Aspire Toolpathing

[kubotaman]

Okay don't get madbut I tried to post this on the Aspire forum but for some reason I was unsuccessfuyl. So please bear with me.

I am puzzled about what I had to do today. Let's say I do a toolpath that is a pocket cut. Say the pocket is .25" deep. I then want to do a .5" deep dish below the pocket cut. I finally figured out that I had to make the dish then .75" deep since the bottom would then be .5" below the pocket toolpath or .75" below the original top surface. Say the pass per cut is .2. It then makes the spindle do an air cut, since the pocket cut has been finished, on it's first pass till it is then sent down to the second cut of .4". Is there a way to to stop from doing the air cut without editing the tool path? I could reset the cutter after the pocket cut is finished but there must be a better way. Anyone have suggestions. All I would want to do is eliminate the "air cut".

[tmerrill]

Daryl,

I'm not sure why you don't want to edit your toolpath, but that is the best way to eliminate the air cut.

You would edit your second toolpath and enter a start depth of 0.25" followed by the total cut depth of 0.5". This will start the second toolpath at -0.25" below the material surface (without any air cut) and remove another 0.5" of material from that point.

You would need to remember the correct order the cuts have to be made as using a start depth assumes material has already been removed.

Tim

[myxpykalix]

I'm not sure i absolutely understand what you are doing but if i do then why couldn't you zero at the material surface as usual then after that cut is made return to your home position (JH) then lower the Z .25 and REzero at that point and you would not be cutting air.

No editing necessary, am i understanding what you want to do?:confused:

[tmerrill]

Jack,

If he has his second toolpath set up for a cut depth of 0.75" from the surface, then starting it 0.25" deep will result in a total cut depth of 1.0".

But you are right, there won't be any air cutting!

You should be able to model this in your copy of Aspire and check the final depth. ;)

[kubotaman]

You are all correct and I knew of the suggestions, so thank you for the help. But here is an example where I am not sure of the answer. Say I do exactley as I mentioned in my original post above. The dish is say cut on an angle, meaning a degree on the side, as it deepens. When a person will view the cuts as they are being made in Aspire then the sides of the dish will not be where the vectors are for the dish. This is due to the pocket cutting, .25", cutting the top of the dish off. The finished product, meaning the dish, will be smaller than the vectors in the drawing and you really don't know how large the finished dish will be. Hope I have made myself clear. Any more help out there?

[myxpykalix]

if you have a screencap of your virtual problem might give a better idea of the problem. I don't know this program but i might better understand the problem if you have a pic.

Tim-"starting it 0.25" deep will result in a total cut depth of 1.0"." I can see where that might present a problem! lol

[blackhawk]

Daryl - Can you draw us a cross section of how you want the finished pocket and dish are to look? Where does the angle come from, are you using a tapered ball endmill for the dish?

[tmerrill]

I'll give it one more try.

In the 2D view below there are 3 cross-sections. The top one is what you want with a 0.25" deep pocket cut with a 2D pocket toolpath and a dish that is 0.5" deep at the center and starts at the bottom of the pocket. It would be modeled and machined as a 3D component.

The center and bottom cross-sections show where you are now.

If this is what you want, I created the dish shape by checking Scale to Exact height, 0.5, then Subtract and make component.

Now select the dish in component manager and give it a (negative) base height of -0.25 and press the space bar. This will maintain the shape of the dish and position the top of it 0.25" below the material surface.

I don't think you will be able to eliminate the air cut unless you model some or all of the pocket as a 3D component.

[kubotaman]

Tim you are absolutely correct as to what I was trying to do. My only problem that I guess I made was I didn't make the dish a component. Do you think that is what my problem was? I will draw it again and see if it makes a difference. I do thank all for the help.

[ssflyer]

I came in late to this thread, but it seems to me that Tim's first answer should work for you - when you set the start depth to 0.25, your original dish dimensions should be retained.

[tmerrill]

Daryl,

I have figured out how a better way to do this and it eliminates the air cut.

First you need to model both the pocket and the dish as 3D components. See first picture.

Now select the circle vector that defines the top of the dish and use this as your boundary vector when you calculate the 3D roughing and finishing passes.

You will still cut your pocket with a 2D pocket toolpath, you just need to create it as a 3D component so Aspire can detect the surface and know where to start the dish toolpath. In the second picture, the brown pocket is the 2D Pocket toolpath and the blue lines are the 3D dish finish pass, and it starts at the bottom of the pocket so no air cut.

Hi Ron,

The issue is Daryl wants to have a 3D component start at the bottom of a 2D toolpath and Aspire does not recognize that. If these were both 2D toolpaths, the start depth would work, but there is no start depth option with the 3D toolpaths. So only two ways I am aware of is position the dish below the surface with a negative base height or the option I just gave above.

Tim

[ssflyer]

Hi Tim,

I'm probably misunderstanding something here, but Here's my quick check - I simply made a rectangle vector, and converted to component, 0.25 height, subtracted. Then I made an oval and set arbritrary angles to test. This is what my result was...

[tmerrill]

Ron,

You are right, that's how I made my example above.

The problem here is interpretation and lack of detail. Nothing against Daryl, as I know it can be hard, but it took both of his posts together before I started to understand what he was looking for.

Daryl refers to a "pocket cut" for the 0.25" deep pocket and so I assumed he wanted to keep that as a 2d pocket toolpath for faster machine time and better edge quality.

In any event, hopefully he has what he needs now.

Tim

[kubotaman]

I guess maybe I wasn't clear in my description. Sorry. It is hard sometimes to put on paper what a person wants to explain, at least for me. I obviously wanted to cut the pocket as soon as possible by not using 3d cutting. Since I have to learn what I can by myself I take it from our conversation that Aspire knows where a top surface is when it is created as a component. Am I correct? By the way how are you fellas putting the pictures of your examples into your answers? How are your capturing the pictures from your screen? Hope Im clear on the question.

[chiloquinruss]

In Aspire when you are previewing the 3d image look at the very last option, Save Preview Image. This will create a .jpg of your 3d image. Russ

[tmerrill]

Daryl,

Don't feel bad, explaining something technical like that is a challenge for us all. If possible, it always helps to supply any pictures, 2D outlines, or whatever.

In Aspire, it will only recognize the material surface or a 3D surface as far as calculating a 3D toolpath. If you don't model the pocket area as a 3D component, Aspire calculates the dish as starting from the top of the material, which you saw as an air cut. But if you create a pocket as a 3D component, then Aspire knows the top of the dish starts at -0.25".

In addition to what Russ said about using the Save Preview Image, I've also been using the Snipping tool in Vista and Windows 7. More control over the size of the area you want to capture plus some simple marking tools. See this thread if you would like more info:

http://www.vectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=6830

Tim

[burchbot]

If you don’t have a snipping tool here is a free one.
http://greenshot.sourceforge.net/ (http://greenshot.sourceforge.net/)
I hope someone finds this useful
Dan

[kubotaman]

Again thnaks for the help and replies. After 2 hours of trying to figure out why my dish came out incorrect it finally dawned on me why it would be cut wrong. Sometimes a lot of time is wasted on a very simple procedure such as this. Thanks again!!

[rcnewcomb]

Sometimes a lot of time is wasted on a very simple procedureAt one time or another each of us qualifies for the "DOH!" Award
`http://www.mds975.co.uk/Images/homer_simpson_doh_01.jpg

[tmerrill]

Actually, I think a great way to view it is as long as you walk away with the answer, it was time well spent :)

That is how we learn.