A little help with my 2 rail sweep project.

[kurt_rose]

Today I'm cutting some radius moldings for a customer and I'm getting unneeded z action that leaving chatter marks in the project. I'm thinking maybe it's a resolution problem but I figured I'd ask the good people here for some advise. It's not to bad and is easy enough to sand out but it's obviously slowing cut time. I'm using Artcam with an offset strategy. Any insight is greatly appreciated.

[steve_g]

Kurt...
I know this issue has been discussed here before... I don't remember the solution but a quick search might bring it back. It might be something like a slight draft angle is required?

SG

[jhedlund58]

Check the node's of the outline... guessing they pretty tight.... less nodes smoother cut

[garyb]

Kurt,
one of two things the resolution as you have already mentioned being too low for the overall size of your model and 2, I would check the toolpath tolerance.
if your resolution is low (giving a pixelated side wall) and you have a high tolerance you will experience additioal z moves along the side wall
You don't say which version and build of ArtCam your using nor do you say which offset toolpath strategy your using
Gary

[kurt_rose]

Thanks guys. Gary I'm still using 9. what would you consider an acceptable tolerance.

[garyb]

Kurt
normally you would use .001 but if you have pixelated side walls reducing to .01 -.05 will decrease the amount of z climb on the side wall. The outcome will depend on the model

myself I would prefer to have a cleaner model on higher res and keep the tolerance.
Being back on 9 you would be on the old classic toolpath logarithms, a lot has changed over the last 7 years
if you want to chat about give me a call or skype me
Gary

[shilala]

I had this problem.
First was cleaning up the nodes.
Second was creating a zero thickness plane over the created sweep using "create shape from Vectors" in Aspire. I don't know what the equivalent action would be in Artcam.

The zero plane gave the model a false outside edge that it could recognize when creating toolpaths. Otherwise the edge of the model was akin to falling off a cliff, and it allowed the pixels to "migrate".
I use that zero plane over most shapes I create now. It keeps edges nice and clean and really saves tons of grief.