Manufacturing > Milling > Trajectory Milling > Sketching the Tools for Trajectory Milling
  
Sketching the Tools for Trajectory Milling
For 2- and 3-Axis Trajectory milling, you can either use standard tools, or sketch your own tool for the NC sequence. The tool is sketched as a revolved protrusion:
The sketch represents half of the tool cross-section. The whole sketch must lie on one side of the axis of symmetry. The axis of symmetry must be vertical, with the sketch lying on the right.
The section must be closed.
For a sketched tool, you can specify a control point other than its tip by adding a coordinate system to the tool section sketch, as shown in the following illustration. The tool will then be swept so that its control point follows the specified trajectory.
For standard (edited) tools, and for sketched tools with no control point specified, the tip of the tool will be used. The tip of a standard tool is determined by the tool’s control point. The tip of a sketched tool is determined as the lowest point of the tool section sketch (the lower-left if there are several equally low vertices).
 
* Make sure to specify the tool offset option correctly when using a control point. For example, if you select side edges of the slot and place your control point on the periphery of the tool, choose None for the tool offset direction. Also make sure to select the cut direction depending on the orientation of the coordinate system used as the tool control point: when the tool travels along the trajectory, the X-axis must point towards the trajectory while the Y-axis is pointing up.
The following illustration shows specifying a control point for a sketched tool.
1. Select these edges
2. Sketch this tool
3. Tool control point
 
* Additionally, when defining a sketched tool for 2-Axis Trajectory milling, you can place the coordinate system on the tool axis. The system then calculates the tool diameter at the level where the coordinate system is placed, and uses this diameter for tool offset. This provides you an ability to use the same sketched tool for cutting in both directions. You still have to specify None as the tool offset option, but you do not have to select the cut direction depending on the orientation of the coordinate system.