Knurling and textures

There was a discussion in the MadCAM forum at cnczone.com how to produce textures and as usual it's so much easier to see it visually. Here are my contributions. Knurling The classical line cutting is pretty straight forward, it's just a matter of making the polyline pattern you like and then do it with a Project Curves command. There's a catch though (There will be a check for this in coming releases); you need to cut below the surface to get the lines in the material. You set Stock To Leave to a negative number to do that. But you can't set Stock To Leave to a value lower than the cutter radius! 2 mm cutter, -1 at most. 4 mm cutter, -2 at most and so on. This is only happening on the negative side though. The algorithm behind the path calculation will find edges in the mesh and fall through. BUT there's a simple work around for this. The Project Curves command is only following the polylines with the tool tip and which tool you choose in the cutter dialog doesn't matter for the tool path itself. The only thing that will happen if you choose a bigger cutter is that the simulator will not show the exact result. Select a 4 mm cutter and you can cut to -1.9 with no problem.

Textures When it comes to a 3D surface like a plastic pistol grip, this is how I have done it. There are for sure 10 other ways to do it but this came out very good. * I'm splitting the area of the surface where I want to make the 3D pattern. * Use the ApplyDisplacement command that takes an image and "bumps" the surface. Play with the image itself and the texture settings. I've used an image of gravel. ApplyDisplacement is using the contrast in the image to make the texture within the height you specify in the dialog. A Black and white image with very little shades will make the surface "worse", a softer image will make the surface smoother. * This is not yet a real surface, it's just a visual context. Extract the bumps with MESH->From Nurbs Object, and then apply the mesh on the surface with Mesh->Apply To Surface! * At last, remove the original surface, reselect the working box, make a region and prepare a toolpath.

(And of course, the vid's are available in HD)

5 Axis indexed

This is a small triangle with facets that I made as an example to show 5-axis indexed. This will make the tool tip perpendicular to the surface and the facet will be smooth right away with even with big steps.

Old but nice vid, rear wing model

Old vid showing some Rhino and MadCAM 4 work. These are the sides for a rear wing. The base is taken from measures directly on the car to get a smooth and solid mount. The width is making the wing wider than the coupe and it's resting a bit above the roof.

As usual, I run this demo in a virtual environment and it makes the simulator acting a bit odd. Try it for real!

Toolpath Array

How to make an arrayed toolpath in MadCam. You need to make a Group Repair to reconnect the new paths with the original path.

This clip is available in HD. Maximize the video screen and increase the resolution and you'll have a crisp clear view. As usual, I run this demo in a virtual environment and it makes the simulator acting a bit odd. Try it for real!

3D toolpaths for 4-axis indexing

Making indexed 3D toolpaths for 4-axis machining is simple in MadCAM. Generate the toolpaths for each step and rotate them together with the model to make next toolpath. Before simulating or post processing, select the machine setup you are working with and the processing will take care of the indexing.

This clip is available in HD. Maximize the video screen and increase the resolution and you'll have a crisp clear view. As usual, I run this demo in a virtual environment and it makes the simulator acting a bit odd. Try it for real!

Making a mirrored toolpath

There are two ways to do a mirrored copy of a toolpath in MadCAM. Either you make a copy of the toolpath and rotate/move the copy into the new position, OR you do a mirror command and then Group repair. When doing a mirror of the toolpath MadCAM looses the reference to the start point for the new path, but that's an easy fix with the Group Repair command. To see the the new path in the simulator you have to reselect all the parts.

This clip is available in HD. Maximize the video screen and increase the resolution and you'll have a crisp clear view. As usual, I run this demo in a virtual environment and it makes the simulator acting a bit odd. Try it for real!

Three alternatives, same model

These are a couple of examples (a Rhino file from cnczone.com discussion) to cut a small diamond style model. I have no idea what type of material this is going to be made of, so these strategies might be bad. If it's any type of soft material, from alu to sponge, this would be fine. In alu there should be a roughing path of course.

I'm doing the edge surfaces with 3D milling, and restrict the area with different kind of regions. Not needed, but it makes the milling time so much shorter.

This clip is available in HD. Maximize the video screen and increase the resolution and you'll have a crisp clear view. As usual, I run this demo in a virtual environment and it makes the simulator acting a bit odd. Try it for real!

AND, there's a fourth way to do it, which also us a prefered way if you would like to use all steps in 3D-surfacing. Z-levels, by Joakim himself (MadCAM).