topic Re: Unnecessary saving in PowerMill Forum

Unnecessary saving

iamcdn79 — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 21:02:40 GMT

Does anyone have this problem where sometimes you save your project and Powermill goes through every toolpath, model and stock model and saves it when they have already been saved and there was nothing done to them to make it have to be saved all over again? But it doesn't do every boundary, pattern, tool or level, set or workplane.

See this video for what I am dealing with.

I go through this problem at least once a day.

I have raised this issue years ago to Delcam but they couldn't replicate the problem, not sure if it is computer specific or not but it was doing this on my old computer as well and also every previous version of Powermill.

Re: Unnecessary saving

LasseFred — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 04:25:23 GMT

I do not think I've experienced this.
and I also work with large projects.

Re: Unnecessary saving

M_Hennig — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 10:55:32 GMT

I have this all the time as well. It will save, and save and save, and it's very frustrating. I only have save on calculation checked in the options.

See this

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/powermill-forum/stock-model-saving/m-p/8037928#M10427

Re: Unnecessary saving

iamcdn79 — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 11:01:51 GMT

I don't have the save on calculation turned on

Re: Unnecessary saving

j.lacrasse — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 11:51:26 GMT

Hi @iamcdn79

It mostly happen to me after I added toolpath to the stockmodel.

You're not the only one.

Sincerely,

Re: Unnecessary saving

iamcdn79 — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 12:01:26 GMT

@M_Hennig @j.lacrasse Have you ever created a case for this with Delcam or Autodesk?

Re: Unnecessary saving

j.lacrasse — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 12:05:50 GMT

Nop,

I thought it was a normal behaviour.

Cheers,

Re: Unnecessary saving

M_Hennig — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 12:40:22 GMT

No I have not.

Re: Unnecessary saving

evo80 — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 14:29:35 GMT

I have the same problem mate, jolly annoying!

Re: Unnecessary saving

Pijetro — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 16:18:12 GMT

That was painful to watch.

Re: Unnecessary saving

gosmann.andreas — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 17:00:33 GMT

i have seen that, too. after a renamed the toolpaths it goes to all and save them new.

Re: Unnecessary saving

Doug_DeGaetano — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 17:06:02 GMT

Hi Andre,

Have you gotten any response regarding this issue? I have the same issue and I am working with huge mesh files and large stockmodels. I have the issue where I apply toolpaths to the stockmodel immediately upon re-opening a project (which btw calculates 100x faster than trying to apply them as I go along: 10 mins vs. 3 hours!). Once they are applied I save the project and continue writing a new set of toolpaths. When I go to save and close the project, PM will re-save not only all the toolpaths, old and new as you are experiencing, but the stockmodel (which hasn't had any new toolpaths applied since the prior save) AND my models (which haven't changed). It can take me up to 20 mins to save my projects! Looking for some answers/relief!

Re: Unnecessary saving

iamcdn79 — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 12:47:41 GMT

I have created another case about this, waiting to hear back.

Re: Unnecessary saving

Benjamin.Br — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 16:17:09 GMT

This is internal development task PMILL-10712. We are currently assessing it but know that this is a long-standing issue which we think might be connected to another long-standing issue in PowerMill which can cause it to think that a toolpath has been modified after it has been drawn or undrawn. We will review the comments made here when assessing and considering the priority but I will point out that at the moment this issue is quite low down on our priority list relative to other issues.

Re: Unnecessary saving

Doug_DeGaetano — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 16:34:53 GMT

Thanks for the update on this. Appreciated. For our operation there is another factor/issue with PowerMill that gives this "unnecessary saving" added urgency, namely that it takes forever (several hours) to apply certain toolpaths to our stockmodels. However; if we create several toolpaths, save the project, reopen it, and THEN apply the toolpaths to the stockmodel it takes only 10 minutes rather than 2+ hours to calculate. The dilemma is that we have to save and reopen in order to take advantage of this time-saving work around. When saving takes 15-20 mins. when all that has changed to the project is a few toolpaths you can see why these two issues (unnecessary saving and long calculation times using an apply-as-you-go method of updating the stockmodel) are a compounded problem. I realize that most users aren't using the kind of large files that we do and this puts us in a minority of users who need this fix, but I wanted to connect a few dots as to how this issue relates to other issues in PowerMill for some users.

Re: Unnecessary saving

M_Hennig — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 16:55:29 GMT

For me it seems to have something to do with boundaries as well. I can save a project with the stock model freshly saved, click on a surface, create a selected surface boundary, and the stock model will completely re-save. THEN when the boundary is all calculated it will save all over again, now if you have save on calculation ticked on, then it will save all over again after the toolpath calculates. So if you make allot of toolpaths with selected surfaces boundaries, the stock model save problem with happen THREE times for every toolpath. This adds considerable time to getting toolpaths out to the machine. This problem should be on the top of the priority list!!!

Re: Unnecessary saving

iamcdn79 — Fri, 26 Apr 2019 13:51:19 GMT

Have been in contact with an Autodesk Technical rep and he has suggested that this issue could be from a "model being modified from time to time (create, delete, move planes ...)? In this case the toolpaths are indeed considered being modified and re-saved."

And suggested checking "File - Options - Application Options - Import - Model - Calculated toolpaths and boundaries ignore new models".

"With this option checked Powermill should not consider toolpaths being modified if you modify the model and thus not re-save them."

I don't think this is the cause but if anyone has this issue or not can you report it here and specify if you have this option checked on and off?

I have this option checked off

Re: Unnecessary saving

Anonymous — Sat, 27 Apr 2019 14:42:25 GMT

Have had this checked off on all seats for almost all of v2019...makes no difference at all. Unnecessary saving is still running.

Re: Unnecessary saving

Doug_DeGaetano — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 20:53:36 GMT

Interesting, I was unaware of this option. It has always been default checked off for us. In our case the models have not changed at all in the last 3 months, so this technically should not be having an impact on the toolpaths or stockmodel re-saving. It's strange because I will open a project, apply toolpaths to stockmodel, calculate stockmodel, re-save the project, and continue creating toolpaths. When I go to save, nothing has changed with models and nothing has been applied to the stockmodel since I saved (although the new toolpaths reference it for rest area clearance) and yet the stockmodel re-saves, old toolpaths re-save, and ALL my models re-save. The only thing that should need saving are my 3 new toolpaths! It should not take 20 minutes to save 3 toolpaths.

Re: Unnecessary saving

iamcdn79 — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 19:32:18 GMT

@Benjamin.Br wrote:

This is internal development task PMILL-10712. We are currently assessing it but know that this is a long-standing issue which we think might be connected to another long-standing issue in PowerMill which can cause it to think that a toolpath has been modified after it has been drawn or undrawn. We will review the comments made here when assessing and considering the priority but I will point out that at the moment this issue is quite low down on our priority list relative to other issues.

@Benjamin.Br has there been any progress on this issue? I am still having problems with the constant saving. A technical rep suggested having "Calculated toolpaths and boundaries ignore new models" turned on in the options page but that does nothing.

https://autode.sk/37HIJVV