I'm using SW2008 S.P. 2.1. I was using SW2005 prior to this so I have limited experience with solid sweep cut.

I'm trying to make a retangular part that has a groove cut that is generated by a milling opration where the end mill slowly lower into the z-axis while the part is moved in the x-y plane along a radius path if one observe from the top (plan) view.

The trouble I am facing is keeping the tool upright (like what one can expect on a 2.5 axis machine). I tried using "keep normal constant" and it failed to generate the cut.

To avoid error, I can only choose "follow path. When doing the solid cut, the tool follows the path the the point that it is normal to the path. If I choose a direction vector that is parallel to the z-axis (unfortunately it will also be parallel to the y-z plane axis), the tool seem to maintain parallelism to the y-z plane and not to both x-z and y-z plane. So I still have a tilted tool. This would not be a problem if I am using a ball endmill as I can make the break the sweep into straight and curve cut and fudge the problem as long as my curve is tangent to the straight cut.

Unfortunately, I am trying to use an flat end mill with corner raduis, so the bottom face of the cut sweep needs to be parallel to the XY plane (or normal to z-axis).

Has anyone have any idea of creating this feature?

Thanks.