Optimize toolpaths for drilling in NX CAM

NX CAM QuickTip | Shortest toolpaths with Optimized NC

Alexandra DeYoung | 08/22/2023

Holes can be a real time-eater in CAM programming. Often, parts have very different holes and the toolpaths predefined by NX CAM are anything but optimal. The toolpaths get wildly mixed up and the tool jumps from one hole to the next.

This is exactly the problem we are dealing with in this NX Tutorial. Siemens NX offers many possibilities to optimize the toolpaths between the individual operations. One of them is the Optimized NC function. We will show you how to use it to achieve well-structured, time-saving toolpaths.

NX CAM QuickTip-Toolpaths messed up — Anything but optimal: The toolpaths are wildly mixed up and the tool jumps from one hole to the next.

In today's workpiece, we want to manufacture different holes with the same tool. To do this, we select the appropriate operations in the Operations Navigator. We then see the toolpaths suggested by NX. And we see: this is quite a mess.

This is because NX executes all the same holes together (i.e. first all the 8-holes, then all the 10-holes, etc.).

Alexandra DeYoung shows you in this video how to get optimized toolpaths out of this mess.

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Step by step

We right click on one of our operations, go over Insert and select "Program Group". As type we select here "hole_making". Siemens NX now offers us the "normal" program as program subtype as well as "Optimized_NC" to the right of it. We select this and confirm everything else with OK.

Now a new folder named "Optimized_NC" has been created for us in the Operations Navigator. Into this folder we now move all operations that we want to drill with the same tool.

If we now double-click on the folder "Optimized_NC", a dialog opens in which we can further optimize the toolpaths of our holes. For example, we can define that Siemens NX should take the shortest path for the toolpaths (select "Shortest path" under "Optimization" in Sequence).

If we now reorder the list and create our operations again, we now see structured toolpaths. Our drill no longer jumps wildly between holes, but takes the shortest path from one hole to the next.

Thanks to Siemens NX CAM, you can now combine many operations into a single one and have it move ideally from one tool path to the next.

Alexandra DeYoung
Junior CAX Consultant
E-Mail: alexandra@amscollective.com

Author of this Article

Topics:

Optimize toolpaths for drilling in NX CAM

NX CAM QuickTip | Shortest toolpaths with Optimized NC

Step by step

Thanks to Siemens NX CAM, you can now combine many operations into a single one and have it move ideally from one tool path to the next.

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Optimize toolpaths for drilling in NX CAM

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Step by step

Thanks to Siemens NX CAM, you can now combine many operations into a single one and have it move ideally from one tool path to the next.

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