Flow toolpath not orienting

[genxmachining.mill]

I am looking to use the flow toolpath to cut a chamfer around my entire part and I am able to select almost all of the geometry and orient the toolpath properly except for 2 parts. There are only 2 orientations that I can pick for the area in question and neither of them work.

I have also tried creating a separate Flow toolpath and selecting those 2 surfaces only, however I get the message: "no valid geometry selected", and also choices of toolpath directions are the same as before.

I have tried using different diameter ballnose endmills to no avail.

Can anyone shed some light on this issue?

[DarthBane55]

juuuust to make sure, you did try clicking on the red arrow right?  Just making sure before going further.

If you did, I'm afraid you probably will have to share the file for people to check it out.

[genxmachining.mill]

Yes I did, sorry I didn't clarify in the original post, has been revised. Neither direction is aligned properly with the surface.

[seth.madore]

@genxmachining.mill could you possibly share your Fusion file, or private message me a link to your file?

File > Export > Save to local folder, return to thread and attach the .f3d file in your reply. Alternatively, right click on the file in the Data Panel and select "Share Link" and send me that link in a private message.

[seth.madore]

File received.

Sadly, I think this is a model issue (nothing you did) and not the toolpath. The toolpath is designed to recognize the U/V direction of a surface, and those two surfaces are aligned poorly for our needs. I'm going to touch base with one of the ASM folks and see if there's any black magic we can work on it to get it to behave

[genxmachining.mill]

Thanks Seth,

I should also add that I realize the concave corner directly adjacent that surface is smaller than my tool radius. I changed tool diameters as well as the radius size with no change in behavior.

[seth.madore · Accepted solution]

Okay, I think I got it better. I ditched the Chamfer that you modeled on and instead went for a Sweep function. It's not perfect, but it's a heck of a lot better:
Old Flow:

New Flow (Turn on in Preferences)

 

 

[genxmachining.mill]

Hi Seth, I followed your suggestion and got it to work. Fairly elegant workaround I would say.

Thanks a lot for your help!

[seth.madore]

Wonderful! I'll have some more chats with the modeling side of things, because this really should be better solved...

[DarthBane55]

Would "Blend" be a possibility for this case?

[seth.madore]

Blend does a pretty decent job in this case (on the original part, before my Sweep modification), but it's dropping some surfaces (even though they're selected correctly)

That likely warrants looking into, will address at some point 🙂