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Does HSMWORKS TRACE treat "arcs" as "splines" when they are not modeled as "splines"?

gmoushon

Cast Iron
Joined
May 18, 2006
Location
Illinois
Does HSMWORKS TRACE treat "arcs" as "splines" when they are not modeled as "splines"?

Wondering if anyone has run into this problem.

I'm trying to program the chamfer on a moderately involved part using trace because the chamfer geometry involves some edges that change in Z as well as X and Y. Everything is modeled with arcs and lines only. NO SPLINES. However, when I use TRACE, it puts in a lot of end-points as if it were a spline.

To test it, I selected a circle and used both TRACE and 2D-CONTOUR for that same circle. TRACE handled it as an arc, putting in a bunch of end-points and 2D-CONTOUR treated it as a circle using G3.

Is this yet another bug or am I not properly understanding the TRACE strategy?

Thanks,
gm
 
I can't say I've seen that exact issue. Can you post the part or at least the geometry we're talking about? What version of HSMWorks and SolidWorks?

Have you tried doing a 3D sketch of the geometry and then using that sketch as the driving feature for the Trace op?
 
I can't say I've seen that exact issue. Can you post the part or at least the geometry we're talking about? What version of HSMWorks and SolidWorks?

Have you tried doing a 3D sketch of the geometry and then using that sketch as the driving feature for the Trace op?


Thanks for the reply. I was hoping you would.

Yes, I've tried a 3D sketch as well. I don't understand this because I've successfully done a similar chamfer routine and even "protected" the strategy and ran it without a problem. Now, after programming the final operation, I go back and simulate that "protected" strategy and now it shows a bunch of end-points as if it were a spline.

I attached a small zip for a simple model that illustrates the concept of what I'm attempting.

Thanks again for your help.
gm.
 

Attachments

  • Trace Test Block.zip
    95.4 KB · Views: 16
Yea, sorry I wasn't thinking about your question correctly. Trace definitely doesn't do arcs well. I usually get all linear moves around arcs, including holes.

If you want true arcs, you can use the Blend toolpath and turn on smoothing. I use Blend regularly for this sort of 3D chamfer/radii with good results.

Just in case you don't know: to enable the Blend toolpath, while your mouse is in the CAM Manager window, CTRL+SHIFT+RIGHT MOUSE CLICK and select "Enable Beta Mode".
 








 
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