Peon is right about the horizontal arc entry/exit parameters on the linking page. Too much there and you'll find yourself with gouges. But, the gouges on the vertical walls aren't really gouges, their probably the fact that the tool is tracing up those walls to the next cut. To eliminate this, you need to change the percentage of the tool diameter on the Keep tool down within on the Cut parameter page. Too big of a percentage causes the tool to trace up the walls to the next cut. Lower that percentage and the tool drives up and over these walls to the next cut.

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.

There is another way that I've used to work around this problem. Create a ghosted drill point somewhere off the part and use the tool you want as the drill with your toolholder picked. Put that in front of the operation in question, and when you go to verify, the toolholder will show up cleanly and then can be adjusted accordingly!

Yeah, I got the same message. Haven't been on in years cause I got out of the industry for a while. But, I'm back in it now and I really love all the new HS toolpaths that have been developed.

Man, you guys all need a course in conversions. QuickMike was the only one that got it right. 1 micron = 40 millionths eg. .00004

Bill, haven't talked to you in awhile, Loyd Harris from Hofmann Tool in St. Peters, Mo. I too would like a copy of that when it comes out. [email protected]

way 2 cool!! now, does anyone know of a site where the machines are modeled up? could come in very handy when using verification software.

Me 2

RAJ, Only way I see is to boundary around each block, starting with the highest and restricting your Z level to the next highest. Lot of work, but it can be done.

Why do that, when you can just customize and use your toolbar at top. If your's isn't showing, hit Alt B to get it up!!

I use solids everyday for design & machining. In my estimation, there's no comparison. The solids are cleaner and you don't have to worry about whether you picked all the surfaces to machine with!!! Most of my customers all send in native files, which are already solid or parasolid files. I do feel like we are headed into the step field.

Larry, I went thru the same things that your going thru about 2.5 years ago. We looked at all the major players, Mori-Seiki, Makino, Haas, Okuma, some other non-brand names. We looked extinsively in the look-ahead features that would control the cornering, the accel/decell of each, the top end spindle speeds, feed rates, networking capabilities, memory, etc. In the end, we decidied on the Mori SV-500B. It clearly outperformed all the others, except Makino, but was cheaper by about 25%, which is really what your bean counters are going to be concerned with too! Now, since then, we purchased a Fidia out of Italy, which does everything that all the others are claiming with some additions. It has a bi-directional indexable spindle head on it, plus it has a Windows based controller on it. It can't do continuios 5 axis movements, but it gets us going in that direction. BTW, I do die-cast molds with some being very deep. Now this machine can keep my tools at a short length and still get to the depths I need to completely hard machine the cavities with no need for all the EDM'ing and polishing. Anyway, back to your topic, I believe if you choose the Mori, you'll be more than satisfied with your decision, the Fanuc control has all the options you need to really take advantage of most high-speed machining needs!! [ 09-20-2001: Message edited by: Loyd Harris ] [ 09-20-2001: Message edited by: Loyd Harris ]

Tom, All you have to do is put an asterik B-4 the pxout & pyout blocks in your post. That will always force the post to output the X & Y coordinates even though they may stay the same. [ 09-19-2001: Message edited by: Loyd Harris ]

Jay, That's not suppose to play a factor anymore! Now that being said, I still analyze and set all my surface normals. Just old habits never being broke, I guess!!!

Michael, I don't know if your aware of this, but there is a Thread Mill toolpath now under circle toolpaths that really does away with the thelix chook!!

Bryan, I use Tool Life Management on my Fidia with some degree of success. What I had to do was modify my post so that I had a integrity check of the tool every 1000 lines of code, I just started at that point, can be any number of lines. The only problem I have with this method is that if the tool has broken down between these checks, the machine calls up another tool in the family, but begins from the current check, instead of backing up to the last known good check. This is all performed with a laser BTW.

Tony, I do the same thing, then come back with surface contour finish. Don't have a problem with verification, as there are no higher ups to look over my shoulder. Then when I post it out, I edit the comment line where the cutter dia. is back to the original size, so as to really confuse the operators!!!

Tony, On your Extreme Boundary thought, how about just being able to go inside, on, or beyond a boundary by the dia of the cutter. And, Lets have some sort of Plate Manager in Solids where we have libraries made up and all you have to is pick the solid entities and the library to do all the hole work automatically, including any relief, threads, reamed, c/b's, etc. Just my .02

After you've chained your pocket & islands, all you have to do is either pick a point inside or outside, or just type in a starting location! BTW, This forum ROCKS!!!!

Where's that website. BTW, it only stopped working with Win2000. It used to work with NT and such!!

Thanks James, I've already got my dealer on it. Just thought I try a little action on the board!!

Hi Guys, New to the forum and could really use some help on finding post processors for the Fidia C3 controllers. Anybody out there using a Fidia K165 with the 3+2 axis would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advanced.