Can't get starting height correct with RhinoCAM 1.0, Rhino 4

[titchener]

I'm using RhinoCAM Basic 1.0.1.3 with the most recent update of Rhino 4.0.

I'm having problems with the 3D Horizontal Roughing command. I've got the Clearance Plane set to Stock Max Z + Dist. with the Dist. set to 0.1 and a max Z of zero.

In the Engage/Retract tab for the op I also set the Ramp Height to 0.1.

But in the generated code, the first Z move takes the tool to Z0.1875 and it engages down from there. Likewise at the end of the routine it takes the tool to Z0.1875. This turns out to be 1/2 my tool radius.

Why is it using this height instead of the ones I requested?

The file is attached.

[MecSoft Support]

Hi,
If I look at the toolpath in the toolpath editor using the Pro product the clearance plane is at Z=0.1. I am not sure where you are getting the Z=0.1875 coordinates from. Is it in the posted output? If so there could be some settings in your post that is causing this. If you want you can send us the post file (.spm in the Posts folder under the RhinoCAM installation folder) and we can tell you what is going on. Send it to [email protected]

[titchener]

I'm not seeing the problem I saw earlier with the Clearance plane, to be honest I'm not sure what fixed it, but its ok now.

However, the generated code still isn't correct at engagement.

I've got the Clearance plane set to 0.1, and the top of the stock is at 0.0 .

However, as shown in the code below:


G00 G40.1 G17 G80 G50 G90 G20
(Horizontal Roughing)
T91 M6
G43 H91
M03 S5600
M8
G00 Z0.1000 X4.7767 Y4.4096
G01 Z-0.0500 F5.0
X4.7541 Z-0.0582 F5.0
X4.6887 Y4.4035 Z-0.0821
X4.6793 Y4.3071 Z-0.1174
X4.6842 Y3.9428 Z-0.2500

for some reason the line G01 Z-0.0500 F5.0 plunges the tool straight down into the stock, then proceeds with the "Engage" routine. The graphics show this move in yellow as a Plunge, which as stated in the doc means-

"Plunge Feed - The Plunge speed rate is the speed before the tool starts to engage in material. This is always vertical."

Why is this plunge occuring into the stock?

(I reattached the most recent version of the file that generated this code).

Thanks,

Paul T.

[MecSoft Support]

The reason the plunge is happening in stock is because your engage ramp height is not large enough. In the horizontal roughing operation you have set the ramp height to 0.2 inches. However your cut depth is set to 50% of tool diameter which works out to be 0.25 inches. This means the first cut level will be 0.25 inches below the top of the stock model. And your ramp height is only 0.2 inches which means there will be a 0.05 inch vertical plunge. If you make the ramp height larger than 0.25 then you will not see the vertical plunge in the stock.