Hi there,
I'm trying to program a part that has to be oriented in a certain way. I've made a simplified example here: https://a360.co/2GXfiBs
The part is fixed on a rotary table rotating about X (imagine the downward slope is "pointing" at you). I'm trying to create a smooth toolpath to accurately cut the angles and top radii using a square endmill. This should be possible without leaving cusps by keeping the center of the tool normal the curves at the top, but I'm having a really hard time figuring out how to generate that constrained to 4 axes.
The 5 axis variant does a decent job of demonstrating what I'm going for (yellow lines are the spindle axis):
This toolpath is generated using contour pairs, one following the slope and curve and one offset from it. You can see these two as the blue sketch contours in the image above. Here they are selected:
This feels so close that it should be able to work, but I can't get it constrained to a 4th axis. Optimally, just checking the "4 axis Limit" checkbox visible in the dialog above would do it (beta feature enabled by "cam.betamode /on"), but no dice.
Does anyone have any advice for making this toolpath work? Or a different strategy that could yield the same result? As mentioned at the top, this is a simplified example of a larger part and cannot be fixtured differently (on its side, for example).
Thanks.
