RCS Machine
Aluminum
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2018
- Location
- Deerwood, MN
We are moving from Powermill to MasterCam 2021 and one of the larger gripes I have so far is trying to determine cutter length for sidewall avoidance without going through a lot of hassle. This is for 3D contour toolpaths where you are dealing with tapered/drafted walls where a pocket may be .750 deep but because of the sidewall taper, a smaller diameter cutter may only have to have a flute length of .650.
In Powermill, I would just design my cutters flute length and stick out distance short, calculate the program and them do a collision avoidance. It would then give me the exact length the flute length had to be and the total stick out distance to avoid any crashes.
In MasterCam I am building my tool as usual them running their avoidance and visually seeing what will be cut and what will be hit with that cutter set-up. From there I'm readjusting the flute lengths until things look visually "OK".
Is there a better way you MasterCam guys are going about this? We are building injection molds and cutting with special tapered cutters is not in the game plan. Every .01 of an inch counts when you are grinding back a .0625 or .0312 endmill way further than it should be ground back.
In Powermill, I would just design my cutters flute length and stick out distance short, calculate the program and them do a collision avoidance. It would then give me the exact length the flute length had to be and the total stick out distance to avoid any crashes.
In MasterCam I am building my tool as usual them running their avoidance and visually seeing what will be cut and what will be hit with that cutter set-up. From there I'm readjusting the flute lengths until things look visually "OK".
Is there a better way you MasterCam guys are going about this? We are building injection molds and cutting with special tapered cutters is not in the game plan. Every .01 of an inch counts when you are grinding back a .0625 or .0312 endmill way further than it should be ground back.