Why not ???????????????????

[Eeyore-nonhuman forum member]

Why Mastercam has no Freehand (using mouse for mill moves toolpath )

I heavily use it and it is very effective .

What I do is make arcs ,multiline centers of them and contour toolpathes through centers =compensation -off

With all it`s innovations is it really hard to make such a toolpath .

Most of low-end cad-cams have them ,why not MC .

In V9 was a c-hook of Camaix ???

Come on ,Pete ,don`t tell me it is too hard .

[Thad]

I agree.

 

Gibbs had a similar feature that would create a multiline as you clicked around the screen. Based on the size of the current tool selected, it would grey out (like backplot's quick verify") as you clicked around. That way you could see what material your cutter removed. You still had to put a contour toolpath on it, but you knew you would rough out the odd shaped area without guessing.

 

Thad

[Eeyore-nonhuman forum member]

Exactly ,Thad .

But Auramill and NCtool build toolpath straight through free hand function without need to build contour toolpath

In NCtool it was slot function ,in Auramill it was

free-hand icon ,and you was able to use it in contour and pocket toolpathes (very handy ) .

Now I need to draw ,after 15 years !!!

[Rick Henrickson 65]

it does you click on the little meter on the toolpath bar in backplot and scroll your mouse through the steps

[Eeyore-nonhuman forum member]

Rick ,you don`t get it ?

Let me say you have a need to make some rough move but do not want to buld geometry

You use your mouse to drive your mill over your screen and that will be a toolpath

What it has to do with a backplot ?

[Guest]

NX does this as well.

 

It however is one of those paths that gets used very infrequently.

 

Send it off as an enhancement request.

[Eeyore-nonhuman forum member]

It however is one of those paths that gets used very infrequently.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It depends .

I use it very often

No need to build geometry and fool movement control -

I like it .

[3R!< W3NG3R]

I might be missing something, but I don't see the use for this. Wouldn't it be better to create a milty line and then contour that? Then you can change it if you need to and the toolpath will be assosiative.

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

I'd rather create the geometry. It'll be a cleaner, more modifiable path, and really doesn't take that long.

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

Ya know you can kind of do what you're talking about with the "point" toolpath.

[Eeyore-nonhuman forum member]

The line will be created while you drive your mouse .

And it will be assosiative

Free hand save lots of time in many situations ,that are not standart .

And toolpath time is smallest possible .

If you have a block with four islands how would your rough it - using pocket toolpath ?

Sometimes three -four mill movements will do it -just drive your mouse with mill image over the screen .

Or there is unrigid part you need to mill some special way -not climb or conventional ,but moving from outside to jacks missing support walls and ribs ?

If you start use it ,you never end .

I use it for 15 years .

[Thad]

I've found this to come in handy when a contour won't cut it all, a contour with mulitpass cuts a lot of extra air, and closing it in to make a pocket cuts a lot of air too. It's a quick simple toolpath.

 

Eeyore, In the software that you've used, is this toolpath associative?

 

Thad

[Eeyore-nonhuman forum member]

My free-hand toolpath in MC is multiline ,naturally it si assosiative .

My both other programs were not ,but both had easy ways to edit it

[Thad]

quote:

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If you start use it ,you never end

---

+1

 

I can see how people wouldn't think it's a big deal if they've never used it before. If they have, they know what you're talking about. It's a huge timesaver.

 

Thad

[Eeyore-nonhuman forum member]

Yes ,Thad ,that`s good example .

When you need to program so big amount of code ,as I am ,you need something fast and quick ,handy at every situation .

I can say ,statistically ,90 % of my programs have at least one free hand toolpath and in most of cases machining time is at least 30 % faster than any regular toolpath .

Programming time is fast too.

I only can not get it ,is it a big deal to make combination of multiline with mill image ?

I don`t need it to be 3d .

2d toolpath is enough for me.

When I need it 3d I can always make project on surfaces .

[Rick Henrickson 65]

I see so if you have an odd shaped part on a square blank and you just want to machine off an excess corner you can sketsh it bye hand?

[within a thou]

What about using offset contour offset the distance and number of times you would set in multipass and trim to the limit of your block and just click on multiple chains and control it thru depth where by chain or depth and have no cutting of air

[Eeyore-nonhuman forum member]

Rick ,this is good example of when free-hand toolpath can be used .

Within a thou

I can draw anything you like ,but why I need to draw at all when I can do it free hand ?

[Mick]

In thinking about it, I believe this would be a very handy toolpath. There's been plenty of times where I have had to mess around with extra geometry, and verifying, and readding geometry, to get extra material machined off.

 

I agree, send it in as an enhancement request.

[within a thou]

quote:

---

Within a thou

I can draw anything you like ,but why I need to draw at all when I can do it free hand ?

---

with offset contour what are you drawing you have your original geometry you click a chain and tell it how many times you want it offset and the distance between. Then trim many you window using inside + intersect highlight your chains in one window then click the chain to trim too. Many different ways to do things and by no means am I saying my way is better than yours just offering a quick solution

[Thad]

Now that I think of it, I may have sent this in (the Gibbs version of creating multi-lines described above) as an enhancement request quite some time ago. I'm not sure if I still have the old email. That was just for the drawing of geometry though, not a sketch toolpath. I really like the idea of a sketch toolpath for these situations.

 

Thad

[Roger Peterson]

If it was associative to geometry I'm all for it. If not, no thanks. I have used a freehand toolpath, it was nice and easy to create. But if you need to fixture your part differently now you have a toolpath that is not associated to anything which can cause a LOT of problems.

 

 

JM2C

[Eeyore-nonhuman forum member]

why it is not assosiative when it will be multiline ?

[Goldorak]

why not!!

 

just create chaining point by point to remove a little leftover material without drawing any entity will do the job

 

i do a lot of "egg shaped" pices from a square material

 

but i usualy use multi-pass and trim toolpath and adjust my pass to do the job

[Piglet Trespassers William]

Axela .

You do too much for simple couple of mill movements

I mean I want to be fast .

And I don`t want to create anything

I want to do a thing that other programs have been doing for ages .