Toolpath patterns

00:02

In this lesson, we're going to create toolpath patterns.

00:06

After completing this lesson, you'll be able to: Create a toolpath pattern and identify tool order during pattern creation.

00:14

In Fusion 360, we want to work with our fsae rim front setup.

00:19

At this point, we've created a 3D adaptive which is applied to the entire rim.

00:24

But then we have operations that are focusing solely on one area of the design.

00:29

Before we begin patterning, we want to make sure that the order of operations makes sense.

00:35

So in this case, we have tool number 4 which is our 1/2” flat endmill for our 3D adaptive and our 2D contour.

00:41

Then we move on to tool number 3 which was our 1/4” ball endmill.

00:45

And tool number 5 which is a 1/4” flat and then back to tool number 3.

00:51

This operational change for tool number 5 doesn't make sense since we have to go back to the ball endmill.

00:58

But we can't put tool number 5 after the scallop because we need to do the roughing first.

01:04

We then have a pencil and then we go back to the pocketing operation that uses tool number 5.

01:09

So in order to make this as efficient as possible, we need to consider the order of operations.

01:16

Because we will be patterning these operations, we can't move the 2D pocket and 2D contour up into the mix of all the other operations.

01:24

However, we can move this a little bit sooner.

01:28

We can put it up just after our 2D contour.

01:32

So that way we're doing a 2D contour with a 1/2” flat.

01:35

We’ll make a tool change to clean out that part of the spoke,

01:39

and then we'll move into the ball endmill which is used for cleaning out some of these other areas.

01:45

Now you will also remember early on when we are programming this part,

01:49

I talked about using the scallop operation to clean out the base of this in this case the mounting flange.

01:56

The reason that we did that was because of the tool change.

01:59

But now we have this 1/4” flat endmill, which means that realistically we can go back and we can clean this up with the flat endmill,

02:06

instead of using that ball endmill.

02:08

But for the purposes of this lesson, I'm going to continue on with the order of operations that we have moving all the way down to the pencil.

02:16

Then we have our 2D pocket and 2D contour which takes care of the mounting holes.

02:21

And then we have the drilling operation.

02:23

The drilling operation can happen quite a bit sooner as well.

02:26

So I'm going to bring that all the way up after the 3D adaptive.

02:30

So now we're creating the 3D adaptive, we’re then drilling, we're moving on to our 2D contour and our 3D.

02:38

Then we're moving on to scalloping and finishing off all these different areas.

02:43

So now we need to identify which operations are going to be part of a pattern.

02:47

We're going to start with our 2D contour and move all the way down to our pencil.

02:52

Making sure that we select all of these operations, we can then go in and create a new pattern.

02:58

This can also be done by right clicking on the operations in the browser.

03:02

Once we select new pattern, we need to determine the type of pattern and in this case, it will be circular.

03:08

The axis is going to be the center of the part and the number of instances is going to be 8, going all the way around 360 degrees.

03:17

We're using equal spacing and we're keeping the original and then we have the available option to change how it's ordered.

03:24

By default it's going to order by tool, which means that it will do all the operations that use the 1/4” flat first,

03:31

then it'll go and will use all the operations that use the 1/4” ball before moving on to the 1/8” ball endmill.

03:38

We can also order by operation or we can preserve the order in which we programmed it.

03:44

It makes the most sense because we have so many instances for us to order by tool.

03:49

This means it's going to work in this original area where we programmed it and then it's going to move all the way back around.

03:55

And this makes sense because it's going to end back at the original,

03:59

which means that the tool change will happen when the tool is in the area it needs to machine.

04:04

In post process, we have the available option to override a WCS offset.

04:10

In this case, we're going to be using the same WCS so we don't want to use this option.

04:14

But it is available if we're patterning and we want to use say a G55 and G56 for multiple fixture locations.

04:23

We're going to say OK, allow it to generate and then we want to make sure that we simulate the entire set of operations before we save this.

04:32

Notice that it says it's pending for our 2D pocket and contour and that's because it's still calculating all of these adaptive operations.

04:41

Remember that these operations are model based, but they are model based but it's all based on the original.

04:48

It's simply taking exactly what we did and it's patterning it around.

04:52

So if you don't put the correct number of instances or the geometry changes for some reason,

04:58

these patterns are going to match the original and it's not going to match your geometry.

05:03

Once we're happy with that, let's go ahead and select everything and simulate.

05:07

I'm going to jump past the 3D adaptive, I’m going to jump past the drilling and then I'm going to begin jumping past the 2D contour.

05:16

And notice that when I do this, it's moving its way around all of them while still on this individual operation.

05:23

Then it's going to move on to the adaptive.

05:25

It's going to clear out the internal spokes for each one of these.

05:29

Then it's going to move on to the ball endmill.

05:32

And notice that when it does this, it's focusing on one area.

05:36

Because it's using the same tool, it's going to create the operations in this area before it moves on to that next pocket.

05:44

So you can see how it's moving around the part and again, it's focusing on those areas with the same tool before it moves on to the next spoke.

05:52

When we get to the end and we begin using the 2D pocket operation, you can see that we finally machined all the geometry,

06:02

and it will take a little bit of time for the simulation to catch up if you are jumping ahead of these operations like I am.

06:08

You can see that it's working its way through these pockets and has a little bit of work to finish off here.

06:14

And then it has the pencil operation that it needs to do in here before finally moving on to the pocket and the 2D contour.

06:21

Once again, there is more that we can always do.

06:25

We haven't really dealt with any tolerances and we haven't looked at any problem areas of the program.

06:32

We have fixed a few things along the way, but there's still a little bit of cleanup work that we could do, we could spend more time.

06:38

You'll also notice that we do have a collides with stock warning that happens over here.

06:44

This is at the very end when it's taking a look at using the pencil mill operation, it says it's colliding.

06:52

So that's something that we would also want to go back and just investigate and address if there is any problems.

06:58

I'm happy with the way that this program has turned out so far.

07:02

And again, it does allow us to go back in and analyze everything that we've done.

07:09

Now that we have an entire program to cut the entire part from our stock,

07:13

I also want to go in right click and I want to take a look at the machining time.

07:17

I want to see how long I can expect it takes to cut this part.

07:22

And right now to cut the entire rim, the total feed time is a little bit over an hour.

07:27

You'll see that the total machining time is an hour and 14 minutes.

07:32

So that's not bad but obviously we can always make adjustments.

07:35

We can speed the tools up if they can handle it, if the machine can handle it and if our fixture can handle it.

07:41

But at this point again, I'm happy with what we have and I'm just investigating all the operations we created.

07:47

Let's make sure that we save this before we move on to the next step.