5 Axis Toolpath Normal To Surface - Still Not Possible?

[jonathanBUCVS]

Sample part and file attached. Actual part would require a much longer tool to cut the outer chamfer with a Swarf toolpath. Would prefer to keep the tool normal to the surface and use the end of the end mill. I poked around with some 3 axis toolpaths with multi axis enabled, but didn't get anything that looked promising. Previous posts on this topic make me think this is still not a possible feature.

Open to suggestions or workarounds.

[a.laasW8M6T · Accepted solution]

Try Flow with multi axis turned on, it always want to be normal to the surface .

see file attached

[jonathanBUCVS]

I really thought I tried that... its been a long week. Oh the irony, I tried Flow (preview) [which output an empty toolpath] not the original Flow!
That was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks again!

[a.laasW8M6T · Accepted solution]

The Original Flow works great in this case because its a nice surface, and you only want one pass.

Flow(Preview) probably gave an empty toolpath due to the stepover being too large(in this case it fails over 0.1" stepover), and when it does generate it has multiple passes and doesn't make a great toolpath.

Its better in some applications, but not others, although it is still in preview so there's improvements to be made.

I don't believe it will replace the old Flow either, for stuff like this its nice to specify number of passes, but for other things its nicer to specify stepover. 

[oleg.tikhomirov · Accepted solution]

Hi @jonathanBUCVS

@a.laasW8M6T suggested a good solution. Another option is changing your Multi-axis contour operation slightly. Try to select only surface which you want to use for normals and disable "Sideways compensation" and "Lead/lean angles". 

[jonathanBUCVS]

@oleg.tikhomirov  Thank you, this is a clever way to do this!

My coworker was also able to use project geometry to get a curve on a workplane that somehow works, but it is nowhere near as tidy as these two solutions.