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What sets Axis apart from other milling centers, is the additional step we take to provide quality products, customer service and technical support your dental laboratory deserves. The most important thing that matters to us is that your work is done right.

At Axis Dental Milling, our reputation as a premier milling operation is built one job at a time. Using the finest materials as well as the latest in milling processes and technology, Axis is committed to building lasting relationships with all of our customers. You are never just an order at Axis. From initial contact to product delivery, our friendly staff attends to every detail with your satisfaction in mind.

I am trying to mill this feature (see below) where the part will be rotated about the X-axis using a rotary table as the "A" axis. I have searched the HSM works manual, but it does not explain how "axis substitution" works for "tool orientation." I have the WCS set where the origin is are centered on the axis of rotation, as I have noticed that was necessary for other other jobs where I used 4th axis for indexing successfully.

When I hover over the input for "Axis Substitution" is says: "The origin to which the absolute spatial parameters are relative" but i just don't understand what that means. I have tried selecting the axes shown below or the highlighted cylindrical face to no avail.

I have now been able to generate tool paths. It turns out I was using axis substitution correctly (at least I think so), by selecting the axis of rotation of the rotary table, in my case the X axis. I am running a rotary table on a 3-axis milling machine, rotating about the x axis.

The reason I was not getting tool paths was due to an improper "Machining Boundary" not due to an issue with my "Axis Substitution" Selection. It appears "Axis Substitution" requires a machining boundary defined by a selection, however selecting the features on my part (as I have often done for 3-axis paths) was not working in this case, leading to no tool path generation.

In the example below an Adaptive path is wrapped by selecting the shown axis in "Axis Substitution" and using the rectangular sketch as the "Machining Boundary. " The tool path stops at the boundary and does not go all the way around. Is there a more appropriate boundary condition for this?

In attempt to get the path to go all the way around I first tried extending the boundary, but this does not help (A below). The path seems constrained by the plane of the boundary rather than its size, however lowering the plane of the boundary sketch did not produce the expected result of complete wrapping of the tool path (B below).

One thing I found that works to wrap the path all the way around was manually adding "Additional Offset" to the boundary until the ends of the path overlapped (below A and B). However the path reaches the end then returns, rather then rotating continuously. Ror roughing this is not really a big deal, the rotary table just goes back and forth 360 degrees of rotation. Although in some cases the tool will retract and the table will rotate back to the starting position before the next pass effectively wasting half of the rotation time. Is there a better boundary condition that will support continuous rotation?

However this strategy of adding "Additional Offset" to the boundary will cause some paths to extend in the undesired direction along the x-axis, so it appears that Additional Offset is more of a work around then a ideal containment strategy, as show for the parallel path below. Again the path reverses every 360 degrees rather than rotating continuously. Continuous rotation would be preferable in certain cases.

I was also pleased to learn that the Flow tool path has an Orientation option of "Use 4-axis" that does generate true continuously rotating finishing tool paths constrained to selected surface geometry (see below). However this only seems to be an option for Flow.

NOW, I need help getting a Post Processor for the Centroid control that supports multi axis tool paths. The standard Centroid post currently available from Autodesk does not allow me to post any of these paths.

I've seen in several video's that they use a function called "machine play" which kind of looks like NC check but with a moving milling machine.. I've searched high and low but couldn't find that button in my creo setup and i could not find a guide online for uploading and setting up the machine.

If you have already defined and tested your mechanism designed milling machine assembly be sure to add a datum coordinate specifically named MACH_ZERO where the Creo mfg models will be attached to the machine.

Next use Edit Definition on the Workcell. Select the tab for Assembly. Select a corresponding datum coordinate from the mfg database. Use the glasses in this tab to see if your mechanism machine is displayed. If no be sure to use the config.pro option pro_mf_workcell and that it points to where the mechanism assembly is located.

You can do a help search for Machine kinematics that will get you started. At one point several revisions ago there was a tutorial for doing that sort of thing with a 3 axis Haas machine as an example. I think it's pretty much a dog and pony show for the amount of effort you would put into building a 5 axis machine that really doesn't enhance any gouge checking that can already be done without the machine.

I don't have any 5 axis machines here at this time. But for gouge checking I use both the PTC gouge check for a quick check as well as NCSimul for checking which has the machine kinematics which I rarely have turned on. I think it just adds clutter to the gouge check process but I suppose if we had a 5 axis machine

At CloudNC, we have a range of state of the art 3-axis, 4-axis and 5-axis milling machines. As a designer, having an understanding of which type of machine your part will be manufactured on is critical in optimising your design. When designing a CNC machined part, you might not have thought about which type of machine your part will be machined on, but the complexity and type of geometry you can design will be different for different types of machines.

The main difference between 3-axis, 4-axis and 5-axis machining is the complexity of the movement both the workpiece and the cutting tool can move through, relative to each other. The more complex the motion of the two parts, the more complex the geometry of the final machined part can be.

3-axis machines are typically used for machining of 2D and 2.5D geometry. Machining of all 6 sides of a part is possible in 3-axis machining but a new fixturing set-up is required for each side, which could be expensive (more on that below). For a single fixture setup, only one side of the part can be machined.

Many complex and practical shapes can be manufactured by 3-axis CNC milling, especially when in the hands of a world-class CNC machining facility. 3-axis machining is best suited to manufacture of planar milled profiles, drillings and threaded holes in-line with an axis. Undercut features are possible with the use of T-slot cutters and Dovetail milling cutters.

Features not possible in 3-axis milling include any features on an angle to the X-Y-Z co-ordinate system, even if the feature itself is planar. There are two types of angled features you can design, and understanding the distinction between them is important when designing parts for CNC milling.

4-axis machining can be used as a more economically viable way of machining parts theoretically possible on a 3-axis machine. As an example, for a part we recently machined we found that using a 3-axis machine would have required two unique fixtures at a cost of 1000 and 800 respectively. By utilising the A-axis capability of 4-axis machining, only one fixture was required at a cost of 1000. This also eliminated the need for fixture change-overs, reducing costs even further. Eliminating the risk of human error meant we machined the part to a high quality with no need for expensive Quality Assurance investigations. Removing the need to change fixtures has the additional benefit that tighter tolerances can be held between features on different sides of the part. Loss of accuracy due to fixturing and re-setup has been removed.

In continuous 4-axis machining, the machine can cut material at the same time as the A-axis rotation, simultaneously. This allows complex arcs to be machined, such as the profile of cam lobes, and helixes.

4-axis machining gives us the ability to machine angled features, otherwise not possible with a 3-axis machine. Bear in mind that 4-axis machining allows a single axis of rotation per fixture setup, so all angled features must be angled about the same axes, or additional fixtures put in place.

These CNC milling machines utilise 2 of the 3 possible rotation axis, depending on the type of machine. A machine will either utilise a rotation in the A-axis and C-axis, or a rotation in the B-axis and C-axis. The rotation either occurs by the workpiece, or by the spindle.

In 3+2 axis machining two rotational axes operate independently to each other, meaning that the workpiece can be rotated to any compound angle in relation to the cutting tool for features to be machined. However, two axes rotation at the same time as machining is not possible. 3+2 machining can produce highly complex 3D shapes. Fully continuous 5-axis machining can simultaneously rotate the two rotation axis, at the same time as machining and the cutting tool moving linearly in XYZ co-ordinates.

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