NX11.0.1 MP2: CAM: cylindrical avoidance when 4-axis drilling

[JeroenD]

Hello,

I have a ring which has points drilled all around the outside.
They are drilled with the drilling operation (no cycle) which uses some other geometry for selecting the holes.
This part uses expressions to resize the ring.
We need to be able to produce CAM for various sizes.
Therefore we have a program which opens this part, changes some parameters, regenerates the tool paths and starts the postprocessor.

I have had problems selecting the holes for the various sizes.
I was able to overcome this problem by saving the part with a size way bigger than what we would require and having the holes selected for the operation.
This way, when the part is resized, missing drill holes disappear but every hole present is still drilled.

But this comes with a problem.
As the order of the holes is optimised for the bigger size, with smaller sizes, I can no longer guarantee the order.
This is problematic when 2 holes on the opposite side of the ring are drilled in sequence.
Possibly due to the 'no cycle' (using the cycles gives a problem for our machine; read: crash), the machine will move the tool center point right through the ring, resulting in a crash.

Can I set a cilindrical avoidance for this operation so the transfer moves move around the object, instead of through?
As it's a round object with 4-axis operations, a clearance plane doesn't cut it.

Kind regards,
Jeroen

 

[markrief]

In Non Cutting Moves, can you set the Transfer/Rapid Clearance Option to Cylinder or Bounding Cylinder?

Mark Rief
NX CAM Customer Success
Siemens PLM Software

 

[JeroenD]

No, it's one of those (older?) drilling dialog boxes which doesn't show any "Non Cutting Moves" option.

Not even when customizing the dialog.
The avoidance dialog shows this:

As you can see, it mentions clearance and lower limit planes. But no cilinder option.

Is there prehaps another drilling/hole making operation which does have this option AND allows me to select holes in a similar fashion as this operation does?

 

[kukelyk]

Try optimize holes' order (under specify holes)

----
kukelyk

 

[JeroenD]

Our automation doesn't allow clicking this option.
Manually, it would work for this part because there are always holes on the complete circumference.
So the optimal path would never go through the middle to reach another hole.

Still it doesn't prevent the spindle from going through the middle when only 2 opposite holes are selected .
And that might be the case in other parts.

Is there prehaps an event which would lock a lineair axis, forcing a rotary axis to be used? Or is this too machine specific?

 

[markrief]

This is a legacy drilling (point to point) operation. I would look at the hole making operations

Mark Rief
NX CAM Customer Success
Siemens PLM Software