Defining an Area To Machine

Defining an area to machine is an useful approach if, before you start machining, you are aware that the part has areas that will require different types of machining operations.

This task shows you how to:

Compute Machining/Slope Areas
Edit Slope Areas
Assign Operations
Remove Machining/Slope Areas

Compute Machining/Slope Areas

You must first compute the machining on the slope areas.

From the Surface Machining section of the action bar, click Machining/Slope Area .
The Machining/Slope Area dialog box opens at the Geometry tab .
Still in the Geometry tab:
1. Click the red area in the sensitive icon and select the part in the work area.
2. Double-click anywhere in the work area to confirm your selection and redisplay the dialog box.
Select the Slope Area check box.
This activates the Define and Operations tabs.
Select the Define tab:
1. Define the parameters of the tool to use, the machining tolerance and the offset to use on the machining area.
2. Keep the default angles options.
3. Click Compute.
  The three different types of area are displayed on the part (Vertical, Intermediate, Horizontal) and are now listed in the Define tab of the dialog box.
  By default, they are all displayed.
4. Hide or display an area using its context menu.

Select the Full display of area check box to see overlapping areas.

Important:

The vertical area corresponding to the outside of the part is not displayed in Full display of area mode.
Full display of area is not kept between two sessions. It must be recomputed.

Merge small areas of one type that may appear in the middle of others in the greater ones:
1. Select the Small Area check box.
  The Small Area value is the ratio between the surface of the area considered and that of the tool tip.
2. Click the arrow and select a reference contour.
  The field next to Small Area is filled automatically with the value below which any area will be merged with greater surrounding areas.
3. Alternatively, type a value directly.

Edit Slope Areas

Once they have been computed, you can edit machining or slope areas.

Lock the slope areas:
1. Click Lock and edit.
  This brings you to the Edit tab. A symbol shows you that the Geometry and Define tabs are locked: You can access them but they are not active.
2. Make sure Full display of area is not selected.

Select the line of one subsets. The following icons become available:

Deactivate: Deactivates contours in any subsets:
- Click Deactivate , the dialog box disappears.
- Select the contour you want to deactivate. It is no longer displayed.
- Double-click anywhere in the work area to revert to the dialog box.
Active: Reactivates contours of the selected subset:
- Click Active , the contours of the selected subset that have bee deactivated are displayed in dotted lines.
- Select the contour you want to reactivate.
- Double-click anywhere in the work area to revert to the dialog box. The contour is visible again.
Remove Detail: Removes details in any subset.
- Click Remove Detail and select two points around the portion to remove on the contour. A white line is displayed to visualize the cut.
- Select the portion to remove.
- A new closed contour is computed and displayed.
- Double-click anywhere in the work area to revert to the dialog box.
Create a new subset of an area:
- Click , a Subset.x item is added to the list of Computed Subsets.
  Note: This is an user subset, meaning you have to populate it, its name is an automatic one.
- Select its display color from the list.
- Right-click the Subset.x item in the list to populate the subset with the contours of your choice:
  - Copy contours: The selected contours are copied from one existing subset to the current one.
  - Move contours: The selected contours are moved from one existing subset to the current one (no copy).
  - Delete: The selected subset is removed from the list.
  Select the contour in the work area, double-click anywhere in the work area to validate the selection. The contour is added to the subset.
Note:
For user subsets:
- Add only horizontal or intermediate contour to an empty subset. Vertical areas are not taken into account.
- Add only contour of the same type to a subset containing contours (i.e. you can add only horizontal contours to a subset containing a horizontal contour, and only intermediate contours to a subset containing an intermediate contour).

Important:

If other contours share the same area, the system proposes you to remove another portion.
Those modifications are validated when you click OK in the dialog box.
Click Unlock and reset to reset all the computations and editions: A message warns you that all modifications will be lost. Go to the list of subsets and perform a Hide/Show to redisplay the slope areas anew.

Assign Operations

You can assign machining operations to machining areas or slope areas.

Select the Operations tab. Place the pointer in the Insertion Level box and select the manufacturing program in the Activities Process Tree.
The Assign Operation parameters are now displayed.
Click each area one after the other and in the Assign Operation:
1. Assign a spiral milling operation to the horizontal and intermediate areas.
2. Assign a Zlevel operation to the vertical areas.
Click OK.
The as-yet uncomputed machining operations are created in the Activities Process Tree. Each one includes the machining area you assigned it to. In the Manufacturing View, the machining area has been created along with the machining operations assigned to it.

Remove Machining/Slope Areas

You can delete machining or slope areas.

Select Remove Result in the context menu to remove a machining/slope area feature from the Manufacturing View.

A message confirms the removal of the feature.

Note: The Hide/Show item in the context menu does not work for machining zones (zones created without the Slope Area option).