Fill a hole to correct tool path

[Anonymous]

Hey Guys,

I am having a problem with a 3D tool path due to a hole.  I would like to delete or fill it so that the surface is smooth and the tool doesn't try going into it.  It is causing a problem with my finish pass.

Any help would be great.

Thanks

[LibertyMachine]

I would normally say "Use the Patch Tool" but that's failing for some reason. Deleting the hole is also failing...

I know you need to do this for the sake of CAM, but it is a Modeling question, so I'm going to tag @PhilProcarioJr and @HughesTooling see if they have any insight into how to plug the hole

[James.Youmatz]

Hi @Anonymous,

I think I was able to get it working for you! This was a bit tricky - but I was able to use the Patch environment (great suggestion @LibertyMachine!) and use a combination of tools to get the desired shape. My steps were:

• Switch to Patch Environment
• Select the inner face of the cylinder (in the hole) and press delete.
• Go to the Modify menu and select Extend
• Select the top of the hole (on the curved face, not the chamfered side) and set the Extend distance to .35 in. This should close the hole
• Repeat for all holes
• Patch the chamfered side of the holes
• Use the Stitch Command from the Modify menu to turn it back into a watertight solid
• If you want the chamfer gone from the bottom, switch over to model, and select the chamfer and hit delete. It should create a flat bottom face. 

This screencast here demonstrates the steps to fix this:

Also, attached is the fixed .f3d file if you want to import this as a version into your current model. Hope this helps!

[LibertyMachine]

That's a really slick method. I wasn't aware that Extend would function as it did.

For the sake of the CAM side though, I'd think you would want to have 2 bodies present in the file, sharing the same space. One body with the holes and the other body without. Just activate/deactivate as needed

[HughesTooling · Accepted solution]

Here's another trick, you can use Offset set to zero to extract surfaces then heal holes with Extend. Then use the extracted faces under Model in the op with include setup model.

Mark

[PhilProcarioJr]

@LibertyMachine

In this case it doesn't matter but you have to be careful using @James.Youmatz method because it trashes surface curvature in most cases. Just thought you should be aware of this.

If you want the correct surface curvature you have to extend each face separately. If you want I can make a video and show how.

[LibertyMachine]

At first I was like....??? what are you doing...and then I was like.....Oh.....I see know. Very cool

[HughesTooling]

Hey Phil what have you got the curvature analysis set to to see that. I tried another way, unstitch extend and stitch but doing it either way I'm not seeing the same as you.

Mark

[PhilProcarioJr · Accepted solution]

@HughesTooling

I used @James.Youmatz file.

The reason your probably not seeing it is because you just happened to extend to the sweet spot. I made a video that shows how to spot when it is in an erroneous state and when it is not.

I will post as soon as it uploads. You usually can't see it unless the surfaces are unstitched and extended separately. 

In other words you got lucky and picked just the right spot. 

I do a lot of work for clients that would reject a model if the surface had flaws in it.

[PhilProcarioJr]

@HughesTooling

It doesn't matter what you set it to.

@James.Youmatz

I'm sorry for putting you on the spot, your method is valid and a great way to solve this problem. I just wanted to show everyone what to watch out for when doing this because if your not careful it can trash a surface.

This video was using James file:

[HughesTooling]

Yes I got lucky or maybe unlucky, with the surfaces extracted 2 heal nicely but one has the problem you highlighted. I only looked at 2 and couldn't see anything wrong, that's why I asked about settings.

All 3 use 0.093" as the offset for the extend. I do miss Rhino's shrink surface and untrim for this sort of thing.

Mark

[PhilProcarioJr]

@HughesTooling

Well as I mentioned in this case it really doesn't matter as I assume the holes are still going to be drilled. The biggest area for concern here even aside from a surface flaws, is cases like this can cause Fusion to become unstable and crash. I can't tell you how many times I have found small surface flaws crash Fusion. That's actually another reason I wanted to point this out. If your using T-Splines in a parametric file it's even worse. Anyways guys I just wanted to point out what to watch out for when doing stuff like this.

Cheers

[James.Youmatz]

Hi all,

Great suggestions all around here! @PhilProcarioJr - no problem at all! This is definitely not the easiest problem to solve, so I appreciate all input! 

As you guys mentioned - I do agree. Surface curvature was one fact I overlooked to test after I created this surface. I am curious to see if this would affect the toolpaths at all (since it would be drilled anyways). @HughesTooling also a great method! I wonder if playing around with those tolerance values would have a better affect in surface continuity. 

Thanks,

[HughesTooling]

@James.Youmatz Unstitching then extend and restitch fixes the one I had the problem with. One note on stitch, it had a bit of a makeover in the last update and the tolerance default is now 1.0mm or 0.039" so be careful and set it to more sensible number like 0.01mm or less.

Mark

[Anonymous]

Thanks to all of you for demonstrating on how to close off the holes I needed to for making great tool path.  I love that I can get real help on this forum.  High 5 to all of you for your help!

Thanks.

Time to make excellent toolpaths now.  🙂

[Anonymous]

Thanks Mark for showing how to make a skin over the model but also showing how add the skins to the cutting surfaces. I am not sure I would have found what you did to complete the good toolpath.

[Anonymous]

OK, silly question now.  How do I turn off the analysis colors?

and another question about screen resolution.  Is there a setting to increase it to have a better looking part on the screen?

Again thanks for all of the help!

[Anonymous]

Opps.. I added the same image.  Here are image corrections

[HughesTooling]

To hide the analysis colouring, go to the model workspace toggle the light bulb next to the CurvatureMap.

And no you can't increase the accuracy of the simulation.

Mark