Adaptive clearing, rest machining, 4–5 axes and material removal simulation

What is new

In the "CAM operation (FreeCAD)" panel of the Robotics Studio:

| Feature | Where | Why | |---|---|---| | Adaptive clearing | the "Adaptive clearing" operation, the pocket pattern "adaptive", the 3D roughing strategy "adaptive" | the tool never takes more than the stepover sideways, enters by a helix and stays down between passes — a constant load on the robot's spindle | | Rest machining | the "after a Ø" field (pocket, adaptive, 3D roughing) | cuts only what a larger tool could not reach: corners, narrow slots | | Climb / conventional | the "milling" field (profile, pocket rings, ring roughing) | climb gives a cleaner edge on laminate and plastics (clockwise spindle, M3) | | Lead arc | the "lead arc R" field (profile) | the cutter meets the outline tangentially — no mark where it enters |

Adaptive clearing — settings

• Stepover 10–20 % of Ø (15 % by default).
• The pass depth can be the full flute length: the load is spread over the whole edge, not the tip.
• The feed can go up: the chip is thin and even.
• For laminate (chipboard, HPL) and plastics this is the best choice for deep pockets.

Rest machining

1. First clear the pocket with a larger tool, e.g. Ø12.
2. Then the same pocket with a Ø6 tool and "after a Ø" = 12.
3. The second toolpath cuts only the corners and narrow places. The earlier tool must be larger than the current one.

Material removal simulation

Once the part has toolpaths, the "Material removal (from above)" panel appears in the "Toolpaths and recipes" group:

1. Give the tool Ø (if the toolpaths have no recipe yet), the cutter type, the stock beyond and above the part and the tolerance.
2. Press "Simulate". The stock is cut by all toolpaths in order.
3. On the 3D part: green — to size, yellow → blue — material left, red — the tool went into the part (the deepest spot is marked with a ball).
4. The "played %" slider shows the state at any moment of the program.

Limits: seen from above (3-axis). Holes from the side and undercuts are not shown. Inside corners a round tool cannot physically reach show as left material — as they should.

4–5 axes: a tilted cutter

The robot has 6 axes, so the tool need not come only from above. In the CAM panel, "tool comes from":

• auto — when the chosen contours lie on a sloped face, the operation is computed square to it (3+2): a pocket or a profile on the slope.
• above / side ±X / ±Y — the 3D operations (roughing, waterline, surface) for a part seen from the side.

Sloped wall (profile). The "wall angle, °" field: + the part widens downward (a chamfer from the top edge, a draft), − it narrows (an undercut). The cutter leans and keeps that tilt all round the outline.

5-axis surface. In "3D surface" tick "5 axes": a ball cutter runs along the surface normal with a 10° lead, tilted at most the set angle (40°). The ball cuts where the 3-axis pass would, but the shank leans, so the cut is not at the ball tip: a cleaner surface, less load.

Such toolpaths reach the Studio with the tool axis at every point. The robot check takes the tilt into account: reach, the spindle and holder against the part. The material simulation shows a leant ball cutter; a leant flat cutter (seen from above) it does not, and says so.

Spindle wizard

In the Registry, open a tool of kind SPINDLE. The "Milling spindle from its sizes" block builds the tool from its sizes:

• the axis offset from the flange centre and the adapter plate thickness;
• spindle Ø and length, the collet nut;
• cutter Ø, stick-out, flute length, shank.

The wizard gives the outline for the collision checks, the TCP at the cutter tip, a free turn about the spindle axis (the robot picks the A6 turn it reaches best) and the working zone = the flutes (they are in the material — not a collision). Press "Build the tool", then "Save".

Read next

• CAM operations: pockets, profiles, engraving, 3D
• A part from a file in the Robotics Studio