Surface Rough Pocket

[sharles]

I put a picture in the ftp site here: ftp://[email protected]/Mastercam_forum/All_pictures_Jpg,gif,bmp's/ called pocket picture.

 

I've used this program lots, but today the operators began to complain about the diagonal lines where the tool drags across the part as it moves from one set of features to the next instead of picking the tool up and rapiding to the next area. Sometimes the tool will feed thru stock and other times it feeds across an area that has already been machined, but either way it's wasting time with those unnecessary feed moves and the operators are complaining that in the P20 billets we're cutting right now, it's also wearing/tearing up their inserts.

 

Is there any way to get rid of these moves? I had my gap settings at 300%, 1000%, 10% and 100% and nothing seems to force the cutter up to the rapid plane instead of dragging across it.

 

Any help would be apprectiated.

 

Scott

[Teh Bear without Brains kinda idiot]

Try this

Area clearance toolpaths

Area clearance toolpaths are designed to rough out cavities, pockets, or other areas that can be most efficiently machined with an inside to outside toolpath. They are generated from a set of surface profiles that describe the shape of your surfaces at different Z heights, plus a set of offset profiles that rough out stock as the tool moves away from the center.

 

Area clearance toolpaths maximize the amount of time that the tool is in contact with your part, and can result in significantly fewer retract moves than a standard pocket toolpath. Typically, the only retract moves will be when the tool is moving from one pocket or cutting region to another.

 

Area clearance toolpaths share most of the same parameters as core roughing toolpaths. The major difference is that area clearance toolpaths cut inside to outside, while core roughing cuts outside to inside.

 

 

 

If you have no problem entering from outside try this

Core roughing toolpaths are designed for machining cores which can be approached from the outside. They minimize the need for helical ramp moves or full-width cutting. Core roughing toolpaths are generated from a set of surface profiles that describe the shape of your surfaces at different Z heights, plus a set of offset profiles that let you rough out stock as you approach the part from the outside.

 

 

 

Core roughing passes can extend horizontally beyond your surface boundaries by a small distance; this ensures that all the material lying within the boundaries will be cleared.

 

Another important feature of core roughing is that Mastercam can change the machining strategy within the same operation if your part has, for example, a mixture of bosses and cavities. In these cases, Mastercam will cut the cavities inside to out (like an area clearance cutting pass), and machine the bosses from the outside like in the preceding picture. Use the Minimize burial option to have Mastercam automatically insert trochoidal loops in your toolpath in areas where the tool might be fully buried—for example, in the valley between two bosses.

 

The top set of profiles is not typically included in the toolpath, since Mastercam assumes that these lie on the very top of the block. To machine these profiles, set the Minimum depth on the Steep/Shallow page to a Z height above the top of your part.

 

 

BR

Alex

[KMartin]

Nice explanation Teh Bear . Cheers !

[Teh Bear without Brains kinda idiot]

Nice explanation Teh Bear . Cheers !

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

Not mine copy=paste rules

[Turf Toes]

It's on your Cut Parameter Page where the "Keep tool down within " callout is.

The higher your percentage, the more it stays down and drags along features.

Use a smaller percentage, then it feeds up and around other features to your next cut.

[Todd Tracey from Fastech]

Scott,

Turf Toes may have hit it. If that wasn't in please e-mail me at the office and I will see what I can find.

You could also put the file on our FTP using the Covert login or have Carl put it up there

Todd

[sharles]

Scott,

Turf Toes may have hit it. If that wasn't in please e-mail me at the office and I will see what I can find.

You could also put the file on our FTP using the Covert login or have Carl put it up there

Todd

 

Hey Todd,

 

I've been trying to dump a zip2go file on your ftp site for 2 days with no luck. I guess I'll ask Carl. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

Scott

[TERRYH]

Just a FYI Scott is useing MCX4, some of the options mentioned may not be avaliable to us. We haven't changed yet, been to busy to go through all the change over headaches.

[Müřlıń®]

Also make sure you have all your retracts enabled.

[Jayson Kramer]

I put a picture in the ftp site here: ftp://[email protected]/Mastercam_forum/All_pictures_Jpg,gif,bmp's/ called pocket picture.

 

I've used this program lots, but today the operators began to complain about the diagonal lines where the tool drags across the part as it moves from one set of features to the next instead of picking the tool up and rapiding to the next area. Sometimes the tool will feed thru stock and other times it feeds across an area that has already been machined, but either way it's wasting time with those unnecessary feed moves and the operators are complaining that in the P20 billets we're cutting right now, it's also wearing/tearing up their inserts.

 

Is there any way to get rid of these moves? I had my gap settings at 300%, 1000%, 10% and 100% and nothing seems to force the cutter up to the rapid plane instead of dragging across it.

 

Any help would be apprectiated.

 

Scott

I changed the picture from a BMP to a JPG for download speeds as the BMP was almost 4 megs and the same picture and size as a JPG was 500k

[Jayson Kramer]

It's on your Cut Parameter Page where the "Keep tool down within " callout is.

The higher your percentage, the more it stays down and drags along features.

Use a smaller percentage, then it feeds up and around other features to your next cut.

These setting are in" SHS Area Clearance" not in "Surface Rough Pocket". So he will have to change to this type path to follow these options.