2022 Convert to 5 Axis - Plane questions..

[TheLordsToe]

This is my first time posting on this forum so forgive me if this has been answered already. I did a search and found others with similar questions but not a lot of definitive answers. 

I thought I had a breakthrough when I converted an opti-rough path into a 5 axis toolpath. However when simulating I realized that the path it spit out had defaulted to its own planes. When I tried correcting this my toolpath was broken. The tool was doing all kinds of really messed up things. 

My original toolpath is using 

(WCS) Top    -   (Tplane) Custom plane #1   -    (C-plane) Custom plane #1.

I created the custom plane #1 off the part geometry by just selecting a large face on the front side of the model. This usually works fine on its own toolpath. 

When I normally do 5 axis simultaneous I always use Top  - Top  -  Top. This never fails me. 

But now I'm using a combination of my Origin path and this Convert function and I'm not sure what I'm violating when setting up my planes for each toolpath. 

It seems I cant get this path to work right unless the original toolpath is using all planes set to Top. From what I gathered other users had similar issues in X6 and X7. I'm using 2022 and I find it hard to believe this awesome tool would be cucked this hard by this one little thing. 

 

Does anyone have a little advice on how to properly set up planes for this?

[Leon82]

When I used it think the 3 axis original path was set to it's plane for all 3 and the convert was at my 5 Axis home.

[TheLordsToe]

@Leon82 If that's the only way to get it to work then that really sucks for me.. 

[Leon82]

I think I programed it the source path was like a 3plus1 so wcs 5 Axis home/tool plane face 1 /cplane face1

[Aaron Eberhard]

I think you'll need to post a file to get accurate help here, but, as a quick guess, you may just need to move the plane you're working in to the origin of your WCS.  So when you set up "Custom Plane #1", hit this button:  

[TheLordsToe]

@Aaron Eberhard 

Here are some screenshots that may help.

What I'm trying to show you: 

I show that my custom plane is referring back to my 5 axis home wcs. 

My planes in the Origin toolpath are correctly setup. (at least for 3 + 1) 

My 5 axis convert result with the 3 planes setup incorrectly and the toopath looking right. (Its not right cause the wcs is wrong)

and the 5 axis convert path with the toolpath looking all wrong (but with the planes set correctly to T,T,T) 

 

I cant share my whole file without a lot of tinkering unfortunately. I hope I'm making sense. 

 

[Aaron Eberhard]

I'm sorry, but I can't resolve anything from the screenshots..  You'll need to post a file, or, at least, email it over to me, or include screenshots of every page of your convert toolpath so we can see what the Linking and Tool Axis control is.

[Leon82]

I used angle twards tilt axis

[TheLordsToe]

5 hours ago, Leon82 said:

I used angle twards tilt axis

14 hours ago, Aaron Eberhard said:

I'm sorry, but I can't resolve anything from the screenshots..  You'll need to post a file, or, at least, email it over to me, or include screenshots of every page of your convert toolpath so we can see what the Linking and Tool Axis control is.

You know last week I swear I tried every which way of tool axis control. I tried angle towards tilt again today with all planes set to TOP and it worked! Machine Simulation shows the correct moves and everything. 

I'm so glad this is going to work. 

I appreciate everyone's time and help! 

 

So, in conclusion this "convert to 5 axis" utility is as useful as I'd hoped it be. 

[TheLordsToe]

Dylan was able to look at my file and gave me some really good insight. Unsurprisingly there's more than one right way to set this up. 

My planes weren't the issue. It was my Tool axis control direction that was wrong. I posted Dylans response below so that you can see his explanation. I hope this can help others who may run into similar issues. 

 

"Hey Cristian,

 

I actually like the way you had this set up, with Fixed Angle to Axis. The issue just stemmed from the direction you were giving it. So when converting to 5 axis, we’re taking every point from the original path and giving it some new vector, or pointing direction, for the tool. Your original settings were to say, basically, lock it along an axis (until collision control found a collision and made it tilt), and you chose the Z axis. Which direction is the Z axis? It’s your WCS Z, not your Toolplane Z. In this case, the WCS Z is 90 degrees off where the optirough was made, which means that pretty much every single point in the original path is immediately in collision.

 

So the only thing you had to do to make this work was to flip the Z to Y, which is the direction of your feature area. Or, if your feature area didn’t align well with the direction of one of the axes of your WCS (Top), you could use the Line option and choose any edge or wireframe line to define the main pointing vector to align the converted path along instead.

 

Angle towards tilt axis works for you here as well because you’re telling it to tilt the original vectors towards some axis, but the default change amount is 0. So the end result is it really doesn’t modify any original vectors at all, and you never get the pointing problem that was created by specifying a bad axis for Fixed Angle to Axis."

 

[Aaron Eberhard]

Glad you were able to get a file to someone for help

[JoshC]

On 3/16/2023 at 3:06 PM, Aaron Eberhard said:

Glad you were able to get a file to someone for help

with a file its easier to help for sure. i wonder if anyone ever sends a picture of there motor to their mechanic asking whats wrong with their vehicle. that would be a very optimistic person to think the mechanic could figure out whats wrong with a few pictures of an engine. sort of along the same lines with the amount of variables we work with in cam software, glad you were able to get it resolved tho! i always share files when i need help even if its a dumbed down version of a file, theres just too many assumptions to be made without a real file, glad you got an answer!