Tool Axis Smoothing Page

Smoothing type

• Global: Influences tilting to a preferred general direction.

• Relative to rotary axis: Locks the tool axis to the rotation axis, preventing the tool from tilting back and into the lead direction.

• Relative to cutting direction: Applies the tilting angle from the first point of the contour. The orientation will change from the point where the tool intersects the tilting curve. When this option is off, Mastercam applies the tilt angle from the contour's first point and tilts the tool from the point that results from the curve's projection to the surface.

Rotary axis

Specifies the axis to which tool tilting is relative.

Tilt angle

Specifies the axis that the tilt angles towards or away from. You can define a minimum and maximum angle. These angles give the range of freedom used to smooth the tool axis orientations towards and away from the rotary axis.

Rotary tilt angle

Applies smoothing to the angles that tilt around the selected axis. Here you can define a minimum and maximum angle. These angles give the range of freedom used to smooth out the tool axis orientations around the rotary axis.

Lead tilt angle

Sets the lead angle of the tool relative to the floor surface.

Side tilt angle

Defines the tool axis's side tilt value from the surface normal direction based on the toolpath slice direction.

Max. tilt angle

Specifies the maximum deviation allowed to find a solution (green angle in the picture). If the maximum tilt angle must be exceeded to avoid a collision, Mastercam trims the toolpath (red tool in the picture).

Strength (percent of contour length)

Sets the degree of post smoothing for the tool axis. At 0% Mastercam orients the tool exactly at its initially calculated point. The higher the smoothing, the more deviation you get from the initial orientation, so that the different orientations bend together smoothly.