topic Re: choosing swarf surfaces automatically in PowerMill Forum

choosing swarf surfaces automatically

RAL6000 — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 18:59:01 GMT

Hey together,

I´m having an issue on how to automate to choose the correct machining surface or limit the toolpath that it only makes sensefull machining.

I have a general colour "grey" in which the surface is part of which needs to be machined by swarf. But there are also flat surfaces in it which definetly don´t allowed to be swarfed.

Anyone an idea?

Attached a PM project how it should look, this is actually realised by an half-automated function, the user chooses the correct swarf surfaces by hand.

this needs to be avoidedselected surfaces for swarf machiningtool orientation on swarf machining is max. ~20 Degree

Re: choosing swarf surfaces automatically

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 21:16:12 GMT

Well, on the example you gave, I would try use the Select Undercut Components interface found by right clicking on a Models in the tree. It's under the Selection Tools sub-menu. The name is a bit misleading because you can use it for non-undercut surfaces. I'd set the draft angle to 0, leave the two check boxes unchecked, and click apply. Then blank the surfaces it finds. Then set the angle to something larger than the draft angle of those surfaces (maybe 10), and click apply again. That should select those surfaces for you. Record those steps in a macro and you should have it.

One tip: Make sure to leave the Select Undercuts form open when the macro runs. Most of the time you don't need the form commands in a macro, but this is one case where I've found that you do unless they have fixed it recently.

Re: choosing swarf surfaces automatically

rafael.sansao — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 02:01:18 GMT

Unfortunately we do not have that many resources to do that on the Powermill. You can try something like:

GRAPHICS LOCK
BLANK UNDO
EDIT MODEL ALL DESELECT ALL
EDIT SELECTION SMART NO FORM MODELSELECT
EDIT SELECTION MODEL DELETE
EDIT SELECTION MODEL TYPE COLOUR
EDIT SELECTION MODEL FILTER "109,119,137"
EDIT SELECTION MODEL ADD EDIT SELECTION MODEL APPLY
EDIT SELECTION MODEL APPLY
FORM CANCEL MODELSELECT
BLANK EXCEPT
EDIT MODEL ALL DESELECT ALL
EDIT MODEL ALL SELECT FLAT
BLANK SELECTED
EDIT MODEL ALL DESELECT ALL
EDIT SELECTUNDERCUT MODEL ALL FORM SELECTUNDERCUT
EDIT SELECTIONTOOLS MATCH_DRAFT_ANGLE NO
EDIT SELECTIONTOOLS INCLUDE_PARTIALS NO
VIEW MODEL ; UCANGLE "10"
FORM APPLY SELECTUNDERCUT
FORM ACCEPT SELECTUNDERCUT
CREATE LEVEL ; MODELCOMPSET
EDIT LEVEL # ACQUIRE SELECTED
BLANK UNDO
EDIT MODEL ALL DESELECT ALL
EDIT LEVEL # SELECT ALL
DELETE LEVEL #
GRAPHICS UNLOCK

Re: choosing swarf surfaces automatically

rafael.sansao — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 19:16:52 GMT

The macro above work? @RAL6000