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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
  1. 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.

    mil1166a

    Figure 1


  2. While in the NC Sequence, select Retract and Done from the SEQ SETUP menu to produce the new Retract Selection menu, see Figure 2.

    mil1166b

    Figure 2


  3. 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.

    mil1166c

    Figure 3


  4. 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.

    mil1166d

    Figure 4

    mil1166e

    Figure 5


  5. Now the retract option will be demonstrated using the Sphere option. Selecting Sphere will produce the Retract Sphere options, see Figure 6.

    mil1166f

    Figure 6


  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.

    mil1166g

    Figure 7

    mil1166a

    Figure 8



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