not having the tool going up and down the walls. when I select the outer then inner boundary's the tool wants to start outside then jump inside doing a 3-D collapse so to speak from each boundary. I was wanting it to cut simply from the outside one to the inside one. I tried a surface blend which did what I wanted but the time jumped from 9 hours to 21 which is un acceptable. is there another way or some setting I am missing to make the SFCS work how I want it to? Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

 

 

[jlw™]

Is that one big surface? If so cut the copy it, cut the purple out of the middle and use flowline set to spiral.

[TERRYH]

no unfortunately it is multiple surfaces

[Mjölnir]

create a flat boundary surf using the inner boundary and translate it up so it is above all the surfs. use it as a checksurf to keep the tool out of the area you don't want to cut.

[TERRYH]

Yea we have done that in the past, the thing with that is even with a cap / block off surface to keep it out of there the program will still cut across that surface just not going into sunroof area, which is what I want but would be wasted machine time cutting across it cutting air so to speak. Our CNC supervisor would have a cow. And since it's off center we can't tell them to just watch the program and stop it when it gets to that area.  

[htm01]

break it up into 4 sides

[TERRYH]

Yup that is what I ended up doing was breaking it into 2 different boundary's.  was just wondering if there was a setting I could use to make it do what I wanted without separate one. Thanks guys

[crazy^millman]

Morph Between 2 Curves and set to 3D output. There is an outside to in setting in the toolpath that might do what you are after. Draw a rectangle for the outside shape and one for the inside. Cool this about that toolpath is you have 4 different sets of check surfaces with different amounts. Want to get within .002 of some surface then that is your .002 group. Want to stay .100 away from others the become your .100 group.

[JoshC]

Hey terry, try this with your legacy surface finish constant scallop. with that toolpath, on the finish scallop parameters there is a checkbox for "order cuts by minimum distance" check that box. Then if you go into gap settings check the "optimize cut order".

 

I think with those two settings checked you will get much more desirable motion. hope that helps

[TERRYH]

Josh we have them 2 options already checked in our default settings, and it does not do a bad job as it does still jump around a little cutting across the middle in a couple places that was one option I tried. but I think the best looking toolpath was simply to do 2 separate boundaries with a slight overlap had least amount of jumping and shortest estimated cutting time. 

Ron I did not see that option. 

[crazy^millman]

Josh we have them 2 options already checked in our default settings, and it does not do a bad job as it does still jump around a little cutting across the middle in a couple places that was one option I tried. but I think the best looking toolpath was simply to do 2 separate boundaries with a slight overlap had least amount of jumping and shortest estimated cutting time. 

Ron I did not see that option. 

 

Do you have the MultiAxis option? It is under there, but it can output 3 Axis toolpaths. Multi Axis Parallel and Triangular Mesh can do the same. What is cool about the toolpaths is they ignore UV on surfaces that others have a fit with.

[TERRYH]

Thanks Ron I'll look at it and experiment when I get a chance.

[Colin Gilchrist]

Terry,

 

Try using Surface High Speed - Hybrid. I've had better luck with this lately, on parts with a combination of vertical and horizontal surfaces.

 

Change the Shallow Angle to 45 degrees. Turn off the "detect flats" option.

 

I was getting some pretty good results using this path on similar shapes...

 

Hope that helps,

 

Colin