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Suggested Technique for Creating an Open Cutline SurfaceMilling
Sequence Using Projected Inner Cut Lines
This Suggested Technique describes how to utilize projected inner cut
lines to create an Open Cutline Surface milling tool path on the model
shown in Figure 1.
Surfaces to be machined will be selected from the reference model, cut
lines will be selected from boundary edges of the surfaces to be machined
and the inner cut line will be projected onto the surfaces.
Procedure
- To begin creation of the tool
path, the type of NC sequence must be chosen. Select Machining,
NC Sequence, New Sequence, Surface Mill, and
Done. This presents the NC SEQUENCE and SEQ SETUP menu which
contain all the options necessary to define the NC sequence.
Figure 1
- Select an appropriate tool,
coordinate system and retract plane using the Tool, Coord
Sys and Retract options respectively, if they have not been
previously established.
- NC sequence parameters must be
established before the tool path can be created. Critical parameters are
shown in Figure 2.
SCAN_TYPE |
TYPE_1 |
LACE_OPTION |
LINE_CONNECT |
REMAINDER_SURFACE |
NO |
TOLERANCE |
0.001 |
STEP_OVER |
0.0625 |
PROF_STOCK_ALLOW |
0 |
Figure 2
- The next item that must be
defined is the surfaces to be machined. For this example select
Model and Done from the SURF PICK menu and select the
surfaces shown in Figure 3. Once the surfaces have been selected, select
Done Sel, Done, and Done/Return.
Figure 3
- Immediately after completing the
surface selections, the CUTLINE DEFINITION User interface will appear.
In the CUTLINE DEFINITION User Interface select Machine Srfs for
the Cut Line Reference Geometry, Open Ends for the Cut line type,
next select the Plus (+) button to select the start cut line.
From the ADD/REDEFINE CUTLINE User Interface select From Edges,
since there are multiple edges to select for each cut line which belong
to the surfaces selected for machining, use the Boundary Chain
option. Select the "c" shaped segments using From-To option as
shown in Figure 4. Once the edges have been selected, select Done
Sel, Done, and OK. Define the end cut line the same
way as the start cut line has been defined. To Preview the cut
lines simply select each cut line from the Cut Line Setup list, this
will highlight the selected cut line on the model.
Figure 4
- The DIRECTION can be controlled
from the CUTLINE DEFINITION User Interface using the Cutting
Direction button. The direction of machining is determined by the
red flip arrow displayed at the beginning of the first defined cut line.
- The last step is to create the
inner cut line by sketching it on the retract plane and projecting it
onto the surfaces selected for machining. Inner cut lines help define
exactly how the tool path will blend from the start cut line to the end
cut line. Select Add from the SETUP CUT LINES section of the
CUTLINE DEFINITION User Interface, and then select Projected. At
this point the retract plane will automatically be selected as the
sketching plane and sketcher will be started, next Sketch a
horizontal line from one end of the workpiece to the other as shown in
Figure 5. Align the ends of the sketched line with the workpiece edges
and dimension the distance from the side of workpiece to regenerate the
section. Use the Preview button from the ADD/REDEFINE CUTLINE
User Interface to insure the proper cut line was created.
Figure 5
- The resultant tool path is shown
in Figure 7.
Figure 6
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