Program two-sided features using Feature-Based Machining in NX CAM

Sometimes it is desired to machine from one direction as much as possible. Like in this simple example, you may want to do both through holes and one of the counterbores from one direction, then machine the remaining counterbore from the opposite direction. In this video, you can see one way to do this.
NX CAM’s Feature Recognition will find and identify counterbores like these as STEP2HOLE-type features. The position and orientation of these manufacturing features are attributes of the feature. In the example, the single arrows that you see indicate the default machining direction. The +Z-axis of the feature’s coordinate system points in the opposite direction. The coordinate system position is the recognized position of the STEP2HOLE feature and the default start point of the drilling and milling cycles.
The NX CAM Feature Based Machining operations offer the capability to control the machining direction per feature.
Inside the operation’s Feature Geometry you can select the individual in-process features and press Reverse Direction. The resulting position is translated over a distance equal to the DEPTH attribute value of the recognized STEP2HOLE feature.
There are several ways to automate this sort of cases when using the Create Feature Process command. Some customization or user interaction is always necessary since by default the processes for both features will be identical and operate in opposite orientations.
This video shows how manually tag the feature that must be machined in the opposite direction. The tagging adds an attribute to the feature. The default machining rules test this attribute to decide if the operations must be reversed.
For more information about hole machining , you can visit the NX CAM online technical documentation:
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This tech tip was created by Reinier Capelle ([e-mail])
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