Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO]A question of size managenent.

Hi Bill:
I goobered my post of this morning a bit: where it said "Splines and
arcs will output as line segments in most CAM software", it should have said
"Splines and SURFACES..."

If you created a swept surface and then generated toolpaths to follow the
surface, you will have gotten code that was a whole bunch of short linear
moves (G01 code).
Depending on the sophistication of AUS CAD as a CAM program, you have
several options to get code that includes arc moves.
Mastercam, which is my main CAM program, allows spline to arc conversion,
and also allows me to generate profiles from arcs with tapers in "Z".
I have no idea if AUS CAD can do anything like that.
If you can place points on your surfaces then you could construct arcs at
each Z level that you want to cut, and create some kind of contour path
along each arc.
Or you can try to write a subroutine that offsets your base geometry by a
set amount at each change in Z.
This was what I was talking about earlier...

" A lot of the guys I worked with, preferred to take a simple 2D profile and

>> program only the first pass.
>> They would then "loop" the program to create all the subsequent passes.
>> That gave them only one short chunk of code to edit.
>> If you have multiple copies of your profile to cut, it makes for a very
>> economical program, but you have to know how to set up the loop commands

in

>> your particular controller."

If they were making a parallel sided part, they would repeat the subroutine
enough times to get to final depth.

If they were making a tapered part, they would offset the geometry by a set
amount for each change in Z.

In each case they were making a single part: multiple passes from only a
single profile.

Marcus