Lesson 1 - Open, Stock, Machining Prep

00:08

Welcome to our first lesson in the FeatureCAM standard milling course.

00:14

In this first lesson, we’ll be leveraging FeatureCAM's sketching and dimensioning tools to create our own NC program from scratch, as if we were creating a program based off of a drawing with dimensions.

00:27

As with any project in FeatureCAM, we’ll be using the workflow to guide us through this project all the way from opening to NC Code.

00:37

In this first video, we'll be covering the first three steps of our workflow:

00:42

opening a new part, setting up our stock, and taking into account any machining preparation details before we start programming features.

00:52

Let's start by opening a new part.

00:55

As you can see, I've just opened FeatureCAM and at this point, I'm ready to create a new document.

01:01

The first thing you'll notice that FeatureCAM asks us is what type of document type would we like to create.

01:06

Now, this is the milling course, so we'll obviously be using the milling setup throughout this course.

01:11

However, you should know that FeatureCAM is capable of programming a wide variety of different types of parts on different types of machines.

01:19

So with milling setup selected, next we can define our unit of measurement, for this project, let's go with inch.

01:26

We can then tell FeatureCAM how we would like to setup our stock.

01:30

Let's use the stock wizard in FeatureCAM.

01:32

We’ll be using this throughout the course and it's very, very helpful in setting up our stock.

01:37

Finally, we’ll tell FeatureCAM what we'd like to use for our machining configurations.

01:42

Just leave this at the default My Configuration, we’ll worry about this later on in this course.

01:47

With that, let's select Create a new document.

01:51

And as we can see, the first thing we're met with is our FeatureCAM's stock wizard.

01:56

FeatureCAM is full of wizards that help us break up maybe more complicated tasks into a series of easy questions and definitions.

02:04

First, with our stock wizard, you can see that the first question it asks is what type of stock we would like to create.

02:10

This is the material that we’ll be machining from, we could either do a block, round, or n-sided stock.

02:17

For now, let's go with a block stock with a width of 8 inches, a length of 8 inches and a thickness of 2 inches.

02:25

Once you filled in those parameters, feel free to press "Next" and now we can tell FeatureCAM what's the material type that we’ll be machining from.

02:34

You'll notice as I select this drop-down that FeatureCAM has a long list of default materials for us to choose from.

02:41

By selecting a material, this helps FeatureCAM calculate the feeds and speeds for us as we create different features.

02:48

At any point, we can create a new material or alter the feeds and speeds table for existing material.

02:55

For this part, we’ll select an aluminum, press "Next" and indicate whether we want to use any multi-axis positioning.

03:02

Now if you're moving on to some of the other classes in this course, we may use some fifth-axis positioning.

03:08

But for this course, we're focused on 2.5D and 3D milling in FeatureCAM, so we'll select No.

03:15

At this point, we fully defined our stock and we're ready to move on to the machining preparation part of our workflow inside of the same wizard.

03:24

Here, we’ll be defining our setup location or our touch off point.

03:29

This is the point from which all of our NC Code is calculated, and likely the point that you'll be touching off physically on the stock on your machine.

03:38

For this exercise, let's just leave the default setup name of Setup 1, a fixture ID of 54, which is pretty standard, and we'll just leave that part name as FM1.

03:49

Now that we've defined what we want to call our setup, where we'll be calculating our NC Code from, let's physically place that setup on the part.

03:57

To do this, let's use the Align to Stock Face option.

04:01

As I press "Next", you can see we can align it to any one of the six faces of this block stock.

04:07

Let's go with the top face, and then the upper left, right, lower left, lower right corners of the stock, as well as the center.

04:15

Let's place it in the lower left hand corner of the stock.

04:18

So we'll want to touch off our part on that lower left hand corner.

04:22

And anytime we're entering any dimensions or creating features, it's all going to be based off that lower left corner.

04:30

With that, let's press "Finish".

04:32

And we can see we’re met with our stock properties page.

04:35

Whenever we create a new stock or a new feature in FeatureCAM, we’re always met with the stock properties page afterwards or feature properties.

04:43

Here we can dig through the menus to change anything that we just defined as part of that wizard.

04:49

So at any point, if I want to change the material type or the size of the stock or maybe even what the stock is, round, n-sided block, I can do so at the stock properties page.

04:60

I'll press "OK" to close this.

05:02

But if I ever want to access it again, I can do so by double clicking the Stock in the graphics window, or simple double clicking Stock 1 in the left hand side of our user interface under the Part View section.

05:18

So we've worked through our stock setup in the first little bit of our machining preparation.

05:22

Let's take care of the last details of our machining preparation step.

05:26

Whenever we're creating a project in FeatureCAM, and we're working through the machining preparation step, there's a few main things that we want to make sure we take care of.

05:35

The first is our setup location, or our touch off point to define where we'll be calculating our NC Code from.

05:42

Next, we want to define what tool crib we’ll be using for this project.

05:47

Tool cribs in FeatureCAM are a collection of tools that FeatureCAM can pull from when creating a feature.

05:54

When we create a feature in FeatureCAM, FeatureCAM in the background will be looking at the dimensions and properties of our feature and select an appropriate tool to machine that given feature.

06:06

For this example, we'll be using the Basic tool crib.

06:09

This is a default tool crib that comes with FeatureCAM that consists of a long list of different tools that could be found in your average shop.

06:19

To make sure we have this selected in the lower right hand corner of our interface, we’ll want to go to the basic header and make sure that our basic is selected.

06:28

FeatureCAM also has a basic metric, default tool crib, and a tools tool crib that combines both the basic and the basic metric tool cribs into one.

06:38

With our basic tool crib selected, the final thing that we want to do in our machining preparation stage is select the post processor we’ll be using for this project.

06:48

Post processors in FeatureCAM allow us to turn features into readable NC Code for our specific machine.

06:56

So each different machine will have its own post processor to go with it.

07:01

For this example, we'll be using the Fanuc 3-axis mill default.cnc post processor.

07:10

Similar to selecting a tool crib, we can look in the lower right hand corner, select, right now I already have Fanuc 3-axis mill default.cnc selected, but we can open up our window and browse to a given post processor.

07:25

With that post processor selected, we can hit "OK".

07:28

And now that we've worked through the first three steps of our workflow: opening a new document, setting up our stock, and doing the machining preparation, we're ready to move on to programming features for our project.

Video transcript

00:08

Welcome to our first lesson in the FeatureCAM standard milling course.

00:14

In this first lesson, we’ll be leveraging FeatureCAM's sketching and dimensioning tools to create our own NC program from scratch, as if we were creating a program based off of a drawing with dimensions.

00:27

As with any project in FeatureCAM, we’ll be using the workflow to guide us through this project all the way from opening to NC Code.

00:37

In this first video, we'll be covering the first three steps of our workflow:

00:42

opening a new part, setting up our stock, and taking into account any machining preparation details before we start programming features.

00:52

Let's start by opening a new part.

00:55

As you can see, I've just opened FeatureCAM and at this point, I'm ready to create a new document.

01:01

The first thing you'll notice that FeatureCAM asks us is what type of document type would we like to create.

01:06

Now, this is the milling course, so we'll obviously be using the milling setup throughout this course.

01:11

However, you should know that FeatureCAM is capable of programming a wide variety of different types of parts on different types of machines.

01:19

So with milling setup selected, next we can define our unit of measurement, for this project, let's go with inch.

01:26

We can then tell FeatureCAM how we would like to setup our stock.

01:30

Let's use the stock wizard in FeatureCAM.

01:32

We’ll be using this throughout the course and it's very, very helpful in setting up our stock.

01:37

Finally, we’ll tell FeatureCAM what we'd like to use for our machining configurations.

01:42

Just leave this at the default My Configuration, we’ll worry about this later on in this course.

01:47

With that, let's select Create a new document.

01:51

And as we can see, the first thing we're met with is our FeatureCAM's stock wizard.

01:56

FeatureCAM is full of wizards that help us break up maybe more complicated tasks into a series of easy questions and definitions.

02:04

First, with our stock wizard, you can see that the first question it asks is what type of stock we would like to create.

02:10

This is the material that we’ll be machining from, we could either do a block, round, or n-sided stock.

02:17

For now, let's go with a block stock with a width of 8 inches, a length of 8 inches and a thickness of 2 inches.

02:25

Once you filled in those parameters, feel free to press "Next" and now we can tell FeatureCAM what's the material type that we’ll be machining from.

02:34

You'll notice as I select this drop-down that FeatureCAM has a long list of default materials for us to choose from.

02:41

By selecting a material, this helps FeatureCAM calculate the feeds and speeds for us as we create different features.

02:48

At any point, we can create a new material or alter the feeds and speeds table for existing material.

02:55

For this part, we’ll select an aluminum, press "Next" and indicate whether we want to use any multi-axis positioning.

03:02

Now if you're moving on to some of the other classes in this course, we may use some fifth-axis positioning.

03:08

But for this course, we're focused on 2.5D and 3D milling in FeatureCAM, so we'll select No.

03:15

At this point, we fully defined our stock and we're ready to move on to the machining preparation part of our workflow inside of the same wizard.

03:24

Here, we’ll be defining our setup location or our touch off point.

03:29

This is the point from which all of our NC Code is calculated, and likely the point that you'll be touching off physically on the stock on your machine.

03:38

For this exercise, let's just leave the default setup name of Setup 1, a fixture ID of 54, which is pretty standard, and we'll just leave that part name as FM1.

03:49

Now that we've defined what we want to call our setup, where we'll be calculating our NC Code from, let's physically place that setup on the part.

03:57

To do this, let's use the Align to Stock Face option.

04:01

As I press "Next", you can see we can align it to any one of the six faces of this block stock.

04:07

Let's go with the top face, and then the upper left, right, lower left, lower right corners of the stock, as well as the center.

04:15

Let's place it in the lower left hand corner of the stock.

04:18

So we'll want to touch off our part on that lower left hand corner.

04:22

And anytime we're entering any dimensions or creating features, it's all going to be based off that lower left corner.

04:30

With that, let's press "Finish".

04:32

And we can see we’re met with our stock properties page.

04:35

Whenever we create a new stock or a new feature in FeatureCAM, we’re always met with the stock properties page afterwards or feature properties.

04:43

Here we can dig through the menus to change anything that we just defined as part of that wizard.

04:49

So at any point, if I want to change the material type or the size of the stock or maybe even what the stock is, round, n-sided block, I can do so at the stock properties page.

04:60

I'll press "OK" to close this.

05:02

But if I ever want to access it again, I can do so by double clicking the Stock in the graphics window, or simple double clicking Stock 1 in the left hand side of our user interface under the Part View section.

05:18

So we've worked through our stock setup in the first little bit of our machining preparation.

05:22

Let's take care of the last details of our machining preparation step.

05:26

Whenever we're creating a project in FeatureCAM, and we're working through the machining preparation step, there's a few main things that we want to make sure we take care of.

05:35

The first is our setup location, or our touch off point to define where we'll be calculating our NC Code from.

05:42

Next, we want to define what tool crib we’ll be using for this project.

05:47

Tool cribs in FeatureCAM are a collection of tools that FeatureCAM can pull from when creating a feature.

05:54

When we create a feature in FeatureCAM, FeatureCAM in the background will be looking at the dimensions and properties of our feature and select an appropriate tool to machine that given feature.

06:06

For this example, we'll be using the Basic tool crib.

06:09

This is a default tool crib that comes with FeatureCAM that consists of a long list of different tools that could be found in your average shop.

06:19

To make sure we have this selected in the lower right hand corner of our interface, we’ll want to go to the basic header and make sure that our basic is selected.

06:28

FeatureCAM also has a basic metric, default tool crib, and a tools tool crib that combines both the basic and the basic metric tool cribs into one.

06:38

With our basic tool crib selected, the final thing that we want to do in our machining preparation stage is select the post processor we’ll be using for this project.

06:48

Post processors in FeatureCAM allow us to turn features into readable NC Code for our specific machine.

06:56

So each different machine will have its own post processor to go with it.

07:01

For this example, we'll be using the Fanuc 3-axis mill default.cnc post processor.

07:10

Similar to selecting a tool crib, we can look in the lower right hand corner, select, right now I already have Fanuc 3-axis mill default.cnc selected, but we can open up our window and browse to a given post processor.

07:25

With that post processor selected, we can hit "OK".

07:28

And now that we've worked through the first three steps of our workflow: opening a new document, setting up our stock, and doing the machining preparation, we're ready to move on to programming features for our project.

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