Manufacturing > Manufacturing Process > Retract Surface > To Set Up a Retract Plane
  
To Set Up a Retract Plane
You can set up a retract plane using options on the Operation tab.
1. Click Manufacturing > Operation. The Operation tab opens.
2. Set up the retract plane using options on the Clearance tab. The Clearance tab consists of the Retract section and the From and Home options to specify the start and end position of the tool.
3. Specify appropriate set up elements for the following options in the Retract section:
◦ Type—Specify the retract type as Plane for the operation.
◦ Reference—Specify a reference to use as the origin for the retract type. The reference varies depending on the retract type. It may be a plane, surface, axis, coordinate system or copied from an existing operation. The selected reference appears in the Reference collector.
If the reference is a coordinate system, it should have its Z axis in the same direction as the Z axis of the NC sequence coordinate system. The surface or datum plane must be parallel to the XY plane of the reference coordinate system.
The following options are available on the shortcut menu of this option.
▪ Default Reference—Select to replace the selected reference with the reference coordinate system. By default, the reference coordinate system is either the Machine or the NC Sequence coordinate system (depending on whether you define retract at the operation or the NC sequence level respectively).
▪ Information—Select to view the information of the selected reference.
◦ Value—Select or type the distance by which you want to offset the reference coordinate system plane. The value can be:
▪ A number. For example 20.
OR
▪ A relation that can include other cutting and tool parameters. For example, STEP_DEPTH * 2.
OR
▪ A value or relation appears in the Value box if you have already defined the relation for the RETRACT_REF_OFFSET identifier. Define the relation in the Relations dialog box that you can open by clicking in the Edit Parameters dialog. For example, if you have specified RETRACT_REF_OFFSET = CLEAR_DIST in the Relations dialog box, the value CLEAR_DIST appears in the Value box.
Alternatively, click and drag the distance handle in the graphics window to create a retract plane at the required distance. You can also double-click the distance handle in the graphics window to modify the value.
◦ Tolerance—Specify a value to control the maximum deviation of the tool when it moves along a non-planar retract surface. The default is 0.1" (in English units) or 1 mm (in metric units).
◦ Always use Operation Retract—Select this check box to use the operation retract at the end of every step. If you do not select this option, the tool moves to the operation retract only when the tool axis changes.
4. Specify the start and end position of the cutting tool as follows:
◦ From—Create or select a datum point to specify the start position of the cutting tool for the operation.
◦ Home—Create or select a datum point to specify the end position of the cutting tool for the operation.
 
* If the work center associated with the operation has two heads, you can set up separate From and Home points for each head. In this case, a From motion will be created between the From point specified for a head (that is, Head 1 or Head 2) and the first point of the first NC sequence that uses this head; a Home motion will be created from the last point of the last NC sequence that uses this head to the Home point for the head.