excluding zones from tool path files

[plemon]

Hi,

I am carving a relief into a door and I noticed that with the finishing path it was actually machining off a huge flat area that I expected the roughing path to clear. It is taking a lot of time and the smaller cutters don't do as nice a job. Is there a quick way in partworks or cut3d to exclude areas from a particular cutter? The item I am doing is a 3d relief.

Cheers,

Phil Lemon

[knight_toolworks]

nope you stuck for it.

[andyb]

Phil,
If I understand you right, there is a way. Draw a vector around the area that you want to exclude. Select that vector with the outside vector and then create the finishing toolpath. That should do it. However, the roughing pass will leave the Maching Allowance you have selected.

Andy B.

[blackhawk]

Phil - I use Aspire and I think that I know the problem that you are talking about. What happens in Aspire is this...Say your final depth after the finish cut is to be .500 inches. If you have your roughing tool set for a pass depth of .300 inches, Aspire will leave .200" (the difference) for the finishing tool to cut. Of course, .200" of material can be too much for a 1/16" endmill at times. If you drop the pass depth of the finishing tool to .230", it should then only leave .040" for the finish tool to cleanup.

Basically, just lower the depth per pass setting on your roughing tool and see if that helps.

You set the amount of material to be left for the finishing tool in Aspire, but it doesn't work the way it should if you are taking multiple passes with your roughing tool. I don't understand why Vectric did it this way.