Path Workben plus step file reverse engineering tutorial

[CoderMusashi]

Machining a part is not always cut and dry. What steps you are going to take in making a part should also be considered if you are designing the part. Depending on the software you use there is nothing wrong with having several different features 2D or 3D for machining purposes only. You don't have to just work with one solid model. If you are Squaring a block does your model need the drill holes in it or can you just have a simple square and a point cloud for the location of drilled holes. I work with large die assembly models daily and using models created with who knows what software can be tricky sometimes. You may not have a solid it may just be surfaces or faces in FreeCAD terms but it looks solid. You will find all kinds of artifacts in poorly made solids. Multiple lines, points and all kinds of small things that you may not see. Be creative and think about how to get what you want and less time trying to get the software to do what it does not want to do. Let me know if anyone wants more videos showing work arounds and machining strategies on models that don't behave the way you wish they would with the Path Workbench.

Simple model that I could do a contour around the middle of this part but not pocket so I had to do a little reversing to get the machining strategy for the pocket https://youtu.be/FAOrAj43j4Q

[sliptonic]

Could you attach the original file please. It's like to look closer at any problems Path had working with the unmodified shape.

[CoderMusashi]

Here is the .step file I was playing with. That center punch hole is something I would not machine out. I would drill all the holes and one in the center heat treat the block and then wire out that center punch hole in the EDM.