Reverse Chain In X

[somename75]

I have always hated having Mastercam reverse my cutter comp direction when I need to reverse a chain. Many times I get ahead of myself and chain something in the wrong direction. Is there a way to toggle weather or not Mastercam automaticly reverse my cutter comp direction when a chain gets reversed?

[jagg2499]

this is a good question!! bump

[CAREYL]

I am not sure in -X- but in V9 in chain mgr pick reverse chain and pick change sides.

[somename75]

Change sides does not apear to be there in V X. Anyone else have this problem, or do you all take a lot more care in chaining things in the correct direction the first time. I tend to rush through, and go back if I messed up 1 out of 80 counterbores.

[Richard Thomas - Mastercam UK]

somename75,

 

Are you using X or V9? In X I just tried Reverse Chain, and it keeps my cutter comp on the correct side [EDIT] what I mean is, I went around the outside of a shape, hit reverse chain and it stays outside.

 

In V9... oh... umm... mine is doing the same thing! I just did a contour op around the outside of a square, went into the chain manager and hit Reverse Chain. When I regenereated the path, the toolpath is still running around the outside! You're saying that yout toolpath would then cut on the iside right? I thought it did that too. Maybe this was fixed at some point - I'm running MR0105.

 

[ANOTHER EDIT] I've just noticed (when you mentioned counterbores) that this does not work the same way if you are chaining arcs. What I did above was with a rectangle.

[somename75]

I was refering to versiion X. What I would like to have happen is for left cutter comp to be the default. What I mean by that is if I chain something in the wrong direction and then reverse it, I would still like to climb cut, meaning that I would like the toolpath to flip between the inside and outside of a boundry while always staying on left comp. I hope that makes it a little clearer.

[Richard Thomas - Mastercam UK]

Yeah, got ya...

 

I went off on a bit of a tangent I think!

 

Left comp is the norm, so lets say I chain 6 arcs, but I get no.4 in the wrong direction and it machines outside the arc. If I go to the Chain Manager, select no. 4 and Reverse Chain, when I regen no.4 is now machiing inside like all the others.

 

I only get the problem you are referring to if my toolpath was only on one arc. Then if I reverse the chain, the comp gets reversed like you say.

 

There is a work around here... before you select any geometry, go to the Chain options. In there is an option to force CW or CCW chaining. For you I think you would want CCW, rather than the default option of using the position of the cursor to set the direction.

[somename75]

Ok, thanks Rich, I will play with that and see if It helps out. Have a good weekend