A little OT....cool video

[David Conigliaro CNC Software Inc.]

your welcome

[neurosis]

quote:

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You have those two toolpaths today via the 'open machining method' check box.

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Great! The problem that I was having, is that when the path starts removing the material from the outside of the stock, when it reaches the corners of the material it changes the radial cut drastically. So much so that when I tried to run the exact same parameters as I had set in volumill, it would break the cutter as soon as it hit the corner of the material.

 

I am not at work right now but may try to pc-anywhere in to that computer later tonight and see if I am able to take a screen shot of what I am talking about. You may be able to tell me how to avoid this issue in the future.

[David Conigliaro CNC Software Inc.]

Neurosis - send me an MCX file if can as well.

[Roger Peterson]

quote:

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Great! The problem that I was having, is that when the path starts removing the material from the outside of the stock, when it reaches the corners of the material it changes the radial cut drastically. So much so that when I tried to run the exact same parameters as I had set in volumill, it would break the cutter as soon as it hit the corner of the material.

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Put a clearance fillet on the sharp corners of your outer profile geometry, this will get you a more consistent cut around the corners while still cutting the entire stock.

 

If you are not familiar with it, you can also you the high feed filter to adjust the feedrate based on volume of material being removed, there's a small amount of setup but it works well.

[David Conigliaro CNC Software Inc.]

Thanks fo the feedback Roger - zap me a sample file wih the feedrate optimized as well if you could.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

I hear gears turning...

[neurosis]

quote:

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Put a clearance fillet on the sharp corners of your outer profile geometry, this will get you a more consistent cut around the corners while still cutting the entire stock.

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This is a good idea for the time being and will make a nice work around. It would be nice in future versions if you did not have to alter the material to run this path. Good ideas!

 

David,

 

I will see what I can do when I get to work on mondy. I may even try to do it sooner if I can connect to my work computer before that. It is a long weekend for us so they may have everything shut down until monday.

[Glenn Coleman]

I am a co-founder of Celeritive Technologies, Inc., the creators of VoluMill. I hope I can accurately address some of your questions and comments.

 

It is true that Surfware has filed a lawsuit against Celeritive, but we believe the lawsuit is without merit. We have countersued and are defending ourselves vigorously. The judge has already denied Surfware's motion for a preliminary injunction, we recently received what we consider to be a very favorable construction of the patent claims, and we are preparing to move for summary judgment. We expect to prevail, but in any case, we have strong financial backing and are not going away.

 

From the technology standpoint, we believe that TrueMill and VoluMill are completely different. As is well known, TrueMill controls the angle of engagement between the cutting tool and the material. It generates a toolpath that never exceeds the specified angle regardless of the shape of the part. VoluMill does not do that. It controls the volume of material being removed in cubic units per minute (hence the name VoluMill). It generates a toolpath that keeps the material removal rate (MRR) at or below a known value regardless of the shape of the part. From the marketing perspective, TrueMill does not run inside of Mastercam, whereas VoluMill most certainly does.

 

As for Adaptive Clearing, we have seen many videos, but we have not had the opportunity to machine anything with it firsthand. We could get a trial version and run some tests on our own, I suppose, but we believe that such comparisons are only worthwhile when experts at both systems are present to diagnose any problems and fine tune the toolpaths. If anyone experienced with Adaptive Clearing is interested, we would be happy to conduct a comparison with you. This is ultimately the best way to determine which technology is most appropriate for any given shop anyway. We do have Mastercam X4, however, and plan on conducting some on-machine tests soon, naturally with a Mastercam expert involved.

 

Regarding some of the other comments in this thread, I respectfully suggest that everyone should be careful in comparing the performance of various toolpath technologies based on what they look like on the screen. Toolpath science is a tricky business, and differences that may be almost imperceptible on the screen can result from the use of completely different technology and have dramatic impact on the shop floor. On-machine performance is what counts – reduced cycle times and increased tool life.

[cobra95kev]

Thanks for the post Glenn,

Welcome to the forum.

 

By the way, any chance you guys might be able to get a package up and running in CATIA V5?

I would love to see that.

 

 

[Glenn Coleman]

Hi Kevin,

 

We would love to create a VoluMill plug-in to CATIA V5. Not all companies are as progressive as CNC Software, however, in encouraging 3rd party development of applications to increase the productivity of their customers. Consequently, I can't give you a firm timeframe as to when this might be available.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

quote:

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any chance you guys might be able to get a package up and running in CATIA V5?

I would love to see that.

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quote:

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Not all companies are as progressive as CNC Software, however, in encouraging 3rd party development of applications to increase the productivity of their customers. Consequently, I can't give you a firm timeframe as to when this might be available.

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Kevin, considering it took those @$$ hats over at Dassault CATIA until V5 R17 to make an ID threadmill operation go from the bottom up, I certainly would not be holding my breath for them to willfully allow something as useful as VoluMill to hook into CATIA in the foreseeable future.

 

I would venture we'll see Mastercam go Parametric first.

 

JM2C

[mig]

Dave , can you please upload on FTP some files with dynamic mill toolpath examples?

[cobra95kev]

Yeah I was afraid of that. #&*@)#$French???? Well I guess I can stil make use of the 2D Volumill with the web app.

 

Thanks,

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

To give you an idea about how effed up CATIA is; the LAST thing they want to hear from are customers. A forum like this, wich actual developers(John Summers, Pete Rimkis, David Conigliaro, Rich Taft, etc... ) interacting with us end users commoners would never happen, I repeat NEVER happen with CATIA. They don't give a flying leap about end users commoners.

[Glenn Coleman]

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I tried Surfcams Truemill, X4's dynamic mill and the free trial version of Volumill. They all produced a good toolpath but the Surfcam still looked a little better and more consistent. I would still have to give the slight advantage to Surfcam because of the different ways you can chain the geometry. You can chain a single closed chain as partially either part geometry or Material(stock).

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Just to be clear, VoluMill supports any combination of part boundaries and material boundaries. But since VoluMill is a Mastercam C-hook, we are limited to the chaining options in the SDK, which do not support a closed chain that is partially part-boundary and partially material-boundary. It seems that this is not possible even with a native Mastercam toolpath; but we absolutely needed VoluMill to handle such conditions, so we decided to “brute force” it.

 

The options for defining material boundaries in VoluMill are in the “Material boundaries defined by:” frame at the lower left of the VoluMill parameters dialog.

 

 

If the open shape you want to machine can be defined like a Mastercam open pocket (where the system connects the two ends of an open chain with a straight line), select an open chain of geometry and choose the “Open chains” radio button in the above frame.

 

If the material boundary you need to specify is more complicated than that, choose the “Levels” radio button instead. But first you’ll need to do one thing: Prior to picking the VoluMill icon from your toolbar, move the geometry elements that will be material boundaries to a different level from the geometry elements that will be part boundaries. Then pick the VoluMill icon and select all of the geometry that you need for the toolpath. On the “VoluMill parameters” dialog, push the “Part/Material levels…” button. A list will be displayed showing all of the levels on which exists geometry you selected for this toolpath. All levels will default to “Part” geometry. Select the level(s) containing your material boundary elements (it helps to name the level(s) appropriately) and push the “Material” radio button. Close the “Level mappings” dialog, make sure all of the other VoluMill parameters are set as desired, and generate the toolpath. Using this option enables you to generate VoluMill toolpaths for any possible geometric configuration, including an unlimited number of islands.

 

In our next release, VoluMill 3.0, due out later this month, we have added another option whereby you can specify material-boundary elements by setting their line style to dashed. This release also introduces the 3-axis version of VoluMill. If (or when) CNC Software adds support for selecting multiple chains with different attributes, we will be able to use that capability and these methods will no longer be necessary.

 

I apologize for the mini training session, but those of you using or evaluating VoluMill may not be aware of this capability.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Nice work Glenn. How does VoluMill handle licensing? Do you use the HASP or some other method?

 

Thanks,

[Glenn Coleman]

Thanks for the comment, CNC Apps Guy 1.

 

We use software security, much like SolidWorks.

[Colin Gilchrist]

Please don't appoligise for the lesson Glenn, I'm sure it will help everyone who is interested. If you post some more trick & tips for using Volumill, it will only enhance people's interest in your product, and make their evaluation more fruitful.

 

We'd welcome anything you'd like to share. I'd suggest starting your own thread and posting up some more information.

 

Thanks,

[Glenn Coleman]

Thanks for the support, Colin. Perhaps starting a new thread for VoluMill is the right thing to do.

 

Have you had a chance to try VoluMill yet?

 

Thanks again,

[Colin Gilchrist]

I haven't had the opportunity yet, but I've seen some great results from it. I'll give Steve Kidd a call and go check it out soon.

 

From what I've seen I was really impressed. I think it is one of the most promising enhancements to Mastercam in years.

[Glenn Coleman]

Thanks. Please tell Steve I said "hello."

 

I'll be speaking at Cimtech's Tech Expo up your way on August 5. Will you be attending?

[Colin Gilchrist]

Absolutely, I'll be sure to mention you when I see him. Steve and I go way back, I used to work for him before I took the job at Boeing. I taught his Mastercam classes. I will be at the Tech Expo and I'm looking forward to meeting you.

[neurosis]

David,

 

Here is an example of what I am talking about. I really dont need to explain it again as if you go back and read Roger's posts he has done a very good job of explaining what the issue is. If this material were aluminum then it may not have been an issue In the stainless that just finished and the Titanium job that I am just getting started on, this is a deal breaker. The tool never makes it through that corner without exploding.

 

The red rectangle shown is my stock. You can see the tool cutting that corner and engaging far more material than I allowed in the stepover. I set the stepover @ .035.

 

 

I can create a sample file for you if you would like but this is a very simple profile that you could re-create in a couple of minutes path included.

 

[David Conigliaro CNC Software Inc.]

Welcome to the thread Glenn.

[David Conigliaro CNC Software Inc.]

Thanks Neurosis, I'll sketch something up