Create a 3-axis finishing toolpath based on slope angle

00:02

Create a three access finishing tool path based on slope angle.

00:07

After completing this video,

00:09

you'll be able to create a 3D contour tool path and use slope to restrict a tool path

00:16

infusion 3 60 now that we've created our three D. Adaptive tool path.

00:20

Let's carry on with our three access sample part and

00:23

let's focus on using some of the finishing strategies.

00:26

At this point we're going to navigate to our three D.

00:28

Drop down and we're gonna start with a three D contour.

00:31

A three D contour strategy is one that's great for

00:34

finishing or semi finishing near steep or vertical walls.

00:39

So we're going to use this tool path and identify some of

00:41

its options to see how we can restrict it to certain areas.

00:44

First we're going to change from a quarter inch flat tool and

00:48

we want to make sure that we're using a ball end mill.

00:50

So navigate to your three access library.

00:53

And let's go ahead and make sure that we're using the quarter inch ball end

00:57

mill for this first example because this was copied from the fusion 3 60 samples.

01:01

Let's make sure that we select aluminum finishing and select the tool.

01:06

Remember that we reset some of the feeds and speeds to 80 100

01:10

rpm and we're moving at a cutting feed rate of about 125" a minute

01:15

For our geometry.

01:16

There are multiple ways in which we can contain

01:19

the geometry of a 3D contour tool path.

01:22

The first thing that we want to explore is the slope option.

01:25

When we're looking at a three D contour tool path.

01:27

Oftentimes we're looking at near vertical walls and we want to avoid certain areas.

01:33

We can do this by restricting the slope between a certain angle

01:37

for this example.

01:38

Let's go ahead and restrict the slope between 10 degrees and 89 degrees.

01:43

This is going to avoid vertical walls and horizontal walls and it's

01:47

going to only focus its attention between 10 and 89 degrees.

01:52

We also want to take a look at some of the options inside of our contours passes.

01:57

You can see here that by default there is no stock left

02:00

over and we have a maximum step down value of 0.125.

02:05

There's also a cusp height value.

02:08

The cusp height is going to control the maximum

02:10

step down and this is a value that's going

02:12

to be important to us as it's going to

02:14

determine the cusp that gets created on our part.

02:17

We're going to leave these values as stock for now,

02:20

but we are going to come back and make adjustments

02:23

Once we say, Okay,

02:25

notice that it is taking a look at the entire part but it's only focusing its

02:30

attention on this face as well as these faces that fit within that 10-89° angle.

02:37

It's avoiding completely horizontal surfaces and it's

02:40

avoiding this face which is below 10°.

02:44

So this is a good way for us to identify different areas by their slopes,

02:49

but let's go ahead and go back and edit this tool path in this case,

02:53

in the past this section, we want to change the cusp it to be much smaller.

02:57

Going to use 0.3 and notice how we adjust our maximum step down,

03:03

where we used to have an eighth of an inch.

03:05

Now we have 0.38 we'll say okay and allow it to regenerate.

03:10

I'm going to go to my tool path, visibility and turn those off.

03:13

So we're just taking a look at the stock.

03:15

You can see that it's getting relatively close to a good

03:18

finish but we are still seeing a preview of those cups.

03:21

If we view this from the front, we can see exactly what's happening

03:26

under the tool visibility. Let's go ahead and show tool.

03:29

We're going to show the holder and shaft and the tool on cursor.

03:33

This is going to allow us to get a good look at what happens as the

03:36

tool moves down the part because it's moving back and forth in this three D contour.

03:41

What's actually happening is it's creating this little raised

03:45

and valid section each time the tool moves down.

03:48

One problem that we get with using a tool like this on a slanted faces,

03:52

that you have to have a really small step down value in order to get a smooth finish.

03:57

It's just something that we can't avoid.

03:60

However, there are things that we can do to make this a bit easier.

04:04

You can always use a larger tool that will reduce

04:07

the amount of steps that you need to take.

04:10

For example in this three D. Contour we can select, edit

04:13

and instead of using the quarter inch ball,

04:15

let's go into our three access library and select our half inch ball in milk.

04:20

We'll select this tool.

04:21

I'm going to leave all the parameters the same

04:24

how they come in and allow it to regenerate.

04:26

You'll notice that we still see a cusp on this part and part of

04:30

the reason is the parameters get changed when we select a new tool.

04:35

So let's go ahead and evaluate the cusp height and the maximum step down values.

04:40

You can see here that we've got 0.3 set as our

04:44

cusp height which gives us a maximum step down of 0.6.

04:48

Let's go ahead and select. Okay and review this one more time.

04:52

We can see here that the cups look a little bit different.

04:55

They're further spaced out.

04:56

But we do still have a cusp to deal with once again, is this problematic?

05:01

Because we do need to have a relatively small step in

05:03

order to get rid of that cusp with this tool.

05:06

But for now let's make sure that we just understand how we can restrict the

05:10

tool by using slope and then we can move on to the next tool path.

05:14

So let's select activate and then let's make sure that we

05:17

save the design before moving on to the next step.