Hello all, I have always created seperate roughing and finishing files as this was the only way to stop the machine and change the tool, I’m using UGS with a home built machine. Normally I tick the box for roughing and leave the finishing box unchecked, fill in the parameters and after the tool path is created I save it with a filename that reminds me it is the roughing file. I then create the finishing file by unchecking the roughing box and tick the finishing box , fill in the parameters I want and save the resulting file with a reminder this is the finishing paths. I’ve noticed that if you select both the roughing and finishing boxes and once the tool path is created you can save the different parts by only selecting the path you want. I haven’t really scrutinised the resulting files to find if they are substantially different but is one strategy better than the other?
On machines which don’t have tool length sensors we recommend separate files: