avoiding removal of area outside of part

[JohnCoker]

I just made three pairs of fin profiles. The fins occupy about 3/4 of the area of their bounding rectangle, but when I generated the path for the shape in PartWorks 3D, it insisted on removing the material outside the part.

Instead, I would rather have it leave the waste material alone and make a final cut-out of the actual part. I tried to use the third (cut-out) toolpath, but that just cut out the bounding box, not the two parts.

So, how do I get PartWorks 3D to ignore the area outside the parts themselves when creating the toolpaths?

http://jcsw.com/temp/profilecutting.jpg

This picture is during the rough-out pass. The finishing pass also cleans up this waste area.

[gc3]

keep trying... trial n error, previews...tutorials will show you the way

[steve_g]

John…
Is there a 3D component to this part, or why are you using PW3D? A profile path in V-CP would be what appears to me to be the more direct route to what you want…
SG

[tlempicke]

You don't want 3d for this job. Profile>outside in the 2d toolpath part of the program is what you need.
When you are doing a 3d job and you don't want the area outside of the workpiece to be passed over by the cutter you need to set a boundary (model>set boundary vector from selected components).

[JohnCoker]

This definitely is a 3D job as the finished part has compound curves and a taper. The first picture was the rough-out pass, to make it easier to see the waste outside the part being milled down.

http://jcsw.com/temp/profilefinished.jpg

Note this question is not on how to draw a part, but on making the cutting paths more efficient by not spending time milling the waste area.

[adrianm]

How have you defined the machining margins?

[Xray]

As Tom said, drawing vector boundaries around the objects should do what you want, machine within the vectors only.
Often times in 3D people want to machine the whole project for a "standing proud" effect, where the raised design stands out from the planed background. This will happen by default unless you tell the machine specifically what to mill within a project by assigning vector boundaries.

[adrianm]

You can't draw vectors in PW3D to define an area. That's in Aspire.

[JohnCoker]

Thanks guys. Next time I go through this process, I'll look for boundary/margin settings in the wizard.

[JohnCoker]

OK, I had occasion to make another similar part, so I looked more carefully at page 2 of the wizard, and found the way: "Use Model Silhouette".

http://jcsw.com/temp/PartWorks3D.png

This, plus using the cutout pass gave me a perfect result, with no more machining than necessary.

http://jcsw.com/temp/profilescut.jpg

[scottp55]

Looking good John! Still say your your spoilboard's to neat:)

[JohnCoker]

Looking good John! Still say your your spoilboard's to neat:)
I just resurfaced it for this operation, because these profiles taper to nothing. Also, I still use backer boards for most through cutting, so my spoilboard only has screw holes and a couple of mistaken too-deep cuts.