About Power Machining on Side

Here are a few recommendations to use Power Machining on sides.

See Also
Creating a Power Machining on the Side
Power Machining

We strongly advise against using the Center(1) and Side(2) machining strategy on areas already partially machined:

  • The Center(1) and Side(2) machining strategy must be used for a first roughing only (no rework) and when the pockets to process are exempt of machining: when the pockets are already partially machined, the material left may not be sufficient to create a center path on some level, thus preventing the creation of a side path on the same level. This may result in collisions or tool breakage while machining lower levels.
  • Generally speaking, this warning applies to any configuration with areas to machine on a fine material thickness (i.e. less than Remaining thickness for sides) on the upper levels and a larger material thickness (i.e. greater than Remaining thickness for sides) on lower levels.
  • This warning applies not only to rework but also to the cases where the rough stock matches the configuration above.
  • A side machining can be guaranteed only if the thickness of the material to remove on any point is higher than the Remaining thickness for sides.

A check is done to avoid overcut situations: If a pass in a side machining path shows an overcut situation, this pass and the passes below are removed. This may occur while using the Center(1) and Side(2) (Machining strategy tab) on areas already partially machined and while using the Pockets only (Strategy tab, Machining mode) or the Center zone order (Geometry tab) and Machine only ordered areas (context menu of Center zone order). This may lead to unmachined areas.

A side machining tool path may be created for the whole part. This tool path is limited either by a check element or a limit line.

Important:
  • Remaining thickness for sides is taken into account only on the part, not on the check.
  • The Zlevels of the side machining are linked to the Zlevels of the center machining (not to those of horizontal areas). See also limitations for Machine horizontal areas until minimum thickness in mmg-c-ui-DialogBoxes-PWMachining.htm#mmg-c-ui-DialogBoxes-PWMachining__table_zml_zyz_4qb.
  • A side machining tool path that does not cut any material is removed (note that it is kept even if it cuts only a small amount of material).