Who uses triangular mesh tool paths for 3 or 4 axis parts?

[neurosis]

This could be a fun thread if it gets some traction.  These are some pretty good paths that most people don't know a lot about if they aren't in the 5 axis world.  

How do you use the triangular mesh paths for 3 or 4 axis parts?

[gcode]

This could be a fun thread if it gets some traction.  These are some pretty good paths that most people don't know a lot about if they aren't in the 5 axis world.  

How do you use the triangular mesh paths for 3 or 4 axis parts?

all of the Moduleworks 5X toolpaths can be constrained to 3 and 4 axis

[neurosis]

Maybe we can broaden the thread.  I rarely use those paths because we are limited to full 4th.  There are some cool paths in there that are rarely used by us shlubs.

[huskermcdoogle]

Since I learned how to use them I pretty much use the Moduleworks 5X paths for all of my surfacing activities.  3x 4x or 5x output.  They just have much more control, and once you are on that the thought process of using them and can get what you want pretty easily.  The regular surfacing is frustrating.  The thing I like about it most is the flexibility in linking capabilities.  Now all that said that there are drawbacks such as not being able to filter for arc's and whatnot, or when a customer doesn't have a multiaxis seat.  So that said in limited cases you have to go back to the native side even though you lose some control and flexibility.  But the majority of the time nowadays most people can execute whatever code you throw at em.

[neurosis]

Since I learned how to use them I pretty much use the Moduleworks 5X paths for all of my surfacing activities.  3x 4x or 5x output.  They just have much more control, and once you are on that the thought process of using them and can get what you want pretty easily.  The regular surfacing is frustrating.  The thing I like about it most is the flexibility in linking capabilities.  Now all that said that there are drawbacks such as not being able to filter for arc's and whatnot, or when a customer doesn't have a multiaxis seat.  So that said in limited cases you have to go back to the native side even though you lose some control and flexibility.  But the majority of the time nowadays most people can execute whatever code you throw at em.

Do you have any examples that you could post?  

I know that a lot of use work on ITAR compliant parts and can't post photos or videos, but even explanations would suffice.

[JParis]

This could be a fun thread if it gets some traction.  These are some pretty good paths that most people don't know a lot about if they aren't in the 5 axis world.  

How do you use the triangular mesh paths for 3 or 4 axis parts?

To this point I haven't had any call for them...that said, I know they are there so if I find a place where they would be helpful, I wouldn't hesitate

[huskermcdoogle]

Do you have any examples that you could post?  

What type of examples would you be looking for?

Seemingly simple things like doing an external radius blend become much simpler when you use morph, to get clean toolpath motion anyway.  Course that said the new options for edge smoothing (2020 release?) have reduced/eliminated the challenges that would come up in this department on near vertical boundary walls.  But once you know what you need to geo, it becomes very fast to get a good visually acceptable toolpath without any gouges or feed marks.

I used to use parallel a lot as well. It's good in cases where you want a collapsing or cascading pattern but might have some feature in the middle of it that you need to avoid or go around but don't want to change the shape of the toolpath to avoid it.  Using collision control combined with linking parameters gives you very flexible control over how you want to avoid that area without effecting the rest of the toolpath.

[neurosis]

I'm not looking for anything specific necessarily.   Just examples of how those paths can be used to make programming easier.

[gcode]

Here's ModuleWorks website
https://www.moduleworks.com/">https://www.moduleworks.com/

The Software Components dropdown will give you fact sheets and a couple of videos

[Here's Johnny!]

Some videos on Youtube from Module Works.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWuH90RzsBATlA0u34Jo3097u_mJwDaYM"> ... 7u_mJwDaYM">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWuH90RzsBATlA0u34Jo3097u_mJwDaYM

[crazy^millman]

Since I learned how to use them I pretty much use the Moduleworks 5X paths for all of my surfacing activities.  3x 4x or 5x output.  They just have much more control, and once you are on that the thought process of using them and can get what you want pretty easily.  The regular surfacing is frustrating.  The thing I like about it most is the flexibility in linking capabilities.  Now all that said that there are drawbacks such as not being able to filter for arc's and whatnot, or when a customer doesn't have a multiaxis seat.  So that said in limited cases you have to go back to the native side even though you lose some control and flexibility.  But the majority of the time nowadays most people can execute whatever code you throw at em.

Same here they are great only issue I have is not filtering abilities when using these toolpaths. The mother ship finally gets off their butts and adds that to these toolpaths then we can start talking about world class.  

[huskermcdoogle]

Same here they are great only issue I have is not filtering abilities when using these toolpaths. The mother ship finally gets off their butts and adds that to these toolpaths then we can start talking about world class.  

Won't that be the day!  I have written some filters using VBA in Excell that filter the raw NCI. Then I would import them back in using import NCI and post.  Much easier to filter at the NCI level with a G11 multiaxis path.  Last I did that was with 2017.  Import NCI was turned off at that point but they helped me enable it again for use.  If would test for vectors and position and delete points that would cause a slowdown.  Tolerance was much less important than speed in this case, but would never delete a point that was more than .001 off of course.  After running the filters that program would run butter smooth at about 3x the feedrate, and would be butter smooth.  

I can't wait for the days of filters with the MW paths.  An additional vector smoothing function would be nice as well, would possibly simplify pattern surface creation methods.

[gcode]

There used to be a company that made an NC filter.
This was back during the transition from V9 to X which was a very traumatic time for many  
I think their name was NorthWoods  System or something like that
They also offered a very nice poorman's backplot/verification package with 5X capabilities.
I bought a copy and still have the hasp, but it hasn't been supported for years.
It was my understanding that he he also developed the Mastercam backplot module we use today
Nothing came up on Google though.
I guess it's lost in the mists of time.

My search did find this
https://www.cimco.com/software/cimco-filter/overview/">https://www.cimco.com/software/cimco-filter/overview/

[gcode]

This is it, but I'm not downloading it
MetaCut Utilities
https://the-metacut-utilities.software.informer.com/">https://the-metacut-utilities.software.informer.com/

[gcode]

A blast from the past, 2003 to be precise

https://www.emastercam.com/profile/620-paul-elliott/">https://www.emastercam.com/profile/620-paul-elliott/

The free version shipped with Mastercam for a while.
I remember in one release it installed automatically without asking and really pissed a bunch of people off