Roughing / Re-Roughing

[razmosis]

I usually make Mill Volumes and Mill Surfaces to create my own sequences to rough out a part rather than make use of the Mill Window based Roughing / Re-Roughing Sequences that Creo seems geared toward. That is how I've been taught how to program and have been steered away from using the latter options. It seems safe and usually predictable. I am curious to know how others feel about the Roughing / Re-Roughing method of getting the job done. It looks to me like it could potentially save a lot of time, but the re-rough tool paths seem very unpredictable. I did try a couple of simulations and one of them had a big gouge that I couldn't get rid of in the Re-Rough.

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[JasonPensack]

Matt,

I am in the same boat. I have tried Rough / Re-rough and it just doesn't do what I want. I use Mill Windows in Volume Milling and they work pretty good most of the time. My problem with Roughing and Re-Roughing is that the Roughing sequence doesn't stay contained to the Mill Window. The Re-Roughing also doesn't let me order the regions (although with the new way in Volume Milling it's almost impossible to do anymore). The fact that the Material Removal is not supported is another downside. And the biggest problem for me is that I will use Volume Milling to finish pockets as well. With Volume Milling I can finish a complex pocket using Pocketing and then use a Local Mill by previous step with a smaller tool, and both of these support cutter comp. I don't believe Roughing, Re-Roughing, or Finishing allow you to use comp.

[SteveLucas]

Matt,

same here I use the window based roughing and re-roughing occasionally in pockets but I have the retract set to always. This seems to avoid a lot of the gouges for me. Finishing on the other hand if you try and finish a pocket with the window finish and it has holes in the side walls or if the walls are not perfectly straight(i mean has cuts in the wall) then it jumps all over the place so I usually finish with a volume with the wall parameters set to profile only and follow hard walls so I have both a window and a volume for the same pocket. what a waste of time having to do both methods.

PTC really needs to do more work on these rough, re-rough, finish routines, or show us how to use this stuff to get efficient tool path from these sequences not just the canned demo/ tutorials we get as samples that are relatively simple parts.

[razmosis]

Thanks for the help. I'm not sure why I didn't see your responses earlier. It kind of reinforces the old way I've been taught to use the software rather than waste too much time on the newer roughing/re-roughing/finishing ways. It sure seems like it would save a lot of time and tools if they would show us how to make it work.

Matt