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Jump over bolt


TimW
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I suspect this is a fundamental function of Mastercam, but it's something I've not had to do before, so I'm hoping it's possible.

I have a fixture that holds several small parts in place with a button head screw. Very close to the head of the screw is some lettering engraved with a small ball nose endmill. I'd like to keep the retract as small as possible to speed up cycle time, around .015" or so. The solid file I'm working from (a Parasolid saved from SolidWorks) has the bolts in place.

My question is whether it's possible to keep the retract down, but have Mastercam identify the bolt head when it's in the way and only then retract enough to jump over it?

 

 

jump.jpg

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thanks for the picture.

The specific problem would be the jump between words where dog leg rapids can bite you (actually the screw lol). The easiest solution would be to have an operation for each word where the clearance plane (or better a REF Z location) is above the head and the rest of the retracts are low.

 Some Module-works surfacing toolpaths have holder collision detection and avoidance. There maybe a way to fake a toolholder an trick it into functioning... but that's some work.

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1 hour ago, TimW said:

I'll keep hunting for a solution. 

not sure what the problem is 'programming manually'.  Seems that could be knocked out in under 10 minutes.

FWIW, you can use the screw head models as fixture' models in verify to double check. No sure how reliable dog-leg rapid verification is in MC.

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The radial text around the bolt head requires chaining each line in the text manually, and with hundreds of variations of this part that isn't practical.  Window selecting just the upper or lower text doesn't work, as it wants to jump back across the bolt head to finish up missing lines.

Seems to me that since the model of the bolt is there, Mastercam should somehow be able to see it and route around it?

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17 minutes ago, TimW said:

The radial text around the bolt head requires chaining each line in the text manually, and with hundreds of variations of this part that isn't practical.  Window selecting just the upper or lower text doesn't work, as it wants to jump back across the bolt head to finish up missing lines.

Seems to me that since the model of the bolt is there, Mastercam should somehow be able to see it and route around it? 

keep focusing on what you think it should be instead of what is,  will just make your life difficult. I'm guilty of that too. ask anyone here.

I could have it done faster than reading and responding to this.

Leon and I have given you super fast solutions. It's your choice if you don't want the help.

If you want help wrapping your head around chaining, let us know.

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Here's a couple of ways to do it:

1. Use a Project Curve 5 axis path locked to 3 axis, window select the wireframe to project, and set Collision Control to retract tool along tool axis when it hits your bolt, which you add as check surfaces. This is the fastest and most flexible way to do this.

2. Use a 3D mill Finishing (Not Roughing) Project path to project your 2D contour op and add the bolt faces as avoidance geometry.

 

A 2D path is never going to have awareness of multiple height levels. You need to step up to a path that recognizes more than just 2D regions projected to a depth if you want to avoid the top of your screw dynamically.

Project Curves.PNG

Surface Project.PNG

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