Feature Based Milling and Drilling - Do you use it?

[Rotary Ninja]

I am going through the Beginning Mastercam Course at eapprentice.net. The last assignment is FBM and FBD. I saw this when it was first introduced, but have never used it. Now that I have seen it in action I have to wonder does anyone use it? If you do... why?

[uncle_dolan]

Hi Ninja!

 

FBM I have never used/trusted/had time for...but i guess if an 8 yr old can use it............

 

I do use FBD To get tool planes/axes for my holes. It works great on 4 axis / 5 axis parts that have a lot of holes!, probably takes me about 3 minutes to go through it and get a result that I like, and that could be for hundreds of holes. Sometimes I have to play around with it a little to get the result I am after, but after FBD has generated the spotting cycles for me, and I am happy with parameters etc, I will just copy and paste to get my peck drilling cycles. I have never used it for any more than this, but there are options for tapping / milling / counterboring as well. Generally I dont rtust things that "give you something for nothing", it seems too simple and nearly like cheating! but it has proven reliable for me! was a PITA to start with, but once i started to understand it, she was apples.Keen to hear other ppls experiences!

 

Brendan

[Rotary Ninja]

We have a customer that supplies models and a DXF. The DXF sometimes (I should say usually) do not match the model. And I have seen many instances where the tapped holes are not modeled with the correct drill size. So I could never trust this feature, at least when it pertains to this customer. Although, after verifying every hole size on a model this may come in handy. They just love to have us make a part full of holes using every metric tap in our tap drawer.

[gcode]

If you have a nice family of parts and take the time to set up a good template for them

FBM can really speed things up.. but since I work in a job shop, family of parts are no where to be seen

and I haven't used it much.

[uncle_dolan]

And I have seen many instances where the tapped holes are not modeled with the correct drill size.

 

Yeah i see this a lot also...another reason why I only use it for spot drilling

[GnoGueyJose]

I do use it for setting up planes if I have a bunch, other than that... It just does not fit the parts I generally see.

[Newbeeee™]

Never got around to using either here, and never had the time to play with it.

I think Derek posted that he played all weekend once to get his head around and understand it and then got some reasonable results.

One day I'll play with it because for quick (read simple 1 off type) parts, it seems the way to go to me.

[Rotary Ninja]

I ususlly just draw my own gnomon with lines parallel to all my work planes and create my views off of that. That only takes me a few minutes to do.

[DavidB]

^^^ If that is a solid create a WCS off a solid face, no need to draw geometry.

 

If it's a surfaced model create two lines on the surface edges. Then create WCS from Geometry, pick the X axis first then the Y axis, done

[Rotary Ninja]

Yes, I know that. I was just giving an example. A lot of the parts I make have compound angles and no geometry that will give the correct results when picking directly on the model. So this is the method I use in that instance.

 

We make a lot of 1/4 scale suspension parts for wind tunnel models. There isn't a straight edge on them

[gcode]

I use Dynamic Planes alot.

Once you learn to use this feature it is very useful

[Jayson Kramer]

Like Gcode if you the Dynamic planes and WCS this make that kind of stuff much easier to setup. I want to add to the Eapprentice file more of the Dynamic use. will do a free office hours soon on this.

The FBM and FBD have there place for certain types of parts. Most of what I do they do not. but once in a while. I hope to see more out of it over the next few years.

[The Chipmaker]

I only use it to create geometry points at bottom of blind holes. It creates too many operations. I than pull in a drilling operation(s) and regenerate them. Other than that....crapolla!

[Rotary Ninja]

Like Gcode if you the Dynamic planes and WCS this make that kind of stuff much easier to setup. I want to add to the Eapprentice file more of the Dynamic use. will do a free office hours soon on this.

The FBM and FBD have there place for certain types of parts. Most of what I do they do not. but once in a while. I hope to see more out of it over the next few years.

 

Sounds cool. Will be looking forward to some insight into these features.

[spade117]

I use Dynamic Planes alot.

Once you learn to use this feature it is very useful

 

I concur.

[Smit]

Don't use FBM at all. I've found FBD to be useful when I have a whole bunch of drainage type holes with varying start and end points. It does create a rather messy program but saves a lot of time.