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The KeyMachinist drilling function
offers very complete drilling toolpath utilities. KeyMachinist can drill from
any direction in any KeyCreator construction view. Angled machine code is
automatically output for rotary axis control.
Complete set of preprogrammed cycles including:
- boring
- spot drilling
- peck drilling
- tapping
KeyMachinist dialogs provide
pictures to make variables and options clear
User defined sets of
cycles and custom parameters
Definition of standard hole patterns from parameters (without CAD
geometry) for:
A single drilling toolpath can drill holes
at multiple depths
- bolt circle
- grid pattern
- linear pattern
Minimize air time
through adjustment of hole sequence based on either:
- closest distance to next
- specified number of zig-zags on the x or y axis
Quick programming even if
the part is not fully modeled by allowing drilling locations to be defined at:
- filtered selections of circles/edges, points,
or positions
- standard patterns such as bolt circle, grid or
linear patterns
 Image courtesy of Pik Rite
Inc, Lewisburg, PA
2D MILLING
Profile Milling - 2½ Axis
plus Rotary Axisis
- Create path as an offset of a closed or open chain of lines, arcs, splines,
and conics
- Visual preview of cutter direction, entry and exit locations, and path
position as offset to inside, outside, or directly centered
- Set up of sets of finish passes and rough passes with separate control of
number of passes or removal per pass and order of cutting (XY or Z)
- Support of tapered wall includes option to maintain sharp corners
- Eliminate dwell marks with configurable lead-in and lead-out conditions
with radial blend, tangent, and perpendicular options
- Full support for tool diameter compensation
Spiral Pocketing - 2½ Axis
plus Rotary Axis
- Support for all combinations of islands, bosses, nested pockets, and
pockets at different depths in one time-saving step
- Climb and conventional milling
- Collpase from the outside or expand from the inside of a pocket
- Helical, ramping angle, or pre-drilled hole entry, multiple entries
- Constant offset in XY
- Option for creating a re-roughing of rest material only toolpath allows
re-machining of corners with smaller tool
KeyMachinist supports full toolpath re-generation for all milling toolpaths.
3D MILLING
KeyMachinist 3D milling includes
all major machining strategies and calculates toolpaths exceptionally fast.
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Machining Strategies
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Roughing Strategies
- Contour
- Zig-zag
- Uni-directional
- Follow surface
- Round
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Finishing Strategies
- Planar
- Radial
- Plateau
- UV-flow
- Circular (round)
- Point milling (plunge)
- Pencil tracing
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Professional Options
KeyMachinist 3D milling provides powerful options for optimal machining times,
setups, and results.
 Image courtesy of TriAxis Machine & Tool,
North Royalton, OH
- Helix, ramping, and plunge entry styles
- Check surface control
- Plane view machining (4-axis indexing)
- Re-machining steep and shallow walls
- Re-generation of toolpaths
Efficient Z-level contour roughing utility employing XY offset up to 90% of tool
diameter, ensuring complete material removal and smooth motions at sharp corners
via loops.
 Image courtesy of TriAxis Machine & Tool,
North Royalton, OH
Advanced lace cutting with Z clipping planes and re-machining capabilities. The
output stream is filtered and optimized with look-ahead for high speed milling,
data smoothing and reduction with excellent proven results in machining time.
Plateau Finishing features constant Z with variable step-down based on wall
steepness and continuous ramping / tool engagement
Round Finishing generates contours at a constant step along the surfaces,
creating a very smooth finish regardless of the steepness or shape.
Animate
The Animate Cutter function in
KeyMachinist provides a quick tool motion animation at user controlled speed in
wireframe display within the KeyCreator viewport.
 Red faces in this verify window indicate
a severe gouge
Quick Verify
KeyMachinist provides a simple
"VCR-control" shaded graphical animation pop-up window powered by MetaCut
Utilities. This animation shows removal of material from user-defined stock
based on selected toolpaths. Cut faces are color-coded to highlight tool changes
and potential problems.
MetaCut Utilities
Most of the verification tools
provided with KeyMachinist are found in the MetaCut Utilities V3 (MCU) program
from Northwood Designs. The MCU program reads G-code NC files and provides powerful viewing, editing, and
analysis capabilities.
The MCU interface windows simultaneously display 3D graphics, G-code text, and
tool calls of the same position in the program.
MCU provides numerous additional utilities such as reverse posting of toolpaths
to polylines, crash detection, re-start program from specified line number,
cutting time, etc.
Post-processors and Process Sheets
Posts
KeyMachinist includes a
fully-configurable post generation utility providing customers total control of
G-code output. Basic configuration files are included for most common machines
and expert assistance with additional or custom posts is one of the strengths of
our KeyMachinist Center in Seattle.
Simple configuration utility interface and sample G-code output
Sheets
Process sheets manage the
association between KeyCreator CKD files and NC files generated by
KeyMachinist. CKD files contain the part geometry, in-process models, clamps,
etc. and the toolpaths. NC files contain the G-code output from sets of selected
toolpaths from each CKD file. These sheets provide shop floor documentation for
the machinist to accompany the G-code files. KeyMachinist generates process
sheets in HTML format, ready for distribution and viewing with many common
software programs typically found pre-installed on all PCs (i.e. Microsoft
Internet Explorer).
Process sheet setup is kept simple
by importing G-code files and picking toolpaths. Process sequence can be
re-arranged by clean manipulation of a list.
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