Cutter Compensation Error At Control

[mattdlr89]

Hi

I'm getting a cutter compensation error on my Haas Next Gen Control. I've used it plenty of times before with the same tool without issue. I don't get any errors within Fusion however when I run the program my control throws up a "Cutter Comp Interference" Error. 

I can share the file privately with Autodesk to investigate further. Wondering if I am missing anything straight forward. 

[DarthBane55]

I find that I often get an error in my simulator if I set the tolerance tight in 2d contour.  It often produces moves of 0.0001" or 0.0002" length for some weird reason (no spline, just arcs and lines).  If you leave the compensation to nominal in the machine, these are not an issue, but if you do need to compensate just a bit, it will throw an alarm because it does not fit into those small moves.  I mostly set 2d contour paths to 0.002" tolerance, up to 0.004", to get rid of those tiny moves, and it does not have any detrimental effect on the shape of the part, because it is only arcs and lines.  If you have splines, that's a different story of course.

If you have your tolerance set tighter than 0.002", try adjusting that and post, and compare the code with a compare utility, you will see some tiny moves removed.

All that being said, if you left the compensation to nominal in your machine and still got the error, then all I said is not gonna solve your issue, sorry.

[seth.madore]

What is your Compensation Radial Allowance set to?

You can PM me the A360 link if you would like. I did help a friend with this, I think he ended up calling up Haas and getting a parameter changed.

[mattdlr89]

Hi @seth.madore 

It looks like it was set to 0.49mm. I've never really touched that box in the past. I mostly use a 10mm slot mill when I do cutter compensation with our parts (and I am in this case).

@DarthBane55 Thanks for the suggestion I try upping the tolerance a bit next time. I did try that at first I went from 0.001mm to 0.005mm but still had the error. 

I got round the problem by setting the exact tool size in Fusion and didn't use cutter comp to get around this problem for now but that's not a long term solution. 

[DarthBane55]

0.005mm is still very small.  Try 0.05mm, or even 0.1mm (again, if you only have arcs and lines, don't do that if you have splines and needs to look good).  But with lines and arcs, the small moves are... hmmmmm... they should not even output, an arc is an arc, and a line is a line.  Where do these tiny moves come from, no idea, but big tolerance outputs the actual proper code (2d operations).  It outputs the arcs and the lines correctly, is what I mean, it's not gonna start making an arc into some faceted shape, not in 2d contour.

[seth.madore]

Just gonna throw this out there; you will likely NEVER run into this if you use Wear compensation...

[DarthBane55]

@seth.madore Seth, we run into this a lot, and we only use wear.  If you have an arc move 0.0001" long, and you have either a positive or negative diameter offset in the controller, there is a direction (+0.0005" or -0.0005" compensation for example) where the machine would throw an alarm because the movement can no longer fit into that 0.0001" move.

[mattdlr89]

I've never used wear compensation. Might need to do some research into this then...

[seth.madore]

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@DarthBane55 wrote:

@seth.madore Seth, we run into this a lot, and we only use wear.  If you have an arc move 0.0001" long, and you have either a positive or negative diameter offset in the controller, there is a direction (+0.0005" or -0.0005" compensation for example) where the machine would throw an alarm because the movement can no longer fit into that 0.0001" move.

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Well....crap. There goes my argument for Wear 😞

[johnswetz1982]

Look at you lead-ins. You should have your lead-in be at least the radius of your tool to do the compensation move when activating tool compensation.

[DarthBane55]

No not really...  you still are correct don't worry!  lol 

But, only if the code does not output these small movements (0.0001" etc).  Of course if these are not output (which we can control with a larger tolerance, as long as we are not machining a spline), then completely agree with you, with wear you'll never have the problem for sure, cause the tool will always fit in the arcs that are output because of output from tool center.  It does eliminate a lot of problems compared to "in control" method.

Actually, I'd be really curious to know why these small movements are output, if you know...  because I've tried several CAM softwares over the years, and this is the 1st one that does this.  Usually, on a profile that consists only of arcs and lines, it should output the geometry as is.  These small movements are maybe some rounding error in the toolpath calculation?  Also, I really wonder why any sort of tolerance would have any effect at all, on a toolpath that consists only of arcs and lines (I am talking about 2d contour only, not 3d paths of course).  But it does with this particular software, because I can eliminate those tiny moves by upping the tolerance.  hmmmmmm, hope this all makes sense...

[MEdwardsRnD]

AHHHHHHH this solved it for me. Those pesky lead-ins! Many thanks!