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POWERMILL CLASS
3 Lessons Beginner Level
PowerMill provides comprehensive milling strategies for high-speed and 5-axis machining,
providing you with the tools you need for manufacturing molds, dies, and highly complex parts. In
this class, we will take a look at using PowerMill to program a variety of di erent milling parts. While
this class is meant to familiarize you with the details of programming parts in PowerMill, the main
objective of this class is to teach you the work ow of programming parts in PowerMill. Focusing on
the work ow as opposed to speci c tools and details in the software will ensure the smoothest
possible transition between programming parts in this class, and con dently taking what you've
learned into your own shop.
Downloa d t he f re e P owe rM ill U lt ima t e t ria l!
Don't have PowerMill? Interested in learning more about PowerMill and its capabilities? Download
the free trial of PowerMill Ultimate and enroll in this class! If you're interested in learning even more
about what PowerMill has to o er, visit our PowerMill website for more details.
Class Author:
Autodesk Make
Autodesk helps people imagine, design and create a better world. Everyone -- from design professionals, engineers and
architects to digital artists, students and hobbyists -- uses Autodesk software to unlock their creativity and solve important
challenges.
In this rst lesson, we will program a basic part utilizing PowerMill's traditional
machining strategies. However, before we dive into our rst part, we will rst
take a look at the work ow of programming parts in PowerMill. Whether you
are programming the parts in this class, or your own parts in your shop, this
wor ow will help guide you through the programming of any part in
PowerMill.
https://vimeo.com/238436140
Settings: Customize both cutting and non-cutting portions of the newly created
toolpath.
Verify/Simulate: Visualize the machining of your part, while ensuring that the
program is safe to run.
https://vimeo.com/238436174
Setup
With our model imported, block set up, and toolpath connections calculated,
we are ready to begin programming!
Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FNA/3O4H/J6CG7L56/FNA3O4HJ6CG7L56.dgk
…
Roughing
Vide o 3: Ro ug hing
First, we’ll create a tool for the roughing pass
Create a Tip Radiused Tool
Length: 4 0 mm
Diameter: 12 mm
Tip Radius: 1 mm
Name the tool D12TR1 and close the tool dialog
Now that we have our tool for the roughing pass, we can create the necessary
toolpath
Create a Model Area Clearance strategy and name it D12TR1-RGH
O set Model
Thickness: 0.5 mm
Stepover: 5 mm
Stepdown: 5 mm
With our model roughed, we are ready to nish programming the model by
adding a nishing pass.
https://vimeo.com/238436204
Finishing
To get our part to have a clean nish, we will run a nishing pass across the
block.
First, we’ll need to create the necessary tooling:
Create a ball nosed end mill for nishing the part
Diameter: 8 mm
Length: 30 mm
Now we’ll create the nishing toolpath using our ball nosed end mill.
Create a Raster nishing strategy and name it BN8-FIN
Tolerance: 0.02 mm
Stepover: 0.5 mm
A warning pops up about a possible gouge when the tool approaches the
boss.
We can add a radial clearance in the toolpath connections dialog
Moves and Clearances
Radial Clearance: 5 mm
Apply and accept the dialog
The model looks mostly nished after our nishing strategy, but some of the
faces don’t quite seem to be up to par. It would appear to make sense to add
another pass that runs perpendicular to our toolpath. Luckily, we can do that
within our raster nishing strategy.
Add a perpendicular pass into the toolpath BN8-FIN
Right click on the toolpath in the explorer and select settings
Click the recycle button in the upper left corner
Check the Perpendicular Pass option in the raster nishing section
Recalculate the toolpath
https://vimeo.com/238436216
NC Code
Our toolpaths have been simulated and appear successful, so now it’s time for
us to generate the NC code.
Right click on NC programs in the explorer and select Create NC Program
Give the program an appropriate name
Drag all toolpaths into the program and run a full simulation.
Right click on the program
Simulate from Start
Note: This exercise is for educational purposes. While this exercise outlines the
process of generating your NC Code, no actual code is to be generated as a
part of this class.
https://vimeo.com/238437930
Setup
Open PowerMill, and drag and drop model into the graphics area
Model le will need to convert
Select the Create Workplane drop down menu from the home tab
Select the Top of Selection Workplane
Activate the new workplane and name it Top
Now that our setup is complete, we are ready to begin creating tools and
toolpaths to program our model!
Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FXN/RBFW/J8YRFL0U/FXNRBFWJ8YRFL0U.zip
…
https://vimeo.com/238437951
Roughing
First, we’ll need to create a roughing tool for the rst roughing pass.
Create a Tip Radiused Tool
Diameter: 25 mm
Tip Radius: 2 mm
Length: 35 mm
Add appropriate shank by selecting the shank tab and pressing the add
shank button
Name the tool D25TR2 and close the tool dialog
Now that we have our tool for the rst roughing pass, we can create the
necessary toolpath.
Create a Model Area Clearance strategy and name it D25TR2-RGH1
O set all
Stepover: 10 mm
Stepdown: 8 mm
Lead in: select Ramp for the rst choice
Ramp Options:
Follow the toolpath
Max zig angle: 4
Circle diameter: 0.65 TDU
Click accept
After the simulation has completed, select the store button in the ViewMill section
to store this snapshot of the machining process for later
Mode
No Image
If the rst roughing pass looks good, let’s move onto the second roughing
pass.
https://vimeo.com/238437978
Rest Roughing
We’ll need to create a smaller roughing tool for the second roughing pass.
Now that we have our tool for the rest roughing pass, we can create the
necessary toolpath.
Create a Model Rest Area Clearance strategy and name it EM15-REST-RGH
O set all
Thickness: 1 mm
Stepover: 5 mm
Stepdown: 5 mm
Rest
Rest machining: toolpath
D25TR2-RGH1
Mode
No Image
Now that our part is properly roughed, it’s time to focus on nishing the part.
https://vimeo.com/238437998
Finishing
In order to get our part to have a clean nish, we can run a nishing pass
across the block.
First, we’ll need to create the necessary tooling:
Now let’s create a nishing toolpath using our ball nosed end mill.
Create a Steep and Shallow nishing strategy and name it BN8-FIN
Check the spiral option for shallow
Stepdown: .5 mm
Stepover: .5 mm
Tolerance: 0.1 mm
Go to the limits section in the local explorer
Check the z minimum value
Click the icon left of the text box and select the top edge of
the pocket
NOTE: this simulation takes a long period of time. Once you feel you’ve seen
enough of the simulation, you may pause it. DO NOT STORE the simulation
once you have stopped it.
Machining around the pockets and machining the holes took a signi cant
amount of time; we can edit these to shorten the machining time.
Let’s revise the toolpath to hopefully make it more e cient.
Right click on the toolpath BN8-FIN and select settings
Select the recycle button to enable editing
Go to the limits section
Lower the z minimum to -36.4 2 (0.15 less than the previous)
Notice how the toolpath around the pockets is less complicated; this will
shorten the time.
Hide the block and model, so that only the toolpath is visible
Select the portions of toolpath that would be machining the holes by viewing the
model from the top
Right click on the selected portion, then select edit then delete selected
components
Now that we have successfully revised our toolpath, we can run another
ViewMill simulation.
Click the simulation tab
In the ViewMill section, change the mode to rotatable and select restore to return
the block to after the second roughing pass
Play the simulation and once complete, store the new block and change the mode
to no image
https://vimeo.com/238438020
We’ll start with drilling the holes on the corners. We will perform both a center
drilling and a drilling operation.
In the global explorer, right click on hole feature sets and select create holes=
Name the feature set: HOLES
Keep the default Create From option: model
Check only Use Active Workplane Only
Check Find Holes Going Down
Box select the entire model
Click apply and close the dialog
Now we can create the toolpath for our center drilling operation.
From the toolpath strategies dialog box, select drilling, and then select single peck
and click ok
Name the toolpath SPOTDRILL
Operation: Centre Drill
Depth: 4 mm
Leave all else as default
Click the select button at the bottom of the window
Click the 8 mm diameter from the left textbox and press the
right arrow between the textboxes
Click select at the bottom of the feature selection dialog
and close the dialog
Next, try simulating the toolpath on your own using the ViewMill option. Remember,
you can always go back and review the simulation process.
Now, we’ll create the tool for the nal drilling operation.
Create a drill with the same diameter as the holes
Diameter: 8 mm
Add an appropriate shank
Name the tool DRILL8
Let’s create the nal drilling toolpath by cloning the previous toolpath.Right
click the spot drilling operation and open the settings.
Repeat the simulation process you followed with the center drilling process.
The block should appear like this after the holes have been drilled:
With our drilling of the holes complete, all we have left is machining the two
pockets on our part.
https://vimeo.com/238438052
Right click on the new feature group in the explorer, and select rename
Name: POCKETS
Next, we’ll create a tool that can rough out the pockets.
Create an endmill smaller than the corner radii in the pockets
Diameter: 6 mm
Add an appropriate shank
Name the tool EM6
Now we’ll use a new type of toolpath to machine the pockets, starting with the
roughing phase
We can see that the toolpath ramps in from an unnecessary height. We can
revise our toolpath.
Right click on RGH-POCKETS and select settings
Click the recycle symbol to enable editing
Limits:
Z maximum: click the top of a corner
It’s time to nish the pockets and ultimately nish our part!
We’re going to use the same tool that we used for roughing for the nishing
pass.
Create a new toolpath. Select the Feature Machining option then select Feature
Pocket Pro le.
Name the toolpath FIN_POCKETS.
Tolerance: 0.01 mm
Radial and axial thickness: 0 mm
Stepdown: 5 mm
Limits:
These will remain the same as our roughing pass
Calculate the toolpath and close the dialog.
Because we’ve nished the part, you could run a simulation of each toolpath
in order to ensure the part will be machined correctly.
Now, with all of your toolpath created, we're ready to generate our NC code!
https://vimeo.com/238438071
NC Code
Our toolpaths have been simulated and appear successful, so now it’s time for
us to generate the NC code.
Right click on NC programs in the explorer and select Create NC Program
Give the program an appropriate name
Generate NC code by simply right clicking on the program and selecting Write.
Note: This exercise is for educational purposes. While this exercise outlines the
process of generating your NC Code, no actual code is to be generated as a
part of this class.
In this third and nal lesson, we will take our rst look at 5-axis milling in
PowerMill. This lesson will serve as a introduction to 5-axis simultaneous and
3+2 milling in PowerMill, as well as a review of the topics covered in the
previous two lessons. As always, we will use PowerMill's fundamental work ow
to help guide us through the programming of this part.
https://vimeo.com/238439364
Setup
Open PowerMill, and drag and drop model le into the graphics area
Model le will need to convert
Select the Create Workplane drop down menu from the home tab
Select the Top of Selection Workplane
Now that our setup is complete, we are ready to begin creating tools and
toolpaths to program our model!
View in 3D Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FID/7KTT/J8UGZ960/FID7KTTJ8UGZ960.x_t
…
Download
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FIT/AOXW/J8YRFKZF/FITAOXWJ8YRFKZF.zip
…
https://vimeo.com/238439376
We need to add a holder because this model will involve 5 axis processes
Holder tab, add holder
Upper diameter: 30 mm
Lower diameter: 25 mm
Length: 10 mm
Overhang: 50 mm
Let’s verify the toolpath because this will be necessary when we have the tool
at orientations other than vertical.
Now we can move onto the nishing strategy for the top pocket. First, we’ll
need to create a pocket feature.
Use the detect feature to create a pocket feature and name it ‘TopPocket.’
https://vimeo.com/238439404
Swarf Finishing
Swarf nishing maintains contact between the cutting portion of a tool and
any continuous surfaces that need to be nished. We will perform this strategy
on the wall of the boss feature and the sloped surface.
For the tooling for our swarf strategies, we will use the EM10 tool that we
already created.
With our tool selected, now we can create our Swarf Finishing toolpath
Select the Swarf Finishing strategy from the Toolpath Strategy Dialog
Give the toolpath a descriptive name like EM10-SWARF-wall
Leave all options as default.
Select the surfaces that make up the wall around the boss.
Calculate the toolpath.
NOTE: slow the simulation down, as swar ng toolpaths are often very short.
Repeat the same strategy as above for the sloped surface of the boss and
name the toolpath EM.5-SWARF-slope. Once we attempt to simulate, we will
immediately get a warning popup due to a possible rapiding of the tool into
the part. We can revise this by editing the settings of our new swarf toolpath.
Open the toolpath settings for EM10-SWARF-slope
Rapid Moves:
Type: Sphere
Center: (0,0,-28.575)
Calculate
After recalculating the toolpath, we can verify and simulate the second
swar ng strategy. As you can see, the tool axis is automatically adjusted to
swarf the necessary surfaces.
Now that our swar ng processes are nished, we can move onto programming
the pockets.
https://vimeo.com/238439421
3+2 Machining
Create a pocket feature for the rst pocket that we’ll be programming using the
same process from previous videos and name it SidePocket1.
Drag all toolpaths into the stock model then right click the stock model and
calculate
Verify the roughing strategy and then perform a ViewMill simulation. Once
everything appears in order, let’s move onto nishing the pocket.
We will use the EM6 tool again for our nishing pass.
Create an appropriate toolpath for the nishing strategy.
Verify that our nishing pass will be error free and then perform the
appropriate simulation. If everything looks good, try to program the second
pocket on your own. If you ever get stuck, simply review that process used for
the rst pocket.
Once the second pocket has been nished, we can move onto the NC code.
https://vimeo.com/238439441
NC Code
Our toolpaths have been simulated and appear successful, so now it’s time for
us to generate the NC code.
Drag all toolpaths into the program and run a full simulation.
Right click on the program
Simulate from Start
Generate NC code by simply right clicking on the program and selecting Write.
Note: This exercise is for educational purposes. While this exercise outlines the
process of generating your NC Code, no actual code is to be generated as a
part of this class.