Lesson 5 – Simple 2.5D Machining – Tutorial #1

Contour Machining in Alphacam – Rough or Finish operation


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In this lessons we will learn about contour machining.

But first, we will hide previous operation to make drawing clearer.

Select the Operations tab from the Project Manager.

Uncheck the operation checkbox to hide toolpaths, select checkbox to show toolpaths.

From Machine tab select Rough or Finish command.

contour machining alphacam

Window shown below will appear.

In the first tab Types leave default values. For Sides section Vertical, for Geometries section Selected.

Select next tab – General.

Also leave this tab with default values, we will discuss it later.

Select next tab – Levels and Cuts.

Fill as show above.

And click OK button to accept. We will back later to this operation.

Now we have to select the geometry to be machined. Select rectangle and click Finish (ESC) button or RMB.

We should get:

Let’s edit this operation.

Click RBM on operation name in Operations tab in Project Manager.

In general tab, XY Corners we have Roll Round option selected.

Toolpaths in corners looks like on image below.

Let’s change XY Corners to Straight and click OK button.

Window as shown above could appear. Click OK.

And now toolpaths in XY corners looks like:

Let’s change XY Corners to Loop.

When we select Loop option in XY Cornres section, one more section appears, it is Loops section. We have to specify Loop Radius. Type 10 for example.

It should look like picture below.

We can select also Knife Loops option. Then toolpath should looks like:

When the Loops XY Corners could be useful?

It could be useful when we want to machine very sharp shape. Like this one:

Loop option could protect against breaking a sharp tip.

In General tab is also Compensation section.

It is connected with Tool Radius Cutter Compensation.

Tool Center option means there is no compensation in toolpath/g-code.

Machine Comp (G41/G42) and G41/42 on Tool Center options means there is compensation and NC program will be with G41/G42 functions.

You must find out from the postprocessor provider which option you should use.

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