Undercut with a slot milling tool

[mark.lamneck]

I have to manufacture the part (part.png). I had big trouble to do this undercut around it (only the tilted area). I tried it with a 3D-Kontur but it always gave me an error. Now I figured out that my problem was in the tool definition. My slot milling tool has a bigger shaft than the flute (see attached limitedToolPath.png for an idea how it looks like). This seems to be a problem for the Fusion CAM as I get an error:

Internal error - Cylinder must have smaller radius than top of cone.

If I reduce the shaft diameter, I get no error but not the expected toolpath. Compare limitedToolPath.png with expectedToolPath.png. It seems like the toolpath is limited by the shaft, even if the shaft is above the whole geometry.

What am I doing wrong here?

[mark.lamneck]

Attached you find my tool definition. Maybe I did it wrong but I found no other way to do it. In the cutter tab, there is a shoulder length, but no shoulder diameter. That makes no sense for me. And if I set the shoulder length to a bigger value than the flute length, and try to add a shaft definition, I always get a an area above the flut with the diameter of the shaft. So the only way I found out how to define this tool was to set the shoulder length to the flute length and define 2 areas in the shaft tab.

Do I miss something here?

[HughesTooling]

It will be easier to help if you export your f3d file and share here. 

Also don't attach pictures, just paste them into your message. The forum software's rubbish, you can't view attached pictures and read the text at the same time and the attached pictures take ages to load.🙄

Mark

[mark.lamneck]

Thanks for the reply and sorry for posting pictures. 

Attached is a simplified file which shows the issue I have. In the manufacturing workspace, there are 3 Contourjobs. All jobs are the same but using different tool definitions. I would like to have the toolpath of the job expectedToolPath, but with the tool used in the job originalTool.

[DarthBane55]

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@mark.lamneck wrote:

Thanks for the reply and sorry for posting pictures. 

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Posting pictures is good, what he meant was don't post them as attachments.  If you click the camera icon when you want to insert pictures, we will see them immediately without having to click on them, which makes it nicer.

[HughesTooling · Accepted solution]

@seth.madore I had problems setting a cutter up like this a few weeks ago but didn't have time to report it.

Seems like something's messed up with the shoulder length and shaft definitions.

If you set the shoulder length correctly it moves the body diameter down to the flute.

The real odd thing is the upper diameter on the shaft tab changes the diameter just above the head of the cutter. Don't know if I'm just not understanding something or a bug?

[HughesTooling]

With the cutter setup as my last post it generates the correct toolpath! File's attached.

[oleg.tikhomirov]

@HughesTooling or @seth.madore Could you please report a ticket?

I also found that it works when I use the following geometry for the tool.

and the following settings

[mark.lamneck]

Hmmh I thought the best option until this is fixed would be the following settings in the cutter tab:

and in the shaft tab:

with tool_bodyLength-0.01 and tool_shaftDiameter as parametric values. However this stops working when I accept the changes and edit the tool again or copy it. If I edit the tool the next time, the values seem to be hardcoded and changes in cutter tab don't affect the shaft tab anymore as the missing formula symbols in the shaft tab indicate:

[HughesTooling]

@seth.madore  Before this thread disappears and is forgotten about, did you create a ticket for the problem?

Thanks MArk

[seth.madore]

I have not yet, thanks for the reminder!

To clarify; the issue you're referring to is the slot mill definition issue, correct?

[HughesTooling]

Thanks Seth.

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@seth.madore wrote:

To clarify; the issue you're referring to is the slot mill definition issue, correct?

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Yes, my post #6 in this thread shows the problem with the shoulder diameter using the first shaft row upper diameter reference. I think you should be specifying the shoulder diameter on the Shaft tab but it should be the bottom row.

Mark

[seth.madore]

I've logged this as CAM-44250 for investigation, thanks for bringing this to my attention (and the reminder)