: "Pete" wrote :> Tom Kink wrote
: > > David Janes schrieb: : >
: > > : "Shaun T" wrote : > > : Hello, : > > : I am machining a pocket, first I ruff it with a .25 Ball end mill : > > : and then with a 4mm all endmil, each time I pick mill volume and pick : > > : the same volume, when the tool path is created the 4mm ruffs away alot : > > : of the same material that the 250 did, is there any way (parameter) to : > > : set it to know what material it hase ruffed away in a previous NC : > > : sequence? : > >
: > > Shaun, one of the unfortunate things about Pro/NC is that it doesn't give you any : > > help in picking roughing and finishing routines. Mill volume is great, really : > > simple if you are going to rough and finish with the same tool. But, if you plan : > > to do it in steps and stages, Mill volume is good only as a roughing routine. You : > > might gain some advantage by picking as your 'rough option', prof_only for a : > > second pass with a smaller cutter. Or you could define a shorter mill volume, one : > > which starts at about the height of the roughed stock. But, you are probably more : > > likely at the point where you can start Mill Surface routines. All of this depends : > > on the geometry, but mill surface is most appropriate for curvy type surfaces. : > > Others would be profile and pocket or profile and trajectory. Drafts are possible : > > if you use draft cutters. : >
: > Isn't there a tool to remove cutted material and then only 'sees' the : > one that is left? Of course, the sequences would go "volume mill#remove : > material#volume mill", but with copy and such, it shouldn't be too much : > work. : >
: > But I must admit, I haven't used this in a very long time ... so it may : > not work after all. : >
: > Tom : : : You can create a material removal feature which will cut the volume, : leaving behind the amount of stock as defined in the PROF_STOCK_ALLOW : parameter. This however is a uniform cut, and does not show the : scallops left behind but the cutter shape.
This material removal featue is also good only for seeing the workpiece take shape as each machining feature removes material. It does not participate in guiding the next roughing or finishing milling cycle. This is the point I made in my first reply post: there is nothing in Pro/NC like rough, intermediate rough and finish. With SurfCAM at least you can do what they call 'Rest Mill' which analyzes where stock remains and just machines there. Pro/NC has no idea, no concept, not the slightest concern at all for where stock been removed or where stock remains.
: No CAM application in fact : has a heuristic material removal feature. It can be done if you have : full-blown Vericut (which I doubt). It is possible to export the cut : model (gouges and scallops and all) as an IGES file from Vericut, : bring it into ProE and as a part and use it to cut out the reference : model, resulting in an accurate workpiece vis-a-vis what the tool did : to the part. : My point, exactly. You are constantly having to fake out really dumb machining software. And that's all that exporting an iges from Vericut amounts to. Why doesn't Pro/NC know what's been cut and what remains and let you program *that* instead of letting you waste time cutting air!?!
: WF2 has added some new re-roughing capabilities, but I've yet to : explore them even though we are running WF2 in production. 99 percent : of our machining is of the prismatic variety, and we don't commonly : mill out contoured surface or use ball end mills except to generate : simple rounds in cavities. : : As for their being PTC employees monitoring the group - I don't know. : It doesn't seem worthwhile, in my view. I think you get a lot more : good responses by subscribing the newsgroups at ptcuser.org and using : a newsreader like Outlook Express. This 3 to 6 hour posting time on : Google is just ludicrous. I am sending this at 11:18am EST and this : probably won't appear until this evening. People have work to do and : need answers in 5 minutes, not 5 hours. : Agreed, you need a forum with quicker response than Google. But it was only evern meant to be an archive, not even especially for people to participate through. But it's grown in mission and scope. Some of this seems to be growing pains.
: I never see you on the 6 groups to which I'm subscribed, David. What : gives? I think I've been to most of them. I used to subscribe to the email exploder of PRO/USER. But I had tghe same complaint you have about Google: I got the emailed conversations on a daily basis, but by the time I got them, it was a complete discussion. I got the original post plus half a dozen or more responses. Question settled, problem solved. It seemed like the Exploder was picking up conversations taking place somewhere else. Made it extremely difficult to participate. And there were a lot of silly pissing contests, unprofessional, trivial crap. So I dropped them. They're probably all different now. Maybe I should try them again. They're on a list I'm compiling of other Pro/e resources that I want to publish here for people's use.
Most of the others that I've participated in at one time or another have gotten too cute in the last few years. Now you have to start an account and sign up for stuff. One of them you've got to pay a fee to participate in which is meant to keep people away ~ and it's working. Then they want user profiles, track your useage and rate you. And all of this is being done by some persons or groups unknown. Who is Proecentral, for example? These are moderated groups and you have no idea who or what's behind them, they are not up front about who they are (not singling out Proecentral, it just comes to mind) or how they operate or who's in charge. It just feels creepy, like you got some people hiding in there.
Then I tried participating in a help column on one of the Pro/e ezines, Pro/e Digital Digest or one of those creatures. I got a post-in-reply sent back by the editor three times to improve my 'signature'. Okay, I had to include my city, oh, yeah, and then my job title & company. They wouldn't accept Pro/e Vagrant or Chief Architect on the Manhattan Project so I fudged something like Unemployed designer in San Diego. But it was just all too painful, awkward and a bit humiliating. So that's just one more place I have been back to as a contributor.
I know you provide a lot of useful advice here....as a matter : of fact, I think of it more as comp.cad.davidjanes.
That's very funny, Pete. I want to put that on my Resume. Can I quote you: "Pete says they should call it...." But the point of this (comp.cad.pro-engineer) is that there's no admission requirements, no profiles, no fees, no by-laws, no behind-the-scenes manipulators. This is pure WYSIWIG. If you step up, try to contribute (membership by participation), you're in. Period. I don't think that any of those other six you mentioned have quite that breadth of participation or depth of vision. They're much more exclusionary than I'm comfortable with.
: But I can't say I : look at it every day like ptcuser because it's kind of like a soap : opera - you can miss it for a week and still get caught up in one : episode. : That's only telling you that we're not very busy. But that could change over night with the presence of someone on PTC's payroll coming here periodically. Man, that would be one sharp (and brave) ginza. I'd personally buy such a sturdy soul a kevlar vest, cuz you know s/he'd have to be bulletproofed.
David Janes