Surface finish contour will not follow surface correctly

[Jon @ NOWHERE]

 

Hi guys it appears that when I use a surface finish contour toolpath it will not follow the surface correctly whereas the surface finish flowline will only if I uncheck the check flowline motion for gouge box. Otherwise it will not create a toolpath along the entire drive surface. Not sure if there is anything I can do to create the toolpath that I want short of drawing the toolpath in there myself and doing a contour toolpath. Which, because of time constraints, is the least desireable option.

 

The file is located here.

 

The surface finish contour paths are 56 & 57 in the Operations Manager.

 

I'm using Mastercam X2 MR2 SP1

[Colin Gilchrist]

Jon,

 

What kind of tool are you using to cut this? The "undefined" tool is not capable of undercutting.

 

The "Slot Mill" tool type is capable of undercutting.

 

Define your tool parameters as follows:

 

Slot mill

.700 Diameter

.260 Flute length

.250 arbor diameter

Corner type set to "Corner"

Corner radius .13

Profile type set to "Auto"

 

Does your tool show up? It works for me and the Surface Finish Contour toolpath undercuts just like it is supposed to...

[Jon @ NOWHERE]

It undercuts yes, but the wall thickness is supposed to be .060 all the way down up to the radius on the inside there. The tool that we are using is a special made slot mill, is it because that maybe we have it defined wrong that it is producing incorrect cuts for me? When I created an stl file of that part and did the compare stl file in verify it clearly shows the walls are a bit thicker on each end on opposite sides. Sorry if I am confusing you its kinda hard to explain what I am getting on my end.

[Jon @ NOWHERE]

I created a new tool and changed the parameters to what you suggested but when I ran verify the tool would not show when it got that op. So I can't verify that its cutting correctly. Any ideas?

[Tyler Robertson]

did it say incorrect tool type or tool geometry? Check to make sure your "Overall" tool length encompasses both the flute length and the shoulder

If there's an X in the tool file profile, there is an incorrect parameter (also if you're for some reason creating tools in metric, those values will be quite small, and the tool would appear missing)

[Jon @ NOWHERE]

No it didnt say that anything was incorrect. If I did a backplot it showed the tool. I ended up exiting out of it and reopening it and it showed the tool then. Everything appears to work correctly Colin thank you for all your help!