Joints and CAM

[Anonymous]

Hey All,

Thus far, Fusion360 is kinda awesome. I am about to fire up my little mill and make my 1st piece. I am having a little trouble though. There are three pieces to my project. I have modeled all three pieces in a single file. There are two sliding joints which attach to the main piece. My problem is, when it come to the CAM screen, I don't want the model assembled, I need it in all the millable pieces. Is there any way to change the component layout between Model and CAM?

Thanks!

Joe

[vex]

Do a 'save as' and save it as the part you want to mill. Then remove/delete the extrenous parts in your project (IE the things you don't want to mill). Save. Convert to CAM.

[HughesTooling · Accepted solution]

On the setup dialog in the CAM workspace under Model just select one off the bodies. Make 3 setups one for each part, while working in each setup just hide the bodies you're not working on. Have you made each part a component, it's easier to work in Fusion if you use components for each part.

Mark

[HughesTooling]

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@vex wrote:

Do a 'save as' and save it as the part you want to mill. Then remove/delete the extrenous parts in your project (IE the things you don't want to mill). Save. Convert to CAM.

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Don't do this keep all the parts in one file. If you start making external files any modification will become a nightmare.

Mark

[vex]

Haven't had a problem with it and I've done some pretty complex files. Is there a particular reason not to?

[HughesTooling]

If it's all in one file and you make changes you only have that one file to deal with, it easy to modify one part and forget to update all the other files. It's so easy to keep it all in one file I can't see why you'd want to split it up. I've used one file for moulds where I've machined the top cavity, bottom cavity all the electrodes and all the turned parts. All the parts stay where they are in the assembly so if anything is changed you can see the effect on the other parts.

I suppose if the toolpaths are huge you might want to split it up to keep the file size down but that's about the only reason I can see.

Mark

[vex]

That makes sense for small component or a single user project of moderate size. I find working with sub-assemblies and assemblies allow for multiple simultaneous modification by multitple individuals, and if arranged correctly, provides for easy drawings and documentation of assembly of the final piece.

I agree that component upgrade needs work for such a workflow. Something along the lines of a recurisive update to go to the various assembly levels and work down--but this issue has forced me to be smart in naming and organization of the models. But I think we've strayed from the original post's intention. Maybe a seperate thread concerning this topic and address by the Fusion team might be a good idea.

[Anonymous]

Hey All,

Thanks for all the quick responses. I have a small mill I run once or twice a year. Downloading Fusion 360 was the motivation I needed to dust it off. For me, one file is the way to go. Truth be told, this is the first assembly I have ever made, usually everything is separate parts.

Joe

[vex]

@HughesTooling

Looks like the deep update will becoming active sometime next year: As is in-place editing.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/design-validate-document/recursive-component-update/td-p/5914087#M382...