Adaptive clearing toolpaths?

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nosmokingbandit

Adaptive clearing toolpaths?

Post by nosmokingbandit »

Are there plans to introduce this type of toolpath in the future? Those of us milling metal stock would LOVE this feature.

It runs kind of like an offset path in Aspire, but spirals outward from the middle rather than cutting concentric shapes. This means the bit is only fully engaged in the material when ramping in and will not exceed the stepover.

As it is now, all toolpath options will eventually completely bury the bit in the stock, for example when moving up to the next line in a raster pocket, or when jumping outward to the next concentric shape in an offset pocket.

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Adrian
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Joined: Thu Nov 23, 2006 2:19 pm
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Re: Adaptive clearing toolpaths?

Post by Adrian »

It's been asked for a few times over the years under various names. You'd probably have to ask Vectric directly as this is primarily a user to user forum and we're not going to know.

GaryR6
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Joined: Sat May 23, 2009 6:28 pm
Location: AZ

Re: Adaptive clearing toolpaths?

Post by GaryR6 »

As another one moving into cutting metals, I to would like to see this type of tool path.

nosmokingbandit

Re: Adaptive clearing toolpaths?

Post by nosmokingbandit »

I emailed support and they said they have no plans on adding these types of toolpaths. They said their software is meant for woodworking and soft materials.

LittleGreyMan
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Re: Adaptive clearing toolpaths?

Post by LittleGreyMan »

nosmokingbandit wrote:I emailed support and they said they have no plans on adding these types of toolpaths. They said their software is meant for woodworking and soft materials.
This makes sense. Developing advanced toolpaths is not a simple task. That's why professional 3D CAM software is so expensive. Much more than Aspire which includes CAD and CAM for a very reasonable cost. Spending a lot of money in improving CAM features won't probably help expanding their niche market. So it's strategically not coherent.

When I machine small projects designed with Aspire in soft materials and don't care of machining time, I use Aspire toolpaths. Otherwise I export a high resolution stl and do the CAM part with another CAM.
Best regards

Didier

W7 - Aspire 8.517

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