CAM: Outside corner rounding for 2D contour

[kb9ydn]

Right now in the 2D contour tool path type there is an option for rolling around outside corners or leaving them sharp.  It would be nice to have another option to round outside corners with a settable radius, thereby creating a fillet.  Mainly this would be used for deburring of sharp corners (similar to the existing chamfer option, except that it works on profile edges instead of top edges).

Appropriate fillets could of course be modeled on the CAD side first before machining; but in situations where there are a large number of corners to fillet, or where the part model can't be modified (externally linked read only file), this would provide a simple alternative.

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[Steinwerks]

Link to the Autodesk CAM forums suggestion:

https://camforum.autodesk.com/index.php?topic=7900.0

Let's get it in there! Makes more sense than modifying the model IMO.

[anewenergy]

Fillets are so fast,   I drive my raid cutters in Fusion off the true 3D radi.  Seems like it works well.

Pat

[dpar15]

GibbsCAM has this. I use it all the time.  

[Jonathan_Kolodner]

There's the option in the toolpath on 3D operations to perform arbitrary filleting of a given size, so I agree it makes sense to have that available in 2D operations as well (heck, I would think it's easier to implement, but then again what do I know on the code side...)

[al.whatmough]

It is a good idea, that said, one of thoes things that seems simple.

However, it is more complicated to implement.  What happend for example when you decide to chamfer the top edge.

This may be best sovled by having a good way in CAD to quickly add chamfers to vertical edges.

[Steinwerks]

Can't seem to quote Al...

Anyway, Al, I realize this is less of an issue in Fusion than, say HSMWorks (where I am not necessarily allowed to edit the model, and creating an assembly creates an extra file that I have to locate somewhere in the PDM system... but I digress), but makes a lot of sense to me when I simply wish to break edges, and Roll Around Corner doesn't do a good enough job, but I don't know what chamfering the top has to do with it, as it's not a 3D path and doesn't look at the previous operations (or the STL, right?).

I know that the original intent in my post on the CAM forums was to add a minimal radius - something like .005-.01" - on outside profile corners to keep from having to deburr them later (especially if they contact a floor).

Personally I'd like some clarification about why this would be difficult.

I'll also add that I'm glad you're here participating in the discussion! It's one aspect that draws me to the Autodesk CAM products.

[kb9ydn]

You can't quote in the ideastation (which seems dumb to me but whatever).

The problem is that when you go to chamfer an upper edge where the corner fillet was applied, the chamfer operation wouldn't know that the outer corners were filleted.  So the upper edge chamfer would be not quite right in the corners.  I actually think this would be an acceptable compromise though since the intent is only to apply small fillets for deburring.

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[Steinwerks]

Exactly my thought. And frankly the same small radius could be applied to a chamfer since generally speaking that's just a 2D Contour also (unless there's something wonky about including it in the soon-to-see-Fusion Chamfer toolpath).

[kb9ydn]

Right, the chamfer operation would also have to have the corner rounding applied.  That would of course be ideal but it does complicate matters a bit since not all the ourter corners may be rounded over.  It would be up to the programmer to keep track of this as I don't think it would be feasible for HSM to do it.

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[Steinwerks]

Peronally a .005" radius would be default on all 2D Contours for me. It's so small and looks so much better than file marks. If a sharp corner is truly wanted it'll be called out and accounted for IMO.

[kb9ydn]

Me too.

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[aborshov]

Has there been any work to implement this? I was just about to post about the same issue but found this thread. It's a great feature in Gibbs and I'd like to see it in 360.

[Steinwerks]

@al.whatmough Can this be transferred to the HSM Ideastation? Doesn't so much belong here anymore.

@aborshov AFAIK there has been no movement on this idea as of yet.

[al.whatmough]

I need to be transparent and Archive this one.

This is not to say this isn't a good idea but just to be transparent that this has not made it to the top of the list this year and I don't expect it to int he next 8 months either.

I am not saying this isn't a needed idea.  However, this is something that can be solved with modeling tools.  Things above this issue don't have alternate ways of being solved.

[Laurens-3DTechDraw]

@al.whatmough

Thanks for the clear explanation of the prioritization. 

[milan_vasic]

@al.whatmough

I think it is a very important function.

I don't know how you produce it, but we only have parts with rounded edges. Our customers don't bother to draw fillets or chamfers.

In the drawings, a rounding between 0.1 and 0.3 millimeters is simply indicated.

We actually want to go from MasterCam to HSM. The lack of this function is an argument against HSM.

This has been available in MasterCam for years. You can specify an inside and an outside rounding for all operations. We have a default setting of 0.2 mm in all operations. This saves a lot of time when programming and you can never forget to round an edge.

If you need some sharp corners, you just set the value to 0.

Personally, I would find that more important than any other new function.