Lesson 2 - Import, Stock, Machining Prep

00:10

Welcome to our second and final lesson in the FeatureCAM Ultimate milling class.

00:16

In this lesson, we're going to take a look at a couple more options that we have, when controlling our 5-axis simultaneous toolpath in FeatureCAM Ultimate.

00:27

Just like with any part, we'll start by opening a new document, importing our models, setting up our stock, and taking care of machine prep.

00:36

So to start things off, let's open up an inch milling document.

00:40

With our document open, first, import the Ultimate_2 part parasolid file.

00:47

I'll simply drag and drop that into my user interface, indicate that I'd like to import it, and use the wizard to establish the initial setup location and stock size.

00:58

First, define the Z direction so that it's pointed upwards.

01:02

For this, I'll just use the Align with center of a revolved surface and pick this outside surface.

01:09

Reversing Z, just to make sure that that Z is pointed upwards, "Next".

01:14

And next, let's define the X direction.

01:17

What I want is for my X direction to point down this face right here.

01:21

Now this is going to be hard to do exactly, but we just need to get close enough.

01:26

And in the end, it really doesn't matter where we point our X direction.

01:30

So I'm going to select pick two points to define the X direction.

01:34

And it looks like this small segment right here seems to also point down this face.

01:40

I'm going to zoom in, pick two points along this segment.

01:45

Zoom out to see if I pointed down that face.

01:48

It looks pretty good.

01:50

I'll select "Next".

01:53

And simply define our stock as a block stock.

01:56

In this exercise, we’ll again be importing a solid model for our stock, so it really doesn't matter what we enter here.

02:04

Place the setup location in the top center of the part.

02:08

Indicate that we want to use fifth axis positioning.

02:12

And finally, select the index center of rotation to be the center of the imported data’s bounding box.

02:19

With that selected, we finish the wizard.

02:22

And now we're ready to define our stock.

02:25

As I mentioned, for this exercise, we’ll be importing a solid model to define our stock.

02:31

In the real world, this could be a situation where we have already done some material prep and run an Op1.

02:38

Now we'll be taking the results of that Op1 and be machining it on our 5-axis machine.

02:44

So, drag and drop the Ultimate_2 Stock Parasolid file into the user interface.

02:52

So let's use the same alignment as last import and "Finish".

02:57

This aligns this model in the same way that we just aligned our first model.

03:03

Now open up the Stock properties, select User Defined, stock solid, and select this stock solid model that we just imported.

03:13

"OK" and "Apply", "OK".

03:16

And finally, I'm just going to hide that model so that we can program our features.

03:22

Now with both of our models imported, our stock setup, and our touch off location placed, the last two things we need to do are indicate what tool crib we'd like to use and what post processor.

03:35

Ensure that the Basic tool crib is selected and then drag and drop the 5-axis.cnc post processor file into the user interface.

03:45

Now with our part completely setup, we're ready to move on and create our features.