I have a part I am cutting. It is a semi ellipse semi sphere as shown.


Attachment 240040



Now, if I take a regular contour pass using "contour" process with a regular square end mill, along the cross section of the profile tool, the machine will take a smooth pass, at the commanded feed rate.


When I use surface flow cut to make the entire surface using the 3d cutting method and a ball end mill, the machine will take very similar passes following the xy contour of the part, but the motion of the machine is very jerky and with a commanded speed of 100 inches per minute, the machine MAYBE goes 20 inches a minute and keeps pausing for short times and then cutting again for bursts of time.


Why does gibbscam program a nice machinable arc when it's a single pass, but during the surface flow cut, despite having only xy movements, with a step in z, the movements are very jerky and slow with lots of pauses.


My thinking is that if I was to manually use the profile tool and do a .01" Z step from the top to the bottom and manually create all 180 or so passes along the z, it would work just fine.


I know I'm missing something, so maybe someone could shed some light? Is there a way to use that same smooth arc pass but in mass quantity on several hundred z steps, but do it automatically with one of the surface or advanced 3d commands?