CAM FeedsSpeeds

CAM FeedsSpeeds CAM FeedsSpeeds

Menu location

None (Feeds and Speeds Wizard button in the Tool Controller editor)

Workbenches

CAM

Default shortcut

None

Introduced in version

26.3

See also

CAM ToolController, CAM ToolBit, CAM Preferences

Description

introduced in 26.3: the Feeds and Speeds helper suggests spindle speed, horizontal feed and vertical feed for a Tool Controller from Feeds & Speeds Presets stored on the Tool Bit, the Machinability data of the Stock material and the spindle limits of the Job’s Machine. It is opened with the CAM FeedsSpeeds Feeds and Speeds Wizard button in the Tool Controller editor.

Presets

A Preset is a named Feeds & Speeds record stored on a Tool Bit for a material and an operation type. Presets are edited on the Feeds && Speeds tab of the Toolbit Parameter Editor (open the Tool Bit from the Library Manager to change the library copy; open it from a Job to change only the embedded copy). The tab lists Name, Material, Op type, Surface speed, Chipload and Notes and offers Add preset, Edit, Copy and Delete.

The Edit preset dialog has:

  • Name (required).

  • Material: chosen with Browse… from the materials that carry the Machinability model, or Generic (any material).

  • Op type: any, profile, pocket, slot, drill, adaptive, surface_finish.

  • Surface speed (m/min, or ft/min with an imperial unit schema).

  • Chipload (per tooth).

  • Vert feed ratio: vertical feed as a fraction of the horizontal feed, default 0.33.

  • A Direct feed and speed group (Horiz feed and Spindle speed) that is kept in sync with surface speed and chipload using the Tool Bit’s Diameter and Flutes.

  • Notes.

Only Surface Speed, Chipload and the ratio are stored; feed and spindle speed are recomputed from the Tool Bit geometry when the Preset is used. Two Presets on one Tool Bit may not share the same name, material and op type. A new Preset’s chipload is seeded from the Tool Bit’s Chipload attribute.

Suggest Feeds & Speeds dialog

Open a Tool Controller (double-click, or the Tool Controller tab of an operation) and press the Feeds and Speeds Wizard button. The Suggest Feeds & Speeds dialog shows:

  • Tool: the Tool Bit label.

  • Material: the Stock material of the Job assigned with Assign Stock Material, or none — generic resolution.

  • Op type: overrides the Tool Controller’s OpTypeHint for this resolution.

  • Apply preset: Auto (use resolver) or a specific Preset by name.

  • A Suggestion group with Source, Confidence, a table of Current, Suggested and delta for Spindle, Horiz feed and Vert feed (feeds shown in the document’s unit system), and warnings.

Apply writes the suggested values to SpindleSpeed, HorizFeed and VertFeed, records the source per field in FeedSpeedProvenance, stores the chosen Op type in OpTypeHint and recomputes the document. If nothing matches, the dialog reports No matching preset on this tool. Open the tool from the library to add presets.

How suggestions are computed

The Resolver walks a chain of Providers and merges their contributions field by field; the first Provider that fills a field wins:

  1. Tool preset provider: the best-matching Preset on the Tool Bit. A Preset matches when its material (by UUID, or by name) and op type either equal the request or are generic; specific matches score higher and give the Confidence value.

  2. Machinability provider: the Stock material’s Machinability model supplies the Surface Speed for HSS or Carbide, chosen by the Tool Bit’s Material attribute (confidence 0.35).

  3. Tool defaults provider: the Tool Bit’s Chipload attribute (confidence 0.10).

From Surface Speed (Vc), Chipload (Fz), Diameter and Flutes the Resolver derives spindle speed = Vc × 1000 / (π × D), horizontal feed = rpm × flutes × Fz and vertical feed = horizontal feed × vertical feed ratio.

If the Job has a Machine with spindle limits, the spindle speed is clamped to the machine’s min/max rpm and the feeds are scaled by the same ratio, keeping the Chipload constant; a warning is shown.

Feed/Speed Provenance: every field written by the dialog is tagged with its source (for example preset:tool/<material>/<op>, preset:tool/manual/<name>, machinability:<material>/<hss or carbide>, tool_defaults:chipload). Values entered by hand are not tagged; applying a new suggestion overwrites them.

Properties

  • On the Tool Bit: Presets (Feeds & Speeds group, JSON string), Chipload and Material (Attributes group).

  • On the Tool Controller (added on first use of the dialog): OpTypeHint (Enumeration), FeedSpeedProvenance (Map).

See CAM ToolBit and CAM ToolController.

Material

Presets and the Machinability provider use the Material Workbench’s materials that carry the Machinability model (surface speed for HSS and carbide tools). The Stock material of a Job is chosen in the Job task panel (Assign Stock Material); the Choose material dialog of the preset editor shows the same filtered list.

Machine tie-in

The spindle limits come from the first spindle of the Job’s Machine template (Job → General → Machine, created and edited in Edit  Preferences  CAM  Assets). Without a Machine, or with a machine whose spindle has no limits (0 rpm), no clamping takes place. See CAM Machine.

Scripting

from Path.Tool.FeedsSpeeds import (
    ToolContext, MaterialContext, OpContext,
    resolve, get_presets, set_presets, make_preset,
)

tb = tc.Tool
presets = get_presets(tb)
presets.append(make_preset(
    name="Alu profile",
    material_name="Aluminium",
    op_type="profile",
    surface_speed=300.0,
    chipload=0.05,
))
set_presets(tb, presets)

result = resolve(
    ToolContext(diameter=6.0, flutes=2, presets=tuple(presets),
                shape_id="endmill", tool_material="Carbide"),
    MaterialContext(name="Aluminium"),
    OpContext(op_type="profile"),
)
print(result.spindle_speed, result.horiz_feed, result.source)

# apply to a Tool Controller
from Path.Tool.Gui.FeedsSpeedsDialog import write_result_to_tc
write_result_to_tc(tc, result)

The resolver module has no FreeCAD dependency; feeds are in mm/min, surface speed in m/min, chipload in mm per tooth.