How to ignore a surface or group of surfaces that are covering a machineable area
Issue
When a toolpath needs to form below a cover surface or a surface blocking a machinable area, it's sometimes required to ignore a surface or group of surfaces for specific toolpaths. These can be marked as "ignore" surfaces, and the toolpath will machine through them.
Answer
Component thickness for a new toolpath
- Open the toolpath settings
- Click on the Component thickness icon
- Select the surface in the graphic window to avoid
- Hold shift on your keyboard and left-click to select more than one surface
- In the component thickness page > select a new Set
- Click on the Acquire Components icon on the component thickness page
- Set the machining model to > Collision
- Press Apply and Accept
- Press Calculate
Component thickness for an existing toolpath
- Open the toolpath settings
- Press the recycle button to enable edits to the toolpath settings
- Click on the Component thickness icon
- Select the surface in the graphic window to avoid
- Hold shift on your keyboard and left-click to select more than one surface
- In the component thickness page > select a new Set
- Click on the Acquire Components icon on the component thickness page
- Set the machining model to > Collision
- Press Apply
- Press Yes to the PowerMill Query Press Accept
- Press Calculate