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Suggested Technique for Using The Retract Surface User Interface in
Release 2001.
This Suggested Technique describes how to use the retract surface
functionality and demonstrates the user interface. The retract
functionality is available for 4-5 Axis milling and allows for retractions
normal to the surface being machined. The planar retract is still
available for 3 Axis milling NC Sequences. A 4 Axis Straight Cut Surface
Milling NC Sequence will be used to demonstrate the new retract
functionality of a cylinder and a sphere.
Note: As of Release 2000i2 Conventional Milling has been renamed to
Straight Cut Surface Milling.
Procedure
- Create a 4 Axis Straight Cut
Surface Milling NC Sequence. In this example the LACE_OPTION parameter
is set to No to produce numerous visible retracts. The NC sequence
toolpath would appear as in Figure 1 when using the traditional planar
retract plane.
Figure 1
- While in the NC Sequence, select
Retract and Done from the SEQ SETUP menu to produce the
new Retract Selection menu, see Figure 2.
Figure 2
- First the Cylinder option
will be demonstrated. Select Cylinder which makes the Retract
Cylinder options available, see Figure 3. Using the Set Cylinder
Axis pull down menu, the reference datum axis can be created using
the selections Default, Select Axis, Create Axis,
Select Csys or Create Csys. In this example the datum axis
is created at the intersections of DTM1 and DTM2 using the Two
Planes option to create the datum axis.
Figure 3
- The radius of retract cylinder
can be entered or can be offset from an existing or created datum point
by selecting the radio button Cylinder Radius or Offset From
Datum Point from the Specify Cylinder Radius section. In this
case a value of 12 is input as the cylinder's radius. The Preview
menu can be used to make sure the retract cylinder looks correct, see
Figure 4. The resulting toolpath would appear as in Figure 5.
Figure 4
Figure 5
- Now the retract option will be
demonstrated using the Sphere option. Selecting Sphere
will produce the Retract Sphere options, see Figure 6.
Figure 6
- The Sphere Center can be a
coordinate system or a datum point. The default option is the Machine
CSYS of the active operation. The CSYS can also be selected or created
by using the Set Sphere Center pull down menu. In this case the
CSYS is created. The radius of the sphere can be entered or defined by
offsetting from a datum point. Again the Preview option can be
used to view the retract sphere, see Figure 7. The resulting toolpath is
shown in Figure 8.
Figure 7
Figure 8
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