surface finish flowline ?

[mark l]

I am in need of help please, I am machining a tapered wall on a mold, the wall is about 1 inch tall and on about a 5deg. taper, the flowline toolpath seems to work and look the best except that it does not come all the way to the top of the surface, I don't have any depth limits set so I really don't get, I have not used this toolpath much so I may be missing something obvious.

Any help would be appreciated. Oh buy the way I am using Mastercam V9.0sp1, thanks

[Jack Mitchell]

Mark I,

 

This is not an unusual question but its response requires another question to you.

 

The floor must be surfaced. – This will allow avoidance.

The top must be surfaced. – This will allow machining past this area.

 

I realize your argument and do indeed appreciate the difficulty.

Surfacing requires other surfaces for machining purposes or for avoidance purposes.

 

I am at a loss to explain this further to you; perhaps another forum member could be of more help?

I believe your error to be the actual radius of the bull or ball nose cutter.

 

Another thought would be to place in on the ftp and await a result.

 

Regards, Jack

 

[ 02-26-2003, 06:23 PM: Message edited by: Jack Mitchell ]

[MLee]

Jack, you are probably right, but I have tried to machine more than one surface at a time but sometimes the cuts go opposite on two surfaces and therefore fails to produce a toolpath, I did a search on this forum about this and if I remember right it said I have to set the normals? all the same way. While I learned how to do this in the initial training class I took, it is like everything else if I don't do it again real often I forget, I tried to figure it out the other day could not so maybe tommorow I'll try it again,

 

I did see somebody say and it might have been you, that the surface, project, blend, 3d works better, I tried that right before I left work, but could not figure that one out (have never programmed that toolpath before).

 

As far as posting it to the ftp site, I am afraid I can not, it seems my company thinks there is some kind of conspiracy theory and everybody is trying to steel what we do, we have these STATEMENT OF NON-DISCLOSURES. Funny thing about that, my dealer has signed one but he is really just a dealer while he did help me at first he has not been much help lately, I called CNC Software, for some help one time, they said "send us the model" I said "sign this statment" they said "nope", go figure.

[MLee]

Oh yeah by the way in case there is any confusion I am Mark l, I registerd at home becouse I could not remember my User details from where I registerd at work.

[Fig sign]

quote:

---

if I remember right it said I have to set the normals? all the same way. While I learned how to do this in the initial training class I took, it is like everything else if I don't do it again real often I forget, I tried to figure it out the other day could not so maybe tommorow I'll try it again,

 

 

---

Analyze->surfaces->set normals

[Alan S]

quote:

---

the flowline toolpath seems to work and look the best except that it does not come all the way to the top of the surface

---

I have had the same problem with this method of machining and the way I get around it is by extending the surface by the radius of the cutter.

[SVO]

Without seeing the geometry I guess I only have one thought. I do know that the ball tool will only go as far as it needs to. Meaning the side of the ball will cut to the top of the angle, while the tip of the ball will still be below the top of the surface. Hope this helps.

 

Dan

[Mark H]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but doesnt flowline have a bug in which it cuts too much on the bottom? Or does the problem only occur when using negative stock? Has this been corrected in the current (latest) patch?

 

Please read this thread for more info. (See Greg McKay's response in that threadtopic)

 

Sorry for redirecting (Hijacking) this threadtopic.

 

[ 02-27-2003, 08:03 AM: Message edited by: Mark H ]

[mark l]

Thanks everybody, but with the deadline I'm under I think I'll just go back to the old faithfull finish parrellel, and let the mold shop polish out the tool marks

[mark l]

Yes I read the same thread, I am not cutting a neg. stock on this mold, but by the way, I did try what the tread said and did not see anything wrong?

[Fred from Université de Sherbrooke]

MarkI,

If you put your file on the ftp we could show how to use surf. project blend. It's a very good toolpath...

[mark l]

See my reply above.. sorry I can't, the thing with this toolpath is it seems to be asking me to select a tool boundry or something like that, is this required?

[mark l]

Oh wow, I figured out how to use the finish project toolpath and it looks great, the only problem is on one of the curved surfaces it looks to be a little faceted, I have tried playing with the filter tolorances, but still no fix as of yet. Any ideas on that?