Cycling Individual Flowlines In Toolpath

[Mick]

I think I might be missing something obvious here :/ I have circular cavity, and I want to machine the walls with Flowline. When I enter the Flowline parameters, some of the surfaces flowlines aren't in the same direction as the others, and as a result, the toolpath wont generate. Is there any way of cycling individual vectors? I looked, but can't find anything :/

[Mark Lovelace]

Mick,

 

What has made you decide that flowline is the way to go? Is it a complex surface? You say it is a circular pocket, in which case I would probably recommend a simple surface contour. One nice thing with the contour is that you can keep running around the surface in a constant direction, just spiraling down. If you can describe your pocket better, I might be able to help.

 

By the way, I use flowline a lot, but usually on open surfaces, rather than 'circular' ones.

[Mick]

Mark,

 

Thanks for the reply. I chose flowline, since I could use the spiral pattern, so the tool is constantly cutting, and wont leave a "transition" line down the side of the cavity. Contour would be fine, but there are several flat sections, and I thought Flowline handle it better.

I could break the cavity up into sections, and use contour for the walls, and use parallel or flowline for the flats, but its my belief, due to the shape, that Flowline should handle it alright.

If I get a chance, I'll upload to the FTP

 

Regards,

 

Mick

[TREV]

hello mick,

i think you could probably get rid of the transition marks on your cavity if you finish surf contour and in the parameters use high feed setting so that allows a loop in and out. i have found that will make for better surface finish on final part

hope this helps

trevor

[Mick]

Trev,

 

Thats a good point, and yes, I use that all the time. I guess I liked the idea of Flowline for the toolpath, but maybe its really not that good a solution to it :/

This is one of these jobs that I've spent too much time looking at....Especially on a Friday afternoon, when the taste of beer is looming

[jeff]

mmmm beer!

[Roger Peterson]

Mick, what version of Mastercam are you using? If you want to use contour use the high speed loops and a start length of at least .050". You will have almost no transition marks and they will be spread out around your surfaces instead of in a line up the side. 3d project blend is also an option with the transition motion set to smooth the wittness lines you talk about will be much less noticable.

 

 

Good luck and let us know what worked out.

[Mick]

Roger,

 

I'm using V9SP1...The high speed loops are the option I would normally use, but I wanted to finish the flat areas as well as the walls...As it turns out, thats what I used...Surface Finish contour, using the high speed loops, and then I did a second path that machined the flats...

However, I thought I would have been able to use FLowline to machine it all in one operation..

Oh well...

Weekend now

[Charles Davis]

Can you recreate the shape as a single surface? Turn the revolve profiles into a single entity (create, spline, curves) and use this profile to create a revolved surface.

[Mick]

Good point Charles. That would certainly be one way to do it. Interesting though, that the Flowline option *should* have worked. Ah well, the fickle nature of computers

[Rick Damiani]

quote:

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When I enter the Flowline parameters, some of the surfaces flowlines aren't in the same direction as the others, and as a result, the toolpath wont generate.

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Flowline is one of the surface paths that depends on correctly defined surface normals. If the normals are not all pointing in the same direction, the flowlines will point in different directions and the toolpath will fail.

[P_Scott]

Mick,

 

In V9, Mastercam has a toolpath which Roger mentioned in his reply. The Surface-Finish-Project-Blend 3D is really more efficient and "cleaner" than Flowline, while accomodating nearly any shape of surfaces. The best part is that it will not require surface normals to be going in the same direction. Check it out. HTH