Tool Axis Control

This tab provides the parameters and settings to control the tilting and control of the tool with respect to the part, about its axes to avoid collisions.

The various parameters are briefly introduced below.

Output format	This parameter sets the output format for 3-, 4- or 5-axis machining. The output for 5-axis machining uses the complete freedom of the tilt range. This freedom is limited by 1 degree for 4-axis machining and 2 degrees for 3-axis. For 4-axis output, the portion of the 5th axis is projected back onto the selected 4th axis. For 3-axis output, the portion of the 5th and 4th axes is projected back onto the selected 3-axis machining direction. This parameter influences the behavior of the tool contact point.
Maximum angle step	This option sets the maximum allowed angle change between two consecutive toolpath positions. The calculation engine outputs 5-axis toolpath data that contains the tool tip position and the direction vector of the tool. The direction vectors are not allowed to have an angle change greater than the value specified here.
Tool axis will…	Not be tilted and stays normal to surface
	Be tilted relative to cutting direction
	Tilted with the angle The tool axis will be tilted from the surface normal direction towards the tilt axis. The tilt axis can be the X, Y and Z axis or any line created in the geometry.
	Tilted with fixed angle to axis The tool axis will be tilted from the tilt axis towards the surface normal. The tilt axis can be the X, Y and Z axis. or any line created in the geometry.
	Rotated around axis
	Tilted through point The tool axis is always pointing from a created point in geometry to the surface point.
	Tilted through curve
	Tilted through lines The tool axis will be aligned to given tilt lines that have to be selected as geometry.
	Tilted from curve away
	Tilted from point away
	Be tilted rel. to impeller machining layer The tool will stay normal to the floor face of the impeller. The tilting to the lead and lag can be tweaked by a global lead/side angle and additionally with a local lead angle at the leading edge, splitter edge and trailing edge.
	Be tilted relative to contact point
	Tilted with fixed angle to surface normal
Run tool	This parameter defines the contact point of the tool and drive surfaces. Optional settings: The Auto option is the automatic mode. The system decides where the tool touches the surface. If the user changes the orientation of the tool, the surface contact point remains the same and the contact point on the tool moves from the tip of the tool to the radius of the tool still maintaining the tangency between the tool and surface. When this parameter is set to 'Center', the tip of tool touches the surface contact point. If the tool axis orientation is changed due to tilting options, the tool tilts around this tip point. In such cases, the tool and surface are no longer tangential and the tool will gouge the surface. To avoid this, you must turn on gouge checking and set the first gouge check strategy to retract the tool from the drive surfaces. The option 'Front' is similar to 'Center' and forces the front of the tool to touch the surface. All changes to the tool orientation are performed around this pivot point and it causes gouging to the drive surfaces. You must therefore set the gouge control when working with this option. When this parameter is set to 'Radius', tangency is maintained in a similar way to the 'Auto' option. The difference is that for a bull nose tool, the tip of the tool is used as the touch point on the drive surfaces.
Limit by axis angle range	This switch is set to true to limit the tool between two angles starting from the toolpath slice normal vector. In other words, imagine 2 cones with different opening angles w1 and w2. The tool axis direction is enforced to be between these 2 cones. The orientation of the cones depends on the cone axis settings. You can set the orientation to the x, y and z directions as well as to a user defined direction. If your toolpath is related to a leading curve like cuts along curve you can set the cone axis to dynamically using leading curve. Then you can limit the tool axis along this curve and its toolpath.