Duplicate a toolpath

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In this lesson, we will duplicate a toolpath.

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After completing this lesson, you'll be able to:

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Demonstrate how to duplicate a toolpath, identify the difference between derive and duplicate and rename a toolpath.

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In Fusion 360, we're going to carry on with our turning internal grooves.

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At this point, we've created a lot of different operations that allow us to rough and finish most of the outside as well as portions of the inside.

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Now we're going to take a look at what we can do to duplicate or derive toolpaths to simplify some of our workflow.

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The first thing that I want to mention is that renaming your toolpaths as well as your setup can be extremely helpful,

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especially once you move on to multiple setups and reusing some of this data.

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So I'm going to start by renaming setup by clicking on it twice and calling it OP1.

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Then I'm going to modify some of the names of the toolpaths such as profile roughing and I'm going to call this OD Roughing.

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Then for profile finishing, I'm going to call this OD Finishing.

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Then single groove, I'm going to call this Leading Groove and so on.

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So we can rename these operations to help us better understand how to use this data and how to review it after it's created.

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So now that we understand how to rename some of this, let's talk about ways that we can reuse what we've done.

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So we created a groove toolpath for a single groove.

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Now if we wanted to repurpose that or reuse it with a different groove selection,

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what we could do is we could select the toolpath, we could right click on it and we could duplicate it.

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When we duplicate a toolpath, it's going to put it directly after the one we've selected and it will be an exact copy.

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From here, what we would do is right click and edit, go to our Geometry selection and simply pick a new location for groove that we want to create.

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Notice that we can create multiple grooves and even select a different tool.

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For us, we would need to use a different grooving tool that was a little bit narrower and then we could say OK and allow it to generate that toolpath.

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So based on these parameters and the selections,

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it's very quick and easy for us to copy that data and even grab different tools or different geometry.

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We can always go back and make adjustments.

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For example, if I decided that that grooving tool wasn't actually what I wanted, I could go back and make those adjustments,

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and again, allow it to repurpose some of that work that I've already done.

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So if you spend the time figuring out ideal Lead-Ins and Lead-Outs or steps or using a specific pecking motion to clear out some of this geometry,

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it makes sense to repurpose it for what you're trying to do on the rest of the part.

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But let's talk about deriving a toolpath and what that actually means.

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When we're duplicating a toolpath, we're making an exact copy of it.

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However, when we're deriving a toolpath, what we're doing is we're taking some of the same selections and we're applying it to a different toolpath.

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For example our OD Roughing toolpath, we right click on it and we select Create Derived Operation.

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We go to Turning, we could use that selection process to create an OD Finishing toolpath.

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So for example, if I'm going to use this information, I can select turning profile finishing.

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Notice that it doesn't put it directly after but it puts it at the end of our browser.

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But from here we could use that selection which would be our front and back planes.

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And we could select a different tool if needed.

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Where this comes in handy is if you're working on a specific area of a part.

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For example, if you had planes containing just these three grooves and you wanted to rough and finish that area.

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Using these derives would be a quick way for us to make use of those selections, focusing on exactly the same area between different operations.

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So they both have different implications.

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Duplicate and Derive can both be extremely helpful depending on your geometry in your situation.

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Whenever we make changes, we always want to make sure that we regenerate any dirty toolpaths.

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I'm going to regenerate all of the different operations and in this case, we have OD Roughing and OD Finishing.

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We have a groove.

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For the first groove, we've duplicated that for the additional grooves,

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and then we have this other grooving toolpath which is looking between multiple areas.

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I'm actually going to right click and I'm going to suppress this, meaning that it's not going to be used in calculations for in process stock.

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And it's not going to be posted if we export this NC file.

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Then I have a drilling operation for the center and then we have an internal roughing and internal finishing profile,

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and then we have our groove for the inside.

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This part is far from done.

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Obviously the inside would need to be finished from the back of the part,

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and there is still a little bit of material left inside that would need to be taken care of.

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But for right now, let's make sure that we save our work before moving on.