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Tool Centre |
Tool Inside |
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Tool Outside |
Offset |
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Mill Type - Determines the direction in which the pencil curve will be cut.
Climb - Tool cuts on the left of the profile (i.e. material is on the right-hand side of the tool in the direction of travel).
Conventional - Tool cuts on right of the profile (i.e. material is on the left-hand side of the tool in the direction of travel.
Optimised - Cycle is optimised to reduce link moves. The tool may cut on the left or right side.
There can be areas on the model where the material side for a given curve is ambiguous such as a "V" groove or "S" shapes where the side changes. In these cases the direction machined will be relative to the steeper of the two walls and if necessary the toolpath will be split into separate segments.
If Down Mill has been enabled it will take precedence over Mill Type.
Tolerance - Specifies the maximum deviation of the generated toolpath from the selected, mathematically correct, surface.
% Stepover -This is used when adding additional passes either side of the centre trace and specifies the exact maximum spacing between each pass as a percentage of the tool diameter. Entering a value of 100 would, for example, represent a distance of 100% of the tool diameter, and so the consecutive passes would be no more than one tool diameter apart.
Offset - Specifies the offset of the toolpath from all surfaces. The offset value may be negative but cannot be greater than the tool corner radius.
Number of Passes - Specifies the number of additional passes either side of the center trace.
Down Mill
Enable Down Mill - Check this box to enable the down milling option.
Down Mill Angle - Specifies the minimum angle (range between 0 - 90) at which a curve is to be considered for down milling. This ensures that curves are not split up at every slight change in angle.
Feed
Feedrate - Specifies the rate of movement in the workplane.
Plunge Feed - Specifies the rate of movement in the direction of the tool axis.
Speed - Specifies the tool spindle speed.
Boundary Control
At the prompt to 'Digitise containment boundaries...', you can select closed loop geometry within which to contain the toolpath. The Containment is in the XY plane, so for the settings below, imagine you are looking vertically downwards at the toolpath and containment boundaries (that is looking down the CPL Z axis towards the origin). See an illustration of the settings....
Tool Control - Set the part of the tool that you want to control the position of, relative to the Containment Boundaries. Choose from:
Tool Centre - The path of the centre of the tool is kept within the containment boundary.
Tool Inside - No part of the tool can go outside the containment boundary.
Tool Outside - The tool can go outside the containment boundary by the diameter of the tool.
Offset - For the effective containment boundary, an amount to expand (positive values) or contract (negative values) the digitised containment boundary geometry. This is a 2D expansion in the XY plane.
