Machining/Slope Areas Parameters

Machining and Slope areas can be used to define different zones on a part.
First you define the Machining/Slope areas and then you assign an operation to each of them.
This is a useful approach if, before you start machining, you are aware that the part has areas that will require different types of operation. 

Another feature of machining areas is their ability to be divided into horizontal, vertical and sloping areas and have operations assigned to these areas. 

Click Machining/Slope area , then the geometry of the part to machine in the Geometry tab.

The Slope Area option gives access to:

• the Define tab,
• the Edit tab,

• the Operations tab to assign machining operations to the defined areas.

Main Panel

Name

You can assign a name to the Machining/Slope areas feature, or keep the name proposed by default.

Slope Area

Select the Slope Area check box to create slope areas and to access the corresponding parameters.

Geometry

With the sensitive icon, you can select the following elements:

• Part.
• Check element. The check is often a clamp that holds the part and therefore is not an area to be machined.
• Area to avoid (small light brown corner near the part selection area).
  This is in fact a list of faces removed from from the list of faces built from the Part.
  Those removed faces are not taken into account to compute the tool path.
  Use Area to avoid for a quick definition of a sub-element of the Part you want to machine.
  For example, you want to machine the Part below, but not its pocket.
  
  To do so:
• select the whole part as the Part,
• then define the Area to avoid by selecting the faces of the pocket.

A longer alternative would be to define the Part face by face.

• Limiting contour which is the contour that defines the outer machining limit on the part.

A machining area can be:

• the whole part (for example, in roughing),
• a subset of the faces on the part,
• a subset of faces on the part with a limiting contour. 

• do not select parts in the PPR tree that are the output of assembly operations (Add,Remove,Assembly),
• but select all the faces of this sub-element in the 3D Viewer.

Define

Offset Group

You can select an offset group from the list, when available.

Click this icon to define the tool axis.

Tool

Reference, Entry diameter, Corner radius

You can either:

• select an existing tool from the Reference list, or
• define one with its entry diameter and its corner radius.

Tolerance

Machining tolerance that you want to use for the slope area.

Offset on part

Offset that  is computed for the slope area with respect to the part. 

• when you create a machining operation, the Offset on part of this operation is initialized at the same value as the Offset on part of the slope area, since you want to machine the same geometry as the one used for the slope area.
• you can modify the Offset on part of the operation, but this will not update the Offset on part of the slope area.
• you can modify the Offset on part of the slope area, but this will not update the Offset on part of the operation.
• if you want to update both Offset on part parameters, you have to modify both parameters.

Overlap

When slope areas of different types are defined, there may be a gap between them,
resulting in material left on the part.

To avoid this, you can define an overlap, i.e. a distance on which two slope areas will cover each other,
making sure that the whole part is machined.

• Overlap=0, the slope areas end on the same line
  
• Overlap=5, the slope areas cover each other.
  

Angles

Define three types of area on the part:

• blue defines horizontal areas
• yellow defines sloping, transitional areas between vertical and horizontal,
• red defines vertical areas.

Lower

Defines the lower limit of the sloping area.

Upper

Defines the upper limit of the sloping area.

For example, here surfaces that are considered to be horizontal go from 0° to 5°,
sloping surfaces from 5° to 45° and vertical surfaces from 45° to 90°.
These angles are computed with respect to the tool axis.

Small Area

Merges small areas in larger surrounding ones.
Click the arrow to select a reference contour.
This will computes automatically a value below which an area is considered as small and merged into a larger one.
You can also type a value without selecting a reference contour.

Compute

Computes the slope areas.

Full display of area

Once the slope areas have been computed, this check box displays them as full areas instead of lines,
making overlapping areas easier to detect.

Lock and edit

Locks the slope areas and gives access to the Edit tab.

Edit

: Deactivates contours in any subsets.

: Reactivates contours of the selected subset.

: Removes details (unwanted portion of contours) in any subset.

• You can add only horizontal or intermediate contours to an empty subset.
• You can add only contours of the same type to a subset containing contours (i.e. you can add only horizontal contours to a subset containing a horizontal contour, and only intermediate contours to a subset containing an intermediate contour).

You can select the display color of the added user subsets:


 

Full display of area

Once the slope areas have been computed, this check box displays them as full areas instead of lines,
making overlapping areas easier to detect.

Unlock and reset

Cancels all computations and modifications on slope areas.

Operations

Insertion Level

This data is compulsory. It can be:

• an operation,
• a tool change,
• a Manufacturing Program.

The Assign Operation area is displayed once the Insertion Level is defined.

• If the insertion level associated to the slope area is an operation or a tool change,
  the associated tool is taken into account and affected to the operations of the Slope area.
• If the insertion level associated to the slope area is a Manufacturing Program,
  the operations of the slope area are created with no tool.

You can create a Slope area with a reference tool.

• If the insertion level associated to the slope area is an operation with a tool different from the reference tool,
  or if the insertion level is a Manufacturing Program, an additional ToolChange is created.

Operation 11 is taken as the insertion level, and one operation is associated to the slope area.
The specification tree becomes:

Used to assign an operation to the machining/slope areas.

• To do so, select one area to which you want to assign an operation and
  define the operation parameter in the Assign Operation box that is now available.

• Use the Assign list to select one type of operation, set the Step Over value in the field below. 

• To revert to an automatic step over, click Auto. The value is replaced with the label Auto.