NX Uphill cutting in NX CAM

Nearly all of the standard milling processes in NX are designed to cut from the top down, which makes sense for most all roughing and finishing operations.  However in certain cases, the programmer may want to machine a sloped surface from the bottom up – beginning the cut at the lowest level and working uphill to the top of the feature.  This can be used to avoid pushing the tool down into an ever-larger pile of chips at the bottom of a pocket, for example.  Not re-cutting chips can help improve the part surface finish and prolong tool life.

In earlier versions of NX, we are able to cut uphill by using a fixed or variable axis contour surfacing operation and making the correct drive geometry choices and settings.  This is naturally geared towards finishing processes and can be a bit tricky to set up, which does limit its usefulness.  NX1847 introduces a specifically-designed process strategy for uphill cutting as part of the adaptive milling engine.  

To get to this option:

• Create an adaptive milling operation from the mill_contour template
• Edit 'Cutting Parameters'
• Go to the Strategy tab
• Set the 'Bottom Up Cutting' option to "Between Cut Levels"
• Make appropriate settings for Step Up Distance and Minimum Cut Depth

The software will make automatic passes going uphill on the part geometry.  Give this new option a try and see how it can help your manufacturing process!

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