Lesson 2 - Create Features

00:08

Now with our part completely setup, we're ready to start creating surface milling features to machine this solid model.

00:16

Similar to previous lessons, we'll start by creating a Z level roughing operation.

00:21

The Z level roughing strategy is easy to use and efficient when machining.

00:26

So to start, let's box select the entire model, create a new feature, surface milling, make sure all the faces are selected.

00:35

Choose a single operation, Z level roughing.

00:41

We’ll keep the defaults of a rough operation, offset spiral stepover and 3D boss.

00:47

But after we've created these, feel free to experiment with the different options.

00:53

And we can see an overview of the Z level roughing strategy we just created.

00:57

As you may remember from the previous lesson, by default we've selected a half inch end mill.

01:03

This again comes from our machining attributes.

01:07

So with that Z level rough created, let's press "Finish", "OK".

01:11

And now let's select a finishing strategy.

01:14

In the previous exercise, we took a look at parallel finishing.

01:17

Parallel finishing can be very helpful, but as we saw, it does have limitations.

01:22

And this is true for all finishing strategies in FeatureCAM.

01:26

Each strategy has its own strengths and its own tradeoffs.

01:31

After we create our finishing strategy and work through the rest of this part, I recommend that you try different strategies to finish this part and see which ones you think work the best for you.

01:43

That being said, for this part, we're going to take a look at one of my favorite finishing strategies called steep and shallow.

01:50

The steep and shallow finishing strategy allows us to machine flat or shallow surfaces differently from how we machine steep surfaces.

01:59

It allows us to get a pretty good surface finish across all the surfaces of the part by only creating one feature.

02:06

So, we'll start by selecting the entire model, new feature, surface milling, indicate the faces that we'd like to machine, choose a single operation, and we'll select steep and shallow from the specialized strategy section.

02:21

As we press "Next", we'll see that the options are a little bit different from the Z level rough or the parallel finishing that we've seen in the past.

02:28

The first parameter that we'll see is called threshold angle.

02:31

And by default, FeatureCAM enters in a value of 30 degrees.

02:36

This threshold angle is the angle in which we divide steep surfaces and shallow surfaces.

02:43

So anything steeper than 30 degrees will use one strategy and anything shallower or flatter than 30 degrees will use another.

02:51

Next we can choose an overlap distance.

02:53

This is how far we want to overlap toolpath in our steep and our shallow strategies.

02:58

By default, FeatureCAM has a value of 20 thousandths, that should be fine.

03:03

And we can move on to indicating how we would like to machine our steep and shallow surfaces.

03:09

You'll notice for steep we only have one option, Continuous Spiral.

03:13

That's because all steep surfaces in the steep and shallow strategy are machined using a Z level finishing strategy.

03:21

With that already selected, we can indicate whether we would like to spiral down continuously or do every Z level before moving down to the next.

03:31

We'll just leave that as default and take a look at the different shallow strategies.

03:36

The first one should be familiar to you, Parallel Finishing.

03:40

Here we can choose an angle or have it automatically recognized and a wall clearance value.

03:45

But this time, let's take a look at a slightly newer one, 3d Spiral.

03:54

and it essentially starts in the middle or the outside and offsets inwards or outwards on a shallow surface.

04:01

If you have any further questions on that, I'd recommend visiting the Help file.

04:06

Now that we've told FeatureCAM how we would like to machine the steep and how we would like to machine the shallow surfaces on this model, let's move through the wizard.

04:14

Leave all the remaining parameters as default and confirm the final operation that FeatureCAM has created for us.

04:20

Again, notice that we're using a half inch ball end mill and it's calculated the feeds and speeds for us depending on our material.

04:27

With that, we’ll press "Finish", "OK", and we're ready to move on to the simulation and revising step of our workflow.

04:36

As a quick review, whenever we're using 3D surface milling in FeatureCAM, we’ll generally want to start with a roughing operation, followed by a finishing operation.

04:46

I personally like to try to use Z level rough as often as I can, as well as steep and shallow.

04:52

But you may find different strategies work better for you.

04:56

What works best for me or what I like the most may not be what you like the most.

05:01

So work through this part a few times trying out different strategies and find out what works best for you.