I tried playing around with this a little. 2 point works good if there is no chamfer or radius involved. To get a good 2 point tool path with the cutter the same size as the groove, turn off the rough toolpath. In the finish tab change the finish step over to 0. I turned the wall backoff off also. With stock setup the tool will preposition in front of the stock. With the finish toolpath you get lead in. It doesn't give you all the control you were looking for but it does feed into the bottom a little more gently than a rapid. If you need a chamfer or a radius create it afterwards with a finish TP. to get the finish TP to work correctly you will need to go into the plunge paramters and change the tool width compensation to use tool width. This will allow you to cut on the back side of the insert for the chamfer or radius. Hope this helps.

What is the width of the groove you are cutting and the width of the tool? There are different tricks to approach a rough groove versus a finish groove. It sounds like you want to start your 1st finish wall on the bottom of the part and feed into the wall at a 45 deg angle at a feed rate of .003 from .03 away? Is that correct? There are more options to do what you want with a finish pass than with a rough pass as the rough pass does not offer lead in.

Turns out that where I start my chain affects how the tool orients to the part. By starting the chain on a surface the mill has to be normal to it works just fine.

Thanks for the tips thus far. I keep coming back trying different things with the same result.I have a 5 axiscurve that runs correctly (the tool is normal to the part). I believe the problem I'm having has something to do with the way M/C is comping the tool to the surface. It xxxx the end mill to the side, so rather than the end mill bottom running square to the part it xxxx it over what looks like 45 degrees.

I'm using swarf mill to pick up a wall with tip control on surfaces. I've been looking for the window that allows me to select what the part rotates around. The c view dialog box? I can't find it.

You guys have been very helpful in the past so here goes. I've got a pretty good tool path on a lathe part I'm doing 5 axis mill on. (I'm actually posting 4 axes). I can't seem to figure out how to get my tool "normal" (at a right angle) to the part. Any suggestions? Bill

AAhh World coordinate system. Still not sure how it affects the views. Bill

wcs is on top. I'm a rookie. WCS-World something something? I don't understand what wcs is. Bill

With lathe selected in toolbar states, in right side view with the c plane on right side when I dimension a point on my part in x it is radial. World view (axis marker in bottom left of screen) shows z and y. I think it should be x and y. Am I missing something? Bill

Thanks. Bill

I'd like to put a title block around a step drill I'm having made. I can't find one. I searched "title block" but found nothing to point me to where they are. Can anyone tell me where to find a title block in MR2? Thanks, Bill

MCamnut and Steve, Thanks. I found them on M/c.com Bill

In the past I have refered to the samples for help. I can't find my samples. Could I have lost them when I installed MR-2?

Testing new signature

Thank you Iskander teh Owl. I tried what you spelled out and it worked great. Great explanation!!! Thad-Work groups are just as Iskander described features or parts that will get used more than once in different places. PS-I will try in the future to include that I'm running X MR2---sorry.