About Shaft and Holder Modes

The 3D strategies in Inventor HSM fully support user-defined shafts and holders. When using a tool with a holder, you can choose between one of five different shaft and holder modes, depending on the machining strategy. Collision handling can be done for both the tool shaft and holder, and they can be given separate clearances.

The various options produce different toolpaths that can be seen in the following images:



Disabled



Pull away



Trimmed



Detect tool length

Detect tool length

With this option selected, Inventor HSMautomatically calculates the minimum tool length required to keep the holder free of the part with a given Holder clearance. When the toolpath is calculated, the "Body length" of the tool definition is updated to the minimum length required.



Setting Detect tool length with a holder clearance distance of 5 mm

The following warning is output to the log when generating the toolpath with Detect tool length active and the tool is too short: Warning: The tool length has been updated from 25 mm to 35.9453 mm to ensure that the holder doesn't collide with the part.

At the same time, the tool is updated.



The original tool



The updated tool

The following example shows the difference on the model with a simple toolpath:



Before tool length detection



After tool length detection with a holder clearance of 5 mm