Changed machine flat area behavior for Adaptive Clearing, Horizontal, and Pocket

[fonsecr]

We have changed the machine flat area behavior for Adaptive Clearing, Horizontal, and Pocket for HSMWorks 2017.

Our CAM kernel has always had a unique feature where we would include the top of ridges when using the flat areas option. Turns out that when a part is ugly (resulting in noisy triangulation) this behavior could result in a lot of extra cuts and hence significantly impact calculation time. So we have now disabled this behavior by default so ridges are no longer considered. Since I think most users dont need this specific feature I have not included it in the user interface as an option. You will only see it from Compare and Edit dialog where you can change the default if desired. The new setting is called "Include Ridges for Flat Areas".

You can still get Z-level cuts at ridges depending on stepdown settings and model geometry but the strategies will no directly force the ridges to be machined.

Ridges were historically included because the flat tip of the cutter would cause a flat surface on the machined part.

[Laurens-3DTechDraw]

This is fantastic!

[ArjanDijk]

does this apply for?  http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/hsm-ideas/inventor-hsm-flat-area-detection-in-3d-pocket/idi-p/6620296 

[fonsecr]

No this would be separate. The change only applies to ridges.