Hello Everyone,
If you own a seat of Multi-Axis in Mastercam, you have a ton of great toolpaths that are available from ModuleWorks. There are actually a bunch of really great 3 Axis Toolpaths produced by ModuleWorks that are included in Mastercam, but they are almost "hidden" from the normal user.
These toolpaths aren't actually hidden from the user. But the Mastercam interface makes them appear to be something they aren't, so the average user, even the average Multi-Axis user, doesn't know they exist.
If you have a seat of Multi-Axis, do the following:
With a Machine Group loaded, go to Toolpaths > Multi-Axis.
If prompted, enter a new program name.
In the Multi-Axis dialog box, select "Surface/Solid", then select "Triangular mesh".
The Triangular Mesh toolpaths are the best kept secret in Mastercam. They have been available since at least X5, so they have been in the last few versions of the software.
The term "Triangular Mesh" is perhaps what makes these toolpaths "hidden" from the average user. Typically you would think of a Triangular Mesh object as an STL file, or some other external reference. In terms of the ModuleWorks toolpaths however, Triangular Mesh takes on a new meaning. For most of the 5 Axis toolpaths, the normal direction of the surfaces being cut plays a crucial role in determining the tool axis orientation. With the "Triangular Mesh" toolpaths, the surfaces themselves are not used to orient the tool axis. For these toolpaths the surfaces are simply tessellated using a cut tolerance.
In a nutshell, this just means that the "Triangular Mesh" toolpaths are just "3D Rouging and Finishing" toolpaths that don't take their tool axis direction from the surfaces being cut. They just provide great 3 Axis toolpaths that in some ways duplicate functionality in Mastercam, and in other cases drastically improve upon the existing options.
Once you've selected "Triangular Mesh" for the toolpath type, go to the "Cut Pattern" page, and look at the drop-down menu for "Pattern". This is where you select the toolpath type, and there are a bunch of them!
Toolpaths:
Rough
Parallel Cuts
Project Curves
Constant Z
Constant Cusp
Flatlands
Geodesic
Projection
Rotary
So that is nine different toolpath types that are available to you if you select Triangular Mesh.
Try the "Rouging" option. Activate the checkbox for "Adaptive" roughing, and now the style is similar to "Dynamic". But wait, it gets better. Normally with Dynamic style motion, you are only allowed to cut climb or conventional. Ok, so if you climb cut only, the cutter has to move from the end of the cut, to the start of the next cut, and typically does a micro-lift at a high feedrate to get there.
With the Adaptive rouging from ModuleWorks, you can use "Zig-Zag" stepover. This then allows you to enter 4 parameters: Maximum Stepover, Desired Stepover, Climb stepover percentage, and conventional stepover percentage.
So you can easily take say 75% of the stepover value for climb milling, then take 25% of the stepover value for conventional. This allows the cutter to stay fully engaged during the roughing cut, and allows for even higher metal removal rates than a regular "Dynamic" or "Opti" style roughing path.
If you've got a license of Multi-Axis, check out Mastercam's best kept secret...
