Machine a blended rib

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machine a blended rib.

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After completing this video, you'll be able to use three D. Flow, use three D.

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Scallop and identify stock removal

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Infusion 3 60. Let's carry on with our three axis sample up to dataset.

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We've used our three D. Adaptive to rough and semi finished our part.

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We've used a three D scallop to finish both the bowl and dome features.

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And now we need to focus our attention on this blended rib feature.

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Now this blended rib feature is a feature that

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is going to require a couple of different strategies.

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We're going to think about this in two different steps.

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We want to focus our attention first on this outer face and evaluate a flow tool path.

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Then we want to take a look at how well the scallop tool path does,

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finishing all the geometry as a single operation.

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So from our three D. Menu let's select three D. Flow.

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The flow tool path is something that can be used on

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complex geometry and it's controlled based on our face selection.

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This is an important distinction because if we select a large and a small face,

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the number of stepovers can be drastically different and the

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surface finish going across those faces can be compromised.

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But let's go ahead and start by selecting our quarter inch ball in mill.

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And for our geometry we're going to select these two faces.

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The first thing to note is the direction of the red arrows. This is the U. V.

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Direction or the direction of the surface.

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So lines we want to make sure that the red arrows are

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pointing in the direction we want our tool to travel next.

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We're going to move on to our passes section.

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The passes section looks a little bit different than some of our other tool paths.

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Using a flow tool path is going to require you

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to indicate the number of stepovers while other tool paths

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will give you a step over amount or a cusp

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height that you can use to drive the tool path.

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In this case we're going to indicate 15

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stepovers and say okay and preview the tool path

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when we take a look at the results,

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you can see that we're getting really large cups across the part and

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if I use F seven to bring the tool path preview on,

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we can see just how the tool path is moving.

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The tool does stop when it gets to the end of these

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surfaces and it performs rapid movements to get to the next section,

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Let's right click and Let's edit our tool path and increase

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the number of step overs in the past is section 2:30.

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Once we increase those 2:30 we now have a much finer resolution step over.

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You can see that we are cutting down into the bottom of the

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part slightly and that's because we haven't finished off our flat areas,

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that's something that we'll approach in just a minute.

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So with a tool path like this.

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If we were to edit the tool path and increase the number of faces we selected,

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for example, if we wanted to include the small faces on the side,

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notice that we're having problems with the direction of the

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curves

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and if we use F71 thing you'll notice is that the number

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of stepovers on that small triangular face is going to be 30,

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which is equal to the same number of step overs on this large face.

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Because of that,

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we need to be careful when we're using the flow tool path and

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it really should be used or reserved for large surface areas or complex faces

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that are struggling with other strategies.

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So for right now I'm going to right click and suppress this tool path.

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And then I want to focus on how the 3D scallop works on this case,

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we're going to select three D scallop.

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Once again we're gonna use our quarter inch ball and once

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again we are going to use our avoid touch surface options.

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We could also contain it within a selected region.

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But using avoid touch surfaces is a good way for us

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to identify all the surfaces that we want a machine.

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I'm going to rotate the model to make sure

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that I do select that small triangular face.

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Let's go ahead and rotate to the other side and make sure

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that we grab all the faces on this side as well.

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Once we have all the faces selected we can move on to our passes section.

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Once again the step over value is going to be driving the overall contour.

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So I'm going to reduce this 2.001 for my step over, which is relatively small,

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and we're going to say, Okay,

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We can see that once the tool path has been generated,

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we have quite a few traces that we have on the screen,

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so I'm gonna hit F- 7 to hide those.

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The resolution of the finished product looks pretty good,

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but it's always important that we take a look at our machining time.

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This operation alone is going to take 20 minutes because of that .001 step amount.

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And this is where we need to find a

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balance of surface finish relative to our machining time.

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Let's go ahead and edit the scallop operation.

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Let's take a look at our passes section and instead of .001,

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let's take a look at .009 is our step over.

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While that might not seem like a much larger number.

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This can have a pretty big effect on the overall machining time.

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We take a look at this, you can see we went from 22 minutes to just under 2.5 minutes.

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So this can have a big effect.

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Just making a small change to that value and we still have a relatively

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good surface finish compared to the amount of passes and time were spent machining.

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You can see that the scallop operation does take

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a slightly a different approach to the passes.

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So you will get some knitting lines or some seams between the different tool paths.

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Keeping this in mind,

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there are some potential changes options or things

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that we can do to alleviate those problems.

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So it's always a good idea to evaluate the different

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options that you have inside of your tool paths,

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there are feed optimizations and smoothing options that we could use as

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a tool goes into and out of rounded corners for example.

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And smoothing operations that can be used to

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reduce the program size by turning on smoothing,

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we can reduce the number of steps that we have for our curves.

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So those options can help the overall quality of your

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surfaces by affecting the way in which the tool goes into

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and out of those rounded corners and also limiting the

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number of changes in direction that the tool is taking,

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which can also have an effect on your surface finish and surface quality.

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Keep in mind also that most of these

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strategies are available as multi access strategies.

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So if you do have the available access to

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you are able to control things like the tool,

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access the collision avoidance and tool access limits as

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the tool goes across this geometry for right now.

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However,

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let's go ahead and make sure that we do okay this and let's make

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sure that we save our operations before we move on to the next step.