3D Area Clearance
3D Area Clearance
3D Area Clearance
The main strategies for roughing a 3D component Model are called 3D Area Clearance. These
provide a choice of 2D material removal methods, which progressively machine the area (Slice),
up to the component contour, down a sequence of user-defined Z Heights. There is also a similar
group of strategies, 2.5D Area Clearance for use, exclusively with PowerMILL 2.5D Feature Sets-
Step 2:
Sometimes known as Waterline Roughing the cutter steps down to a specified Z Height and fully
clears an area (Slice) before stepping down to the next Z Height to repeat the process for some
components a secondary Area Clearance strategy is applied using the Rest Machining options in
conjunction with a smaller roughing tool. This will locally remove pockets of excess material
inaccessible to the original Reference Tool path or Stock Model. This will reduce the degree of
tool overload and provide a more consistent material removal rate for any subsequent Finishing
operations.
If the original material is in the form of a casting or fabrication then it may not be necessary to
apply any Area Clearance machining but to go directly for a semi-Finishing strategy
Step 3:
Suitable values are required to control the accuracy and amount of excess material to be left on a
component by a tool path. The parameters used for this purpose are preset and are called Thickness
and Tolerance. Thickness is the amount of extra material specified to remain on the work-piece
after machining. This can be applied generally (as shown), or independently as separate Radial
and Axial values within the machining options.
4. Step 4:
As soon as the Raster AreaClear Model form is opened an unprocessed Toolpath appears
in the Explorer (the default name has been changed to D50T6_A1).
The Toolpath icon can now be double-clicked to Activate and de-activate the toolpath.
The + symbol can be clicked to open a full record of the data used to create the toolpath.
The dotted red lines represent Rapid moves and the light blue lines are the Plunge feed
moves. The Plunge moves at present are longer than necessary resulting in time wasted
by the tool feeding down in free space where most of the move could be Rapid.
The existing toolpath will now be Recycled with new settings to improve the efficiency
of Rapid movements across the component.
• Right mouse click over the Toolpath icon in the explorer to open the local pull down
menu.
• Select Settings to reopen the Raster AreaClear Model form.
• Select the ‘Recycle toolpath’ icon (shown arrowed below).
• Select the Rapid Moves Height icon from the main toolbar
• Select the Skim option and change the Safe Z to 5 and Start Z to 3 as shown below.
• Accept the above form and then click Apply in the Raster AreaClear Model form and
once processing is complete click Cancel to close the form.
The tool will now plunge locally (pale blue move) from the defined Incremental - Start Z
above each slice and rapid across the roughed areas by the Incremental - Safe Z (purple
move).
The toolpath has been recycled with the Skim option set in the Rapid Move Heights form
and now uses Incremental Safe Z and Start Z values (Note; In practice more than one
change can be implemented when Recycling or Copying a toolpath).
This time a Copy of the above toolpath will be created using the Area Filter options to
remove the single pass tooltracks which are stepping down each of the four corners
Note the toolpath can also be activated or deactivated from the Activate switch in the
pulldown menu
5. Step 5:
A new toolpath called D50T6_A1_1 is created with the corner machining filtered out
6. Step 6:
•Perform both an Animation and a ViewMILL simulation on the final Raster Area
Clearance tool-path.
• Select the ViewMILL Suspend icon and No Image to return to the PowerMILL session.
Note:-By toggling back to PowerMILL, the ViewMILL session will still exist in the
background so that any subsequent toolpaths can later be used to continue the simulation.
This restores all default PowerMILL settings in the forms without having to exit and re-
enter.