topic Re: Toolpath - Additive Manufacturing in PowerMill Forum

Toolpath - Additive Manufacturing

Anonymous — Sat, 03 Feb 2018 12:25:40 GMT

Hello all,

I want to use PowerMill 2018 to create a toolpath for additive manufacturing and write a NC Program based on the simulation. As there is not such an option, I thought about a workaround with a negative of a CAD model and reversing the order of the toolpath.

As a test object I used the CAD File of a cup and created a negative.

The problem I face when creating a toolpath in PowerMill is that it only creates a toolpath in areas which are reachable for the tool (red marked areas in the attached picture).

Is there any option or workaround to tell PowerMill to ignore if the tool can reach its target?

I attached a picture to visualize the problem.

Thanks for your help!

Re: Toolpath - Additive Manufacturing

iamcdn79 — Sat, 03 Feb 2018 14:05:30 GMT

You could try using the component thickness, either setting it machine with adding thickness to around the areas it can reach or setting it to collision to trim out those areas

Re: Toolpath - Additive Manufacturing

rafael.sansao — Sat, 03 Feb 2018 17:56:52 GMT

Take a look at the attached example. It can help you.

Re: Toolpath - Additive Manufacturing

Anonymous — Sun, 04 Feb 2018 15:49:42 GMT

Thank you very much - this seems to be the solution I was looking for! I will have a look at your example and try to reconstruct it.

Re: Toolpath - Additive Manufacturing

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 10:36:47 GMT

I tried to reconstruct your setting and the result looks similar to yours but still different.

Do you know why the handle of my cup is filled with toolpaths (see attached picture/PM Project)?

Re: Toolpath - Additive Manufacturing

rafael.sansao — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 10:39:29 GMT

Yes. You will have to trim the toolpath manually in "empty" regions.

Re: Toolpath - Additive Manufacturing

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 12:05:30 GMT

I tried to trim the toolpath but didn't find a solution to do so as I am very new to PowerMill.

How did you do it in your example?

Thanks in advance!

Re: Toolpath - Additive Manufacturing

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 09:43:08 GMT

Nevermind - I found out how to.