Unified Start Point Control

[Jake L]

In the attached file I have a unified toolpath cutting an angled surface. What I don't like about the toolpath is how the lead in / out looks good on one side but not on the other. On the "bad" side the tool goes through the material to get to the first move of the toolpath. I played around with the start point controls in unified "parameters" > "cut pattern" > "start point parameters" but no matter what I do, one side always has a "bad " lead in / out. I would like the leads on both sides to look like the "good" side. Is there a way for this to be accomplished? MC2023

Thanks in advance for any help!

Unified_Start_Point_Control.mcam

[Colin Gilchrist]

I couldn't do it with a single path. Here is the result with two paths.

First, I created edge curves, and built new Net Surfaces. 

Then I changed the type to "full, start/end at exact edges". This give you the "Margins" Page. This you can use to adjust how "close" the tool machines to the edge.

I found I also had to adjust the "Start Point", to get the entry/exit to not feed all the way to the opposite edge of the surface.

 

Unified_Start_Point_Control and Margins Solution.mcam

[crazy^millman]

Change your step over. The amount of step over just happen to fall into that spot. Try a .001greater or smaller amount and go from there.

[Jake L]

Thanks for the replies!

49 minutes ago, Colin Gilchrist said:

I couldn't do it with a single path. Here is the result with two paths.

I was trying to stick to a single path because on the actual part there's 32 of these little pockets, all at slightly different angles / depths. I was hoping I wasn't going to have to tediously go through every toolpath for every pocket to make custom adjustments. I thought I wasn't understanding how the start point control worked.

52 minutes ago, Colin Gilchrist said:

First, I created edge curves, and built new Net Surfaces.

Genuinely curious here, why did you do this? Is it more accurate? I used "surfaces from solids" and trimmed the surface.

54 minutes ago, Colin Gilchrist said:

Then I changed the type to "full, start/end at exact edges". This give you the "Margins" Page. This you can use to adjust how "close" the tool machines to the edge.

Learned something new today, thanks!

 

52 minutes ago, crazy^millman said:

Change your step over. The amount of step over just happen to fall into that spot. Try a .001greater or smaller amount and go from there.

I tried this and the best I could do was fix 3 out of 4 of the leads.

Sometimes I got 3 bad leads.

 

Ron and Colin, thanks again for taking the time to look at this for me. It looks like my best options is to have two separate toolpaths for each pocket. I guess sometimes there's no easy button.