At the end of the line the tool is tilted and leaves a corner of the material on the part In the middle of the line the tool is oriented as it should be and makes a clean edge

Hi all, So I have pretty much a rectangle with a 2 degree draft angle Ideally I'd use 3d curve with tilt and select the bottom curve, but when I add depth cuts It doesn't take into account the angle it just offsets it upward. So when I try and make a swarf toolpath to use depth cuts, It looks like it will work but It's not as simple as a curve toolpath would be. When it's moving along the edges it does sort of a rocking transition where in the middle of the edge it will be straight up and down (at 2 degrees) but at the end it's already transitioning into the curve

Hi all, I'm wondering if there's a way to make a helix bore toolpath that does not move to the center of the circle for the retract. It doesn't make much sense to me if I am cutting a circle and then as soon as it finishes it goes full depth into my scrap I can use contour ramp but is there just a way to take it out of helix bore??

Hi all, Just a little confused on how transform works between planes. I have a part on a sheet in the upper left, and I have that same part on a different sheet in the lower right. If I translate the toolpath with the tool plane method and origin selected, the origin changes to the correct sheet, but the part stays in the upper left instead of moving to the lower right.

Hi all, Something strange happened to most of my files that i just noticed this morning. Most of the toolpaths that i created as a 'simple drill' toolpath were converted to drill/counterbore toolpaths. in the parameters when i go to 'cycle' drill/counterbore is selected with values in each of the boxes, and simple drill is not even an option in the cycle drop down any more. Has anyone had experience with this? Thanks, Lucas

So i split my model in half but i also had to split all of my toolpaths in two. Now i'm able to have an op that has stepovers at 0 and 180, or 180 and 360. While this sort of works I would really like to find a way to do it with only one toolpath.

maybe you could take a look and give me some tips? the start point doesn't give you many options to play with stepover at c0.mcam

Yep, it worked great. and yeah the roughing toolpaths don't have tilt. Next question kind of somewhat not really related: i'm using a morph toolpath to machine the sides of the cylinder, while keeping a 45 degree tilt away from the surface. that means each time my tool makes a full 360, so does my c-axis, and i don't have unlimited c. originally I wanted to use a zig-zag pattern and have my tool start at c0 and end at c360, then just reverse so i wouldn't have to have a c-unwind. i used the 'start point' option and while it starts where i need it to, the stepover is offset and it's at a very different point at the bottom of the cylinder. Is there a way to get the tool to start at c0?

three to five ax- conversion does it. thx.

hi all, Was wondering if there is a specific toolpath to use for roughing material with holder tilt. or a finishing toolpath that has a roughing option? i have basically a 3" dia cylinder that is 10" tall and i need to cut it out of a 5x5x10 block, i have a rotary toolpath for finishing but can't figure out how to get a tool down there to rough it

It's just one solid curve to one wireframe chain, i don't get the difference. if it were a few solid curves linked i would get it because the solid could have gaps on the corners. also i don't know if it's that it's not seeing the chain as on the drive surface, and if so would i have to create a wireframe curve as well as surface from solid? what would be the difference? I did fix it.. used approximate stepover instead of exact. Haven't messed with this feature much not exactly sure what it does. Thanks

variable radius will combine the endpoints for each line, so if you try and change the radius where the two fillets meet, it will just change them both. i tried adding points 2mm from each endpoint to make it blend but it just wasn't the same

Hello, I've got a morph toolpath that I used a .04" stepover value on for the first part. I'm now wanting to take it down to .02, and can't get mcam to process it. it gets about 60% through processing and then i get message ID 11521 - something went wrong during mapping - are input curves on mesh? I figure it could process at .04 what's different at .02 or .01? I'm using a solid, selecting faces for drive surfaces and solid edges for curves... Anyone have experience with this? Thanks

This did work, definitely an abstract shape. I ended up doing something different, but this is a valuable process for the future, thank you. What i ended up doing was I just made the first radius, and then made the second one match the first, and the third match the second and so on. i went up to 6 decimal places on some. this means the fillets aren't equal on most of the edges... but at least they're smooth.

I guess i was expecting a wedge shape that blends the two. if the fillets stopped at a 90 degree i would think i'd have a nice triangle left. I will try and get it to do what i'm picturing by sweep cut

Hi all, I've remade a surface model into a solid part, gotten pretty far into it, and now i'm running into a problem with filleting the edges. It seems like if i fillet one single edge, mcam extends the fillet along the line, not along the construction plane. The result is a bottom edge that lines up, but the top edge has a gap. Could i get some help making this smooth? Thanks FILLET.mcam

number value doesn't evenly space on splines?

Just FYI - 'copy after' will allow it to regenerate properly. Still loses the connection pretty often for some reason

Have one version saved i guess right before they lose their connection - i open it, see the nesting toolpaths that need regenerated, regenerate them once and it seems like they regenerate, but the toolpaths don't show up when clicked on. regenerate one more time and get 'error regenerating toolpath'

if someone could tell me the correct way to do this i thought i had dumbed it down enough but i guess not.............. I open each of my sldprt in mcam, get them oriented at top wcs, delete all other geometry than solid. create contour around outside. create new mcam to nest all the parts. nest each part individually because 'calculate' all sucks. get everything real nice and close to fitting on my sheet - regenerate my nesting toolpaths and get 'error regenerating toolpath' go into parameters and see the part still in there go to original operation imported when nesting was created, click on it, see the toolpath try and regenerate original operation and lose the toolpath. rechain toolpath to original solid, regenerate original toolpath, go to nesting toolpath and no parts are defined. is there any way to do this correctly!? to describe how i make my toolpath nesting / why create toolpath nesting, go into options and select 'tool center' and 'attach geometry' add toolpath from file gives me the one toolpath and associated name this creates one original solid at origin with just the one original contour toolpath, as well as solid copies amount/location that i want them then i can create the toolpaths/geometry that i need from solid copies can't use geometry nesting because it doesn't work with solids?!

Thanks! I am a little confused because i don't know why it would read the surfaces when opening verify. the error message went away when i had all my levels turned off, i usually have a 'curve all' level turned on when i open verify, because that's the only geometry i've seen that gets incorporated in the verify. It would make sense if i was using a solid as my stock and that had problems but i was just using rectangular stock on 'all entities' Also noticed for the first time when i was selecting all entities for stock it would turn on my toolpaths and use them as entities? does verify import surfaces from my model? are they a different color?

hi all, got this error this morning for the first time when running verify. 'a surface could not be triangulated, please check all surfaces' verify opens and runs fine, just want to know where this comes from and if it could cause further problems. Thanks!

Well unfortunately it is not just a rectangular shape, so i don't think parallel would work I was able to get what i wanted by offsetting my bottom surface 2mm at a time and creating intersecting curves with my rectangle, then used regular 3d contour on the curves. Works, not great. CONTOUR.mcam

Hello, I am having trouble finding the right toolpath to do what I want. basically i have a rectangle with a camber to it, and different thicknesses. the 2d contour path set to 3d almost does what i want, but i can't take into account the thickness variation of my part. Since i only have the bottom curve, i set the maximum thickness, and it makes a cut path all the way around my part at the highest point - which gives me a lot of air cuts where my part is not as thick. I've tried the 3d contour and waterline toolpaths but only get 2d z-ax cuts instead of the tool following the camber of the part.

Hi all, Had a couple questions on some options with this toolpath. First thing, can't seem to get the limiting angle to work currently, whether i put it at 1 or 89 i see no difference - though the flat detection does work. I've tried this with a small z stepdown as well as a small 3d stepdown Also was looking for preferred ways to start this toolpath - i like to start with my z stepdown at a small value and my 3d at a large value, that way it creates a sort of raster toolpath that is less complex than the 3d stepover. The problem is this does leave bigger gaps in shallow areas, so i then decrease my 3d value just until i get toolpaths where i want them, and i use the filter to remove small passes / small segments - i really like this feature. I'm wondering if there is a way to generate more z passes rather than reducing my 3d stepover value. I'd just rather use only z passes because my machine usually has trouble with the 'transitions' on 3d cut paths