Tool containment

[jamjo]

Hello ,

I am a graduate student at Iowa State University

and I totally new to Mastercam and this forum

In fact this is my first new post on this site.

 

I doing my research on custom machining of certain

aluminum parts for which I need some thing

like a polygonal tool containment boundary.

 

does anyone have any information if Master cam

allows a custom shaped tool containment boundary which can help only a specific areas of parts to be machined and leaving rest of it untouched.

 

I Would appreciate any kind of help offered

 

Thanks

Ash

[gcode]

Draw the polygon and chain it as a containment boundry

[Colin Gilchrist]

Your tool containment boundary can be any shape, but it must be a 2D flat chain, and that chain should be in the same XY plane as your toolplane in Mastercam.

[Ocean Lacky™]

quote:

---

but it must be a 2D flat chain

---

No it doesn't. I use 3D containment all day long for surfacing.

 

Give it a try!

[alma999]

Ocean Lacky +1

[jamjo]

How can I try 3D containment boundary..??

 

 

Thanks

Ash

[Colin Gilchrist]

Interesting. I'll check it out. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't a 3D chain still only limit the motion of the tool in XY, relative to the toolplane?

[Thad]

quote:

---

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't a 3D chain still only limit the motion of the tool in XY, relative to the toolplane?

---

Colin, I believe it still contains in the XY plane, but it saves the trouble of squashing the geometry and the potential of having to clean up the resulting geometry.

 

Thad

[MotorCityMinion]

Jamjo, Welcome to the forum.

 

If your machining surfaces/solids, be sure to select all the features near the chain that fall into a perimeter equal to the radius of the cutter. You can also select everything in the model, but this can significantly increase calculation times. This minimizes or eliminates the risk of gouging adjacent features. Also pay attention to the options for outside, on center, inside, additional offset, and tip comp.

 

 

3d chains used in SF Blend quite a bit. I only project the chain if I need to modify the chain geo., usually to take out sharp corners which seems to help in smoothing out the tool path.

 

[ 03-13-2010, 09:23 AM: Message edited by: MotorCityMinion ]

[jamjo]

Thanks a lot to you all guys out there..!!

 

Ash

[Midwest]

ISU............

 

 

j/k

 

 

 

 

Go Hawks

 

 

[mctygrys]

Is there a command to offset the existing 3d geometry by the dimension of the cutter to use as the containment? I have a bunch of nested objects with just enough space in between them for the cutter plus a little.

[mctygrys]

BTW RE my post I am using MCX4