Fusion
Hi, I want to point out some limitations, and, at the same time, if someone knows I'm wrong and doing things wrong, and that what I want to do is doable, well please tell me!
I cannot share the part sorry.
Right now, the way I see it, the 5-axis is extremely limited, because:
1-The tool tilt is in reference to the current tool orientation axis. It makes sense, however, where can we tell it how far the machine can tilt? I did load our machine in the setup, all it does is tell me that I am tilting too far for the machine, but the machine is not limiting the tilt when generating the toolpath. So if I am machining at B-90, and the machine can go to B-100 max, but I want 20deg tilt, well, the path will generate no problem, because it has no clue that it's beyond the machine's limit.
2-If I want to maintain a tilt of 30deg in relation to the part, but upwards, (refer to pictures below), it does not seem possible to do (not fixed 30deg, but 30deg relative to part, so changes constantly - 5-axis). The tilt is a cone around the tool orientation, it goes all around the tool orientation axis. That seems really weird, usually we can set a limit for the tilt, in any direction. This limitation causes all the 5-axis toolpaths to be extremely limited in use. I find that setting the tilt to 30 deg works in 1 direction, and when the tool comes back, it flips 30deg in the bottom direction, so goes B-120 (overtravel B-axis).
3-I tried steep and shallow because it has a few more option for controlling the tool axis, but the only patterns are scallop and parallel, which is not something I can use for this part. Need a blend between 2 curves.
4-It's missing a projection vector. Right now, the path is generated from the point of view (projection) of the tool orientation, so you have a limit on what you can do with the tilt again. If you would separate the projection orientation from the tool orientation, you could machine the side face easily and control the tilt from the tool orientation of your choice, which would allow for a bit better control on keeping the tool more to 1 side of the tilt, since the cone would be from the angle of your choice, instead of being constrained to the projection vector. This has to be separate for being really functional, in some cases. The projection vector being the same as the tool orientation is a big limit, because if the tool orientation cannot see a face, it won't machine it. Separating the 2 allows to see the face and use a different tool orientation to machine it.
5-Using blend, you see on 1 picture it sees a line between surfaces as a fence. It wants to jump over it. The faces are all tangent, this problem does not occur without enabling 5-axis. I tweaked the tolerance to the maximum it will take before refusing to generate the path, and that's what on the picture. Tolerance 0.005". Anything smaller increases the number of jumps.
I can do this part in 3-axis, but would have liked to keep a tilt relative to the part, unfortunately seems impossible.
I was evaluating the manufacturing extensions, but it seems I won't be opting in that anytime soon. Again, if
someone sees that I'm going all wrong about it, or know a better way to make what I'm after work, please let me know!
