Toolpath from Surface

[twinkie]

Hello,

I have two bamboo culms intersecting and I need one of the culms to be cut in an exact way so that it perfectly connects to the other one. I have an algorithm on Grasshopper which derives the intersection surface, however, I am not sure how to create a toolpath on KUKA prc from that surface, any ideas here?

I have attached a picture, the green part is the surface and the horizontal culm needs to be cut. The culms are hollow.

[Johannes @ Robots in Architecture]

Hello,

I don't exactly see from the picture what you want to mill, but does that example file help you somehow?
If not it would be great if you could attach a 3DM file that shows clearly what you want to cut!

Best,
Johannes

[twinkie]

Hello,

So I isolated only the culm that needs to be cut so that you have a better view. The whole culm needs to be cut at exactly that location and the cut needs to be in that shape as the green surface, hope that you have a better view.

[Johannes @ Robots in Architecture]

So the element is a pipe? In that case you could just use the tool's flank to cut the surface very rapidly!
You will just have the position it in a clever way so that your robot can cut a 360 degree rotation.

Best,
Johannes

[twinkie]

Hello Johannes,

Yes, we can consider it it as a pipe, however, my idea is that the green surface is not linear and I am not sure how to create a toolpath for the robot on KUKA|prc from that surface.

[Johannes @ Robots in Architecture]

Well, here is a 10-minute try I gave it, hope that helps!
Best,
Johannes

[twinkie]

Hello Johannes,

This is actually really useful, thank you <3. I will have to spend a lot of time studying it but I really appreciate your help.

Have a nice day!

[Johannes @ Robots in Architecture]

Excellent, all the best!

[twinkie]

Hello Johannes,

Working on the file you sent me, I tried my best to study it and ended up with this: I have uploaded my rhino model and my grasshopper file.

To provide some explanations on the files. The model in rhino has two tubes. The horizontal one has inner and outer surface and the vertical one has outer surface. Using grasshopper I derived the intersecting surface (going to call it reference surface) which in the grasshopper file is the black group. What I want is to cut the horizontal tube's inner and outer surface (going to call it just tube from now on) using the reference surface with the elite spindle.

I rotated both the tube and the reference surface so that both of them stand vertically. Afterwards, I tried implementing your grasshopper. The red group is where I started using your grasshopper with small modifications so that I try to make it work for me. However, I am still unable to make it work as both the Tween Curve and Vector 2Pt commands do not work as expected.

I will really appreciate some help here <3

[Johannes @ Robots in Architecture]

Hello,

Could you put in some more annotations or sketches what you would like to achieve?
From the current file it's not fully clear to me where specifically you need some assistance.

Thanks!
Johannes

[twinkie]

Hello Johannes,

I created some pictures so that I can more clearly express my idea, please let me know if I need to clarify something else. I placed the pictures in an archive as they are 6. Here I will provide some more explanations for each picture.

1. Shows the two intersecting tubes
2. Shows specifications of the horizontal tube
3. Shows specifications of the vertical tube
4. Shows the place where the two tubes intersect and an intersection surface needs to be derived
5. In green is the intersection surface which in the grasshopper is a group shaded in black.
6. The horizontal tube and the intersection surface are rotated vertically so that a kuka robot can be used to cut the tube at the location of the intersection surface.

My idea is to use the intersection surface and cut the horizontal tube using kuka so that a perfect connection can be made between the two tubes.

[Johannes @ Robots in Architecture]

Hello,

Here are some pointers: You don't have one nice surface, but your "ring" consists of several surfaces. I have therefore joined the edge curves and for the interior sections joined the surfaces into a BRep. It was then easier for me to get the normals from a mesh instead.
Finally, make sure to adjust the scale. You seem to be working in meters while the robot always uses millimeters. Ideally keep everything in-scale, rather than scaling afterwards.

Best,
Johannes