3d contouring

[bigprody]

I work at a die shop and do not do too much 3d stuff but when I do it is almost always electrodes. I just ran a trode last night that is for a form punch that is about 3/8 dia and some what oblong bullet shaped at the tip. I used spiral for the finish pass with a 1/8 ball and was very happy with how it turned out except for the very center where it comes to a tip and the spirals are becoming rather small. I would like to slow down the feed for the last 5% of the cuts to improve finish. How do you mold guys handle this? Edit the code? Use 2 separate ops? I run a 20 year old Matsuura it is a great piece of equipment but I am worried that if I reposition for a 2nd op it might leave a blemish. Just looking for a bit of guidance here wondering what others do.

[Colin Gilchrist]

After you've generated a toolpath that you are happy with, (the motion looks good, and seems like what you want) you can use the "Toolpath Editor" to make a feedrate change anywhere inside the toolpath.

 

When you do this, it is a "manual" change to the toolpath, so the toolpath then becomes "locked" by Mastercam. If you need to go back and make a change to the path, when you regenerate it, those "manual" changes will be lost. You'll have to go back into the Toolpath Editor and apply the same manual change that you made last time.

 

The nice thing though is that this edit is included inside the program you are writing in Mastercam. If you came back a year later and re-posted the NC code, your feedrate change is still made...

[bigprody]

Thanks Colin, that is what I was looking for. I hate making edits to the code, they get lost when you repost and never are included if the part is made at a later date.

[Colin Gilchrist]

Yeah, using the "Toolpath Editor" is a way for you to keep those "manual" edits located inside the Mastercam file itself. Unfortunately, the changes made are a "one shot" deal. There is an option with the toolpaths like Contour to use "Change at Point"  (Go into the Chain Manager, and right-click on a chain) to make the same "on-the-fly" adjustments like changing spindle speed, or making a clamp jump (editing the Z depth at a certain entity). If you use Change at Point to make the edits, then you can regenerate the toolpath and those changes will persist. It is pretty nice if you have to go back and make an adjustment to have those changes stick. This doesn't happen when you use the Toolpath Editor though, so be sure you've got the 3D toolpath dialed in to your liking, before making the final edits with the Toolpath Editor...

[toddm]

maybe try the hi-feed option as well