The Rib Top Milling Dialog Box
The Machining Method section of the Rib Top Milling dialog box contains the following options.
Roughing
Rough Rib Top—Remove the material from the top of the rib using rough milling and leaving stock according to the Floor Stock and Wall Stock values:
• Floor Stock—Stock to be left on the Floor surfaces.
• Wall Stock—Stock to be left on the Hard Walls.
Finishing
• Finish Floors—Finish mill the Floor surfaces. When you select this option, you can use the Finish Passes button to set up the number of finish passes and the depth increments.
• Back Off Walls—When you do rough milling and finish floors within the same tool path, you can keep the tool off the walls by a specified additional distance while the Floor is being finished. You can then finish the walls later. This option becomes available when both the Rough and Finish Floors options are selected and the Finish Walls option is cleared. When you select this option, type the back-off distance in the text box to the right.
• Finish Walls—Finish mill the Hard Walls. When you select this option, you can use the Finish Cuts button to set up the number of finish cuts and the depth increments.
• Use CUTCOM—NC output will contain the CUTCOM statements. You can customize their format and locations by clicking the Tool Path Properties button and using the Cut Control tab of the Tool Path Properties dialog box.
Cut Motion
These options define where material is relative to the tool rotation:
• Climb—The tool is to the left of material (assuming clockwise spindle rotation).
• Conventional—The tool is to the right of material (assuming clockwise spindle rotation).
Entry Wall
• Automatic—The Soft Wall where the tool starts cutting the material is chosen automatically. Click
next to the option to display the current Entry Wall.
• Select—Select the Soft Wall where the tool starts cutting the material. Click
next to the option to select the Entry Wall.
Rib Start Wall
If the Rib Top feature has an open configuration (follow the link under See Also to see an example), you can use the following options to specify which Soft Wall is opposite the Hard Wall of the rib, and thus define the direction of machining the rib:
• Automatic—The Soft Wall defining the machining direction is chosen automatically. Click
next to the option to display the current Rib Start Wall.
• Select—Select Soft Wall that is opposite the Hard Wall of the rib to define the machining direction. Click
next to the option to select the Rib Start Wall.
Top Entry
These options describe the way the tool enters the material:
• Plunge—The tool enters the material vertically.
• Ramp—The tool enters at Ramp Angle to the x-axis of the Program Zero coordinate system. You can customize the Ramp Angle by clicking the Tool Path Properties button and using the Entry/Exit tab of the Tool Path Properties dialog box.
• Helix—The tool enters along a helical path. You can customize the helical entry by clicking the Tool Path Properties button and using the Entry/Exit tab of the Tool Path Properties dialog box. Type the new values for the Helix Angle and the Radius of helix (the default for which is calculated by the system based on the size of the part).
• Entry Hole—The tool enters along a predefined entry hole. To use this option, you must first create and machine an Entry Hole feature.
The Tool Path Properties button opens the Tool Path Properties dialog box, which provides access to lower-level control of the tool path, such as spindle and coolant statements, speeds, feeds, clearances, entry/exit, and cut control options.
The Options section of the Rib Top Milling dialog box contains the following option:
Use Fixture Offset—Allows you to store the fixture transformation offset in a register on your machine. Type the Fixture Offset register value in the text box to the right. If you use this option, NC output will contain the SET/OFSETL statements.