Orientation of cylinder stock

[marcus]

I load a mesh

(So there is no feature to select on the model.

Even if it where not a mesh, for the sake of the argument assume that it doesn't contain any planar surfaces or straight edges.)

I place it on the XY-plane.

I want to cam it on the 4th axis out of a cylindrical stock mounted on my A axis that is parallel to X.

Problem 1: When I select "Setup->Stock->Type="Fixed size cylinder",

the cylinder will always be along my Z axis.

The Selection-control "axis" on that tab doesn't allow me to re-orient my cylinder.

No matter what Axis I click on, the cylinder will always be along my Z axis.

At most I get the Z-axis orientation flipped.

Problem 2:

Back to the first tab "Setup->Setup".

When choose the selection-control "Z-Axis" and click on any of the shown axis,

that axis does NOT become my Z-axis.

[Anonymous]

I believe that you're clicking on the gnomon for your setup, instead of the global one.  if you look carefully, there is a line that extends out past the arrow tips.  try clicking on that for both cases.

edit: alternatively, you can click on part geometry or a plane normal to the axis that you want.

[marcus]

Yes, there is a very thin line,

but it is not selectable.

Clicking the tip, just flips that axis but doesn't make it the axis of the cylinder.

Clicking the shaft I am suddenly in the first tap.

[523Industries]

Is this what you're trying to do?

Setup

Stock

[marcus]

Yes, that is the orientation of the cylinder-stock I'm trying to achieve.

There just isn't a face or edge in the orientation needed (e.g. trying to machine a sphere)

or in the case of a mesh, no selectable face or edge at all.

[LibertyMachine · Accepted solution]

If there are no edges or surfaces to select in your model, than you need to create some. A simple sketch plane or two is often all that is needed. If still more is needed, draw some lines on each indicating direction of axis

[523Industries]

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@Anonymous wrote:

or in the case of a mesh, no selectable face or edge at all.

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Ahh, I haven't worked with a mesh before...didn't know that.

[marcus]

Yes, creating a circle on the YZ-plane for the stock-cylinder orientation worked.

Extruding it into a cylinder enabled me to even wrap a toolpath. (Of cause there was no pocket to select, so a 2D adaptive clearing would still not work.)

I manually selected the mesh as Geometry->Model->Model Surface in each indexed CAM operation to ignore the dummy cylinder.