Path tool/workpiece contact detection [macro]

[mickgalt]

Hi, I've written a macro to generate a grind path for a specific application I have on a 5 axis machine.
2 of the axes are fixed, 2 move at fixed increments along the workpiece which leave 1 axis which I need to solve based on the tool/workpeice contact.

I'm not using path at the moment, it's just a macro that moves the tool around and writes the axis positions to a file.

for the contact detection I am using a intersection boolean which returns the intersection volume.
I have a loop which is moving the tool in and out of contact with reduced steps each time until i reach a minimum step tolerance
(when the volume returns 0 I am not in contact, when not 0 the tool is in contact)

while this is working it's very slow, multipled by 100,000's of points it can take many hours.

my question is, how does path detect the tool and workpeice? I there an inbuilt function I can use?

I have looked at using assembly constraints, but the workpiece is a coplex curved surface and I can't find a constraint in any of the assembly options that will work.

Thanks

[Kunda1]

Do you mind providing the macro code ? Is it on github ?

[mickgalt]

I only have the local copy at the moment.
i there anything in particular you wanted to see in it? its a bit of a hot mess.

[GeneFC]

my question is, how does path detect the tool and workpeice? I there an inbuilt function I can use?

For a 3D operation, which sounds like what you need, FreeCAD uses Open Cam Lib to detect the surface.

https://github.com/aewallin/opencamlib

Open Cam Lib is currently distributed with FreeCAD as a library, ocl.pyd

Gene

[mickgalt]

For a 3D operation, which sounds like what you need, FreeCAD uses Open Cam Lib to detect the surface.

Thanks. the PathWaterline py might be a good stating point for what I need, I'm reading through py file now.