Using the Profiling Operation

  1. In the Operations menu or toolbar click Profiling Operation .

  2. Digitise either the Wireframe profile(s), Features, Surfaces or Solid you wish to Profile. For wireframe you will need to position the Start/Side Arrow on the side to be machined (otherwise this is automatic).

    (When a Feature or Solid is selected the Depth values are Associative. Wireframe and Surface use an Absolute Clearance and Level with an incremental Depth.)
     

  3. Perform a Finish.

  4. Select a containment boundary if required

  5. Perform a Finish.

  6. Complete the dialog box for the operation. Click on OK.

    Note that in the dialog you cannot set both an Offset value and an XY Offset value; you can only set one or the other.

EdgeCAM now generates the toolpaths for the profiling operation, including any moves to position the tool.

For surface geometry the operation allows blank level and depth fields. When no values are specified level and depth are taken from the model.

 

Profile Material on the Left

This option is used to take advantage of the feature material side and to maintain associativity between the feature and the Profile operation.

When manually identifying features in EdgeCAM Solid Machinist, the direction of the profile is automatically selected such that the material is on the left. Checking the Profile Material on the Left option on the General tab of the Preferences (Operations menu) dialog will allow the machining operation to cut the correct side of the feature without any further intervention from the user.

This method can be used on wireframe geometry by chaining the profile in the correct direction so as to maintain the material on the left.