Extending outside of material

[Rick Morrison]

It's me again. My cavity cut went great. One quick question. I have an open ended cavity. How can I get my tool to start 0.5" outside the cavity? I want each pass at that end to come out to this dimension. The work from my reseller does this. I don't see much difference from his parameters and mine. I tried to change mine to match his, but no luck so far. He used a gap setting to do it. But when I do that it does not extend horizontally out, it wraps down the vertical face.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Pick Smooth Motion on the Gap Settings page, and give the tangential line length the value you want it to extend. Works for me every time...

 

HTH

[cadist]

quote:

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But when I do that it does not extend horizontally out, it wraps down the vertical face.

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In advance setting set option only between surface that way it won't go down.

 

IMHO you better extend the surfaces.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

quote:

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...IMHO you better extend the surfaces...

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That is the 100% tried and true method, but I've had success with the above method for over 2 years with no issues. I prefer to create as few pieces of extra stuff as possible.

 

JM2C

[Teh Bear without Brains kinda idiot]

+1000 to James ,workes great !

[Rick Morrison]

Gap to Smooth, Tangent line to 0.5, still wraps.

[crazy^millman]

What toolpath are you using? Have you treid doing this with a fresh operation?

[mold100]

If your fairly okay at creating geometry, heres what I do (Seems like alot of work, but its pretty bullet proof and really dont take much time) i will offset copy all the parting line chians at that end of the part say .600 then create ruled surfs between the copied chain and the original, and then extend my boundry out that direction like .55

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

On the advanced page, check "Only between surfaces" instead of Automatically.

 

HTH

[Rick Morrison]

I fixed it!

 

All of the recomendations were helpful. What I did wrong was extend my chains out beyond the cavity, thinking it would extend my toolpaths. When I trimmed them to the cavity boundaries, the gap parameters worked as suggested.

 

Another simple problem, but I have been told I am a simple man (I take it as a compliment!!)

 

BTW: Is it better to be a simple man with comples tastes, or a complex man with simple tastes?

[crazy^millman]

In my book always better to be the simple man that give it his best shot. It is funny how simple people seem to do the most amazing things in life and yet never get awards, million dollar contracts or show up on the news everynight. Glad you got it going your way and I can say this is not the last thing you have trouble with but hopefully will be the last one you got to figure out by yourself if you get stuck. That to me is what makes this place great. I like giving back to this place becuase it has given me so much that I have learned from. I feel the better we all get the better this country gets and if we all share our knowledge and make everyone better as we go along then nothing to stand in the way of us turning this profession around. Sorry will get off the soap box now.