flowine direction on surfaces

[Thee Rickster ™]

X5 MU1

 

i pick 8 surfaced in a flowline path.

3 of then have the direction one way and the other 5 are opposite.

 

How do i edit the 3 surfaces (UV direction i am guessing) to match the other five.

 

That way I can use 1 tool path to cut all 8 surfs.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Rick

[Hardmill]

With a flowline path it isnt gonna happen.

 

try sumfin else would be my guess.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PEACE

[Thee Rickster ™]

What makes the decision for the flow line path on the cut direction?

 

i would think the makeup of the surface gives it the cut direction

[Hardmill]

No really sure. gotta wait for one of the geek to chime in.

Send me your file and we'll try to find a solution for you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PEACE

[Thee Rickster ™]

Dang, I can do it in stupid somethingelsecam, but when

MC imports the surfaces it randomly changes the direction....

[Teh Bear without Brains kinda idiot]

3 of then have the direction one way and the other 5 are opposite.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and yet you can use rib cut

 

 

All of Mastercam's flowline toolpaths include a Rib cut option that lets you create a single cutting pass down the middle of the selected drive surfaces. This can be very useful for part features like ribs or flanges:

 

 

Mastercam automatically disables other flowline parameters that do not apply when creating a single pass, such as stepover and the cut control distance.

 

Use the Resolution field to control how many "slices" Mastercam makes perpendicular to the cutting direction as it calculates the toolpath.

 

sometimes rib cut is good enough to solve your problems

[Festus]

with moldplus addon you can change the direction of flow....am keeping fingers crossed that X6 will maybe have this capacity? are you using 3 or 5 axis flow?

[Thee Rickster ™]

I just checked and there is a newer MoldPlus release then what I am using

and it contains the 5 axis.

[Colin Gilchrist]

Rickster,

 

Use Surface Finish Blend!!!

 

Blend is much better than flowline at doing multiple surfaces. You need to create two chains of geometry. One on each edge of the surfaces you want to cut. These chains create the "flow" direction for the toolpath.

 

Try it, you will like it.

 

Can you do a "Save Some" and save just those 8 surfaces and send me the MCX-5 file? I'll do a couple example toolpaths (to show the difference between the 'across' and 'along' settings, and send it back to you...

[Jayson Kramer]

When I run into issues like you are talking about Rick I go with Colin and use blend . really nice path.

[Festus]

Rickster,

 

Use Surface Finish Blend!!!

 

Blend is much better than flowline at doing multiple surfaces. You need to create two chains of geometry. One on each edge of the surfaces you want to cut. These chains create the "flow" direction for the toolpath.

 

Try it, you will like it.

 

Can you do a "Save Some" and save just those 8 surfaces and send me the MCX-5 file? I'll do a couple example toolpaths (to show the difference between the 'across' and 'along' settings, and send it back to you...

 

What about a 5-axis scenario? Often use the morph toolpath here, but it gets very frustrating. In my mind all i want to do is to use a command like surface normal to flip the flow of the surface.

[Thee Rickster ™]

Colin I'll post a pic in about 1/2 hour on the surfaces that i used the flowline on.

 

Now does this 'surface finish blend' allow and endmill travel up and down a 1deg

drafted surface and stop at the bottom like the flowline, and let you a bunch of different

surface at the same time?

 

Jay, do i have to create a surface finish blend for each surface?

[mayday]

It will cut any surface it see's that lay between the curves. You can get quite inventive using this path. Just keep the blend chains going in the same direction. they dont have to be parallel. I free hand them in above the model exactly where I want the tool to go

[Thee Rickster ™]

Ahh so you have to use a boundary to controll the path on each surface. alot of extra work

for what i need done

 

Thats where i like the flow line, i just need the toolpath direction on each surface going the same way,

up and down.

[mayday]

No, not a boundry at all. 2 lines or 2 curves is it or a point and a circle. The tool center will cut what ls between them

[Thee Rickster ™]

I need the entire surface cut wes, so does it also work with out the 2 curves?

 

Here is my fix thanks to Mold Plus update

.

 

 

.

click all surfaces and done.

[?Mark]

Blend is great as stated, but not very much so on steep surfaces.

To answer your original question, I'm "almost" sure the direction is tied to the way the original surface was created. What you're looking at now is an end product, most likely a combination of trimmed surfaces and there is not much (almost nothing) you can do to control cut direction.

+1 to blend (but not on steep surfaces)

I'm intrigued by what Alex suggested

[mayday]

Mold Plus is nice, I have it also. finish blend needs 2 chains to work.

[Thee Rickster ™]

Colin, shoot me your email addy.

 

I will send you the geometry you se in the pick above and color the said surfaces in brown

there were 6 not 8.

 

send it back with the surface finish blend paths

 

dont use beta use X5 MU1

 

Thanks man

[Thee Rickster ™]

Mark @ ppg,

 

Festus nailed it, MoldPlus(5axis tool kit) like Scarfcam and Symatron, allows you to do it easily.

These are 1 deg(89 deg for you metric folk) vertical (draft)surfaces.

 

Thanks Festus, its a big time saver using mold plus.

other wise you just have to create a few extra flow line paths to

get it done.

 

Colin, i would like to see the surface finish blend in action, if you still

want to stab the cat.

 

cheers

Rick

[Festus]

glad i could return the favor and help someone else for a change!

[Thee Rickster ™]

Bout time.....

 

J/K, Thanks!

[?Mark]

with moldplus addon you can change the direction of flow....am keeping fingers crossed that X6 will maybe have this capacity? are you using 3 or 5 axis flow?

 

What kind of control do you have in moldplus over direction of flow?

tia

[Festus]

What kind of control do you have in moldplus over direction of flow?

tia

 

this thread...see picture!

[Tyler Robertson]

Dammit - I saw "Rickster" and "flowline direction" and knew I had some good news for him.. late on the help. GJ Festus