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Any referenced datasets can be downloaded from "Module downloads" in the module overview.
Transcript
00:12
With our part completely setup, we are now ready to start creating features to machine our solid model.
00:20
Like we did in the last lesson, it's always a good idea to take the time to closely look at your model or drawing
00:26
and come up with a plan before starting to create any features.
00:31
In general, this part looks fairly straightforward.
00:35
We have some OD and ID profiles that need machining, as well as a few grooves.
00:40
However, it's worth noting that we have some undercut areas that may be difficult to reach from the front end of our part.
00:47
So we're going to have to machine both sides of this part.
00:53
To do this, we can machine everything that's easy to reach from the front end, transfer the part to the sub-spindle, and then machine the remaining material on the back end of our part.
01:05
This is a very straightforward task in FeatureCAM.
01:08
But before we do that, let's create the features for the front end.
01:12
To start, let's create a face feature to machine the excess material from the front of our part.
01:19
Open the New Feature Wizard and select Face from Dimensions.
01:23
The thickness should be 0.75 millimeters with an outer diameter of 50 millimeters.
01:29
Ensure that the features like [] Z equals zero and select "Finish".
01:36
Now that we bought in a solid model, we can utilize FeatureCAM’s Curve Wizard to help extract curves.
01:45
Start by selecting a part from the solid section in the Part View.
01:49
Then navigate to the Create section of the Home tab and select Curves.
01:56
Here we can see the curve wizard, where FeatureCAM offers a wide variety of curve construction methods.
02:03
We don't have time to go through all of these together now, but you can find out more information about any of these options by using the Help file.
02:13
So I encourage you to take some time to pause this video and quickly familiarize yourself with these options, as each of them will have specific circumstances where they're very useful to know.
02:27
Once you've taken some time to familiarize yourself with the wizard, select Curve from Surface and then select the Revolve Boundary Curve from Surface Constructor.
02:38
This method helps us extract profile curves from round parts.
02:42
Then select the Polygonal method.
02:46
With our method selected, we can preview the curves that FeatureCAM has found to ensure we are creating what we want.
02:53
Now check convert to geometry.
02:56
This will create geometry instead of curves, allowing us to manually chain the exact segments we want, which will be helpful when creating our groove features later on.
03:08
With that selected, press "Finish".
03:12
With our geometry profiles extracted, let’s hide those solids and start by chaining the entire outer profile into a single curve named Turn and create a default turn feature from it.
03:29
Open the New Feature Wizard, select Turn from Curves and ensure that the turn curve we just chained is selected.
03:37
With the correct curve indicated, let's just accept all defaults by pressing "Finish".
03:45
With our turn and feature created, let's create three new groove features to machine the three grooves at the front of our part.
03:54
Before creating any features, once again, we'll need to chain our necessary curves first.
04:00
Because we created extracted geometry instead of curves from our model, we can use the line segments we already have.
04:08
Select Chaining from the Home tab of the ribbon and chain the three line segments together that makeup the first groove in our part.
04:17
Let's name this curve Groove1 and select "Create".
04:21
Now open the New Feature Wizard, select Groove from Curves and press "Next".
04:28
Make sure that the Groove1 curve is selected and press "Finish" to create a new groove feature.
04:34
With our first groove created, we can simply repeat the same process for the two remaining grooves.
04:50
We have now finished creating all the features on the front of our part.
04:54
So let's add a part handling feature to transfer a part to the sub-spindle so that the back of the part can be machined.
05:03
Open the New Feature Wizard and select Part Handling.
05:08
In our case, we want to transfer our part to the sub-spindle.
05:12
So we want to select Slug Transfer.
05:15
If we want to transfer our part back to our main spindle, we could select Reverse Slug Transfer.
05:22
The part handling feature also includes bar pulling, part support, and cutoff options.
05:29
With slug transfer selected, there are only two parameters we need to define, the grab distance and the feed distance.
05:39
As illustrated in the wizard, the grab distance is the amount of material we will grab on to with our sub-spindle and the feed distance defines the point that we start feeding instead of rapiding.
05:51
Enter a grab distance of 15 millimeters and a feed distance of 18 millimeters and press "Next".
06:00
On the Strategies page, we can fine-tune our slug transfer by indicating dwell times or customizing spindle orientation during transfer.
06:11
Again, we aren't going to be covering every option in FeatureCAM in this class.
06:16
So I encourage you to take some time to explore these options using the Help file when you want more information about what a given parameter does.
06:25
For this part, we’ll leave everything as default and select "Finish".
06:31
Now that we have finished programming the front side of our part and successfully transferred our part to the sub-spindle, we're ready to start creating our sub-spindle features.
06:42
Before we start, however, we need to create a new setup on the back of our part and assign that new setup to our sub-spindle.
06:50
If we would simply start creating our features now assigning them Setup1, FeatureCAM would continue trying to machine those features from the front of our part.
07:00
So we need to create a new setup every time that we start machining for the first time on a new spindle.
07:08
To create a new setup, navigate to the part program section of our Home tab in the ribbon and select Setups.
07:16
Here we can either edit existing setups or create new ones.
07:21
Select New and leave the setup name and fixture ID as default.
07:27
Let's align our setup to the stock face again, this time selecting the left side of the stock.
07:34
As before, this will align our setup with the center of the stock face rather than the part face.
07:41
So we'll select pick location to correctly offset the Z value.
07:48
Finally, we can indicate that the sub-spindle will be holding our part when the features in this setup are cut, and press "Finish".
07:56
Now when we select Setup2, we can see in the status bar that Setup2 is active, and any features we create will be associated with our sub-spindle.
08:09
Let's start by creating another turn feature using the OD curve.
08:15
At the moment, both of the turn features are machining the entire length of our part.
08:20
Don't worry about this for now, we'll deal with this in the revised section of our workflow.
08:26
Next, chain the curve to define our ID profile.
08:30
Select Chaining from the Create section and chain the ID geometry into a single curve titled Bore.
08:38
Now let's open the feature wizard and create a new bore feature using our bore curve.
08:44
On the Strategy page of the New Feature Wizard, add a pre-drill operation to this bore feature with a diameter of 12 millimeters and a depth of 48 millimeters.
08:56
The only thing we have left to do is face off the back of our part.
09:01
Open the New Feature Wizard and create a face from dimensions with the OD set to 15 millimeters and a thickness of 1.25 millimeters.
09:11
Ensure the Z location is set to 0 and press "Finish".
09:16
With that, we have programmed all of the features necessary to machine our model accurately.
09:21
Now we are ready to move on to the next section of our workflow by simulating our features and making any necessary revisions.
Video transcript
00:12
With our part completely setup, we are now ready to start creating features to machine our solid model.
00:20
Like we did in the last lesson, it's always a good idea to take the time to closely look at your model or drawing
00:26
and come up with a plan before starting to create any features.
00:31
In general, this part looks fairly straightforward.
00:35
We have some OD and ID profiles that need machining, as well as a few grooves.
00:40
However, it's worth noting that we have some undercut areas that may be difficult to reach from the front end of our part.
00:47
So we're going to have to machine both sides of this part.
00:53
To do this, we can machine everything that's easy to reach from the front end, transfer the part to the sub-spindle, and then machine the remaining material on the back end of our part.
01:05
This is a very straightforward task in FeatureCAM.
01:08
But before we do that, let's create the features for the front end.
01:12
To start, let's create a face feature to machine the excess material from the front of our part.
01:19
Open the New Feature Wizard and select Face from Dimensions.
01:23
The thickness should be 0.75 millimeters with an outer diameter of 50 millimeters.
01:29
Ensure that the features like [] Z equals zero and select "Finish".
01:36
Now that we bought in a solid model, we can utilize FeatureCAM’s Curve Wizard to help extract curves.
01:45
Start by selecting a part from the solid section in the Part View.
01:49
Then navigate to the Create section of the Home tab and select Curves.
01:56
Here we can see the curve wizard, where FeatureCAM offers a wide variety of curve construction methods.
02:03
We don't have time to go through all of these together now, but you can find out more information about any of these options by using the Help file.
02:13
So I encourage you to take some time to pause this video and quickly familiarize yourself with these options, as each of them will have specific circumstances where they're very useful to know.
02:27
Once you've taken some time to familiarize yourself with the wizard, select Curve from Surface and then select the Revolve Boundary Curve from Surface Constructor.
02:38
This method helps us extract profile curves from round parts.
02:42
Then select the Polygonal method.
02:46
With our method selected, we can preview the curves that FeatureCAM has found to ensure we are creating what we want.
02:53
Now check convert to geometry.
02:56
This will create geometry instead of curves, allowing us to manually chain the exact segments we want, which will be helpful when creating our groove features later on.
03:08
With that selected, press "Finish".
03:12
With our geometry profiles extracted, let’s hide those solids and start by chaining the entire outer profile into a single curve named Turn and create a default turn feature from it.
03:29
Open the New Feature Wizard, select Turn from Curves and ensure that the turn curve we just chained is selected.
03:37
With the correct curve indicated, let's just accept all defaults by pressing "Finish".
03:45
With our turn and feature created, let's create three new groove features to machine the three grooves at the front of our part.
03:54
Before creating any features, once again, we'll need to chain our necessary curves first.
04:00
Because we created extracted geometry instead of curves from our model, we can use the line segments we already have.
04:08
Select Chaining from the Home tab of the ribbon and chain the three line segments together that makeup the first groove in our part.
04:17
Let's name this curve Groove1 and select "Create".
04:21
Now open the New Feature Wizard, select Groove from Curves and press "Next".
04:28
Make sure that the Groove1 curve is selected and press "Finish" to create a new groove feature.
04:34
With our first groove created, we can simply repeat the same process for the two remaining grooves.
04:50
We have now finished creating all the features on the front of our part.
04:54
So let's add a part handling feature to transfer a part to the sub-spindle so that the back of the part can be machined.
05:03
Open the New Feature Wizard and select Part Handling.
05:08
In our case, we want to transfer our part to the sub-spindle.
05:12
So we want to select Slug Transfer.
05:15
If we want to transfer our part back to our main spindle, we could select Reverse Slug Transfer.
05:22
The part handling feature also includes bar pulling, part support, and cutoff options.
05:29
With slug transfer selected, there are only two parameters we need to define, the grab distance and the feed distance.
05:39
As illustrated in the wizard, the grab distance is the amount of material we will grab on to with our sub-spindle and the feed distance defines the point that we start feeding instead of rapiding.
05:51
Enter a grab distance of 15 millimeters and a feed distance of 18 millimeters and press "Next".
06:00
On the Strategies page, we can fine-tune our slug transfer by indicating dwell times or customizing spindle orientation during transfer.
06:11
Again, we aren't going to be covering every option in FeatureCAM in this class.
06:16
So I encourage you to take some time to explore these options using the Help file when you want more information about what a given parameter does.
06:25
For this part, we’ll leave everything as default and select "Finish".
06:31
Now that we have finished programming the front side of our part and successfully transferred our part to the sub-spindle, we're ready to start creating our sub-spindle features.
06:42
Before we start, however, we need to create a new setup on the back of our part and assign that new setup to our sub-spindle.
06:50
If we would simply start creating our features now assigning them Setup1, FeatureCAM would continue trying to machine those features from the front of our part.
07:00
So we need to create a new setup every time that we start machining for the first time on a new spindle.
07:08
To create a new setup, navigate to the part program section of our Home tab in the ribbon and select Setups.
07:16
Here we can either edit existing setups or create new ones.
07:21
Select New and leave the setup name and fixture ID as default.
07:27
Let's align our setup to the stock face again, this time selecting the left side of the stock.
07:34
As before, this will align our setup with the center of the stock face rather than the part face.
07:41
So we'll select pick location to correctly offset the Z value.
07:48
Finally, we can indicate that the sub-spindle will be holding our part when the features in this setup are cut, and press "Finish".
07:56
Now when we select Setup2, we can see in the status bar that Setup2 is active, and any features we create will be associated with our sub-spindle.
08:09
Let's start by creating another turn feature using the OD curve.
08:15
At the moment, both of the turn features are machining the entire length of our part.
08:20
Don't worry about this for now, we'll deal with this in the revised section of our workflow.
08:26
Next, chain the curve to define our ID profile.
08:30
Select Chaining from the Create section and chain the ID geometry into a single curve titled Bore.
08:38
Now let's open the feature wizard and create a new bore feature using our bore curve.
08:44
On the Strategy page of the New Feature Wizard, add a pre-drill operation to this bore feature with a diameter of 12 millimeters and a depth of 48 millimeters.
08:56
The only thing we have left to do is face off the back of our part.
09:01
Open the New Feature Wizard and create a face from dimensions with the OD set to 15 millimeters and a thickness of 1.25 millimeters.
09:11
Ensure the Z location is set to 0 and press "Finish".
09:16
With that, we have programmed all of the features necessary to machine our model accurately.
09:21
Now we are ready to move on to the next section of our workflow by simulating our features and making any necessary revisions.
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