Solid Sweep (tool path)

[ryin]

I am basically trying to draw a cut from a tool. the tool is a 5/8 Endmill, it is cutting down the Y-axis, then a small radius, then down the Y-axis again. The tool is also changing on the Z access to cut a relief. basically what i would like to do is make a solid sweep of the endmill (cylinder shape) and have it follow a path on the XY plane, and also follow a path on the YZ plane. i attached a picture what it kind of should look like with, but the red material should not be there, (i lofted 3 5/8" dia circles together at 3 different Z planes)

 

[Chris Booth]

You cannot make a solid sweep cut of an end-mill shape (cylinder shape) in SolidWorks, unfortunately.


You can always model what the result of such a cut would be, but it is often not easy, and very laborious.


The main ingredient of an approximation is 2D sweeps of the profile of the end-mill along the cutter path, with the sweep maintaining the correct orientation to the cutter path. But this doesn't give the correct result i) at the ends (at each end a semi-circular cut-extrude in Z must be added, ii) if the cutter path has a curvature less than the radius of the cutter at any point, or iii) if there is any change of Z-level along the path.


A couple of years ago SolidWorks briefly claimed they were adding 3D sweep and specifically named simulating the path of a cutter as an example of how useful it could be, but within weeks they were explaining that no, they weren't in fact going to be adding it after all!


Sometimes I've wondered if the partner CAM product makers might not want this capability added to SolidWorks. All decent CAM programs have this capability for their simulations - but to my knowledge no CAD programs.