Pocketing Question

[Rob Davis]

I am hopefully attaching a cabinet file and the TWD file for reference. Oops - won't let me attach a TWD file so sorry. I am only interested in the back of this cabinet.
What I am trying to do is to make a single door with 6 cut outs in it and a 1/4" deep by 1/2" rabbit around the perimeter of entire hole area for one pane of glass over the six holes. Similar to a mullion door with 6 lights. So the back of the mullions are also relieved 1/4".
What I have done is to create the 6 holes and cut them through(easy), then I created a rectangle over the mullions and cut them 1/4" deep (3 of them - 2 horizonatal and one vertical) and also made 4 rectangles to relieve the back of the perimeter for glass and cut them 1/4" deep. All works fine in eCabs and shows in Part Editor the 7 pockets at 1/4" and then the 6 cut outs. Perfect!
But when I write this to the machine using TWD, what actually happens on the machine is that it cuts the entire area of the mullions to 1/4" deep (like one big pocket), then cuts the perimeter for glass 1/4" deep, then cuts through the 6 holes, then perimeter cut. The end result is correct but a huge waste of time relieving the whole back of the 6 holes before cutting them through.
Did I do something wrong here or does the machine see pocket on top of pocket and just cut the shallow one first, then the cut through? I can't explain it though as I did not ask it to cut the 1/4" from the back of the cutouts. Does the machine not like pockets on top of pockets? I have the relieving pockets overlap the cutouts by 0.250" so they are clean.
Hopefully you see what we are doing here and can explain how we could get this to just relieve the area we need. We have to make 1500 of these and it will take easily twice as long to do this if it does this method.
Thanks in advance.

[Will Williamson]

Have you considered creating a DXF file instead? That way you could chain comp in or out and pocket and control your cutting order?

[Ryan Hochgesang]

Rob,

In eCab, you should be able to use the contour editor in PART Editor and create various perimeter geom. which you can then use profile cut feature and straight bit to cut perimeter of desired shape at a given depth. In some cases when you design the profile cut it may be necessary to keep the tool from going thru material by a small amt., .001" for example to maintain a solid body. This should allow you to follow a given path without pocketing entire center area as your seeing. You will need to use the MDF door tool setup in SETTINGS of control nesting and also provide a default Tool group in the Profile Modeler to auto nest and cut panels on machine. Play around with this a bit and let us know if you have additional questions. You can also email: program@thermwood.com with your files for additional support.

[Rob Davis]

thanks for the replies.
Ryan, I will try this out and let you know. But my original question was why did it pocket the whole back when I only asked it to pocket a perimeter .5" x .25 deep and across the 3 mullions? Does it just see this as one big pocket since I am cutting away all the rest?

We could do this in Mastercam but I was hoping to be able to use nesting of eCabs since we will make some with no grain and it could then maximize the sheets, etc.
We'll get it but just curious as to why it did what it did.
Rob

[Ryan Hochgesang]

Yes Rob, it sees as one open pocket. As Will mentioned also, you could use the DXF file option and layer names to setup your panels, then this file could be loaded into control nesting for best sheet usage. When you save the file that you've setup in MasterCam, just choose the SAVE AS option and then select DXF. To read more on setting up DXF files for nesting, you can select the help symbol in Control nesting, then the DXF option to read about. Just let me know if you have further questions once you've read through the information.