Exporting stock model - A BIG CRASH TODAY!!!

[Anonymous]

I don't think I am the only one, and I'm sure it hasn't only happened to me...

I use Fusion 360 on a 3 axis Mill and 2 Axis lathe mainly because of the lathe capabilities it makes more sense then purchasing another seat to powermill which is what the rest of our shop uses. And that works fine, however today there was yet another crash on the 5 axis (one of many) that could've been avoided if fusion was able to export a stock model. See, I rough blocks as far down as I can with my tool, and give them to 5 axis for finishing. The framework to export a stock model is already there, there is CAM sim and available STL export. But that only works for one set up at a time, and is in STL format which is not a very workable format for other CAM systems. 

A $500,000 Mikron HEM 5 axis needs a new spindle now from this crash, and of course that is not the fault of Fusion 360, HOWEVER... If a stock model was available to export for different setups (Top, bottom, etc) to be used in different softwares. We'd be looking at a very different situation to deal with today.

I'd really appreciate some input, and I think this capability would be an absolute asset to fusion, and the framework is already there. Would be a very simple addition and would make it much easier to use.

Thanks in advance.

[HughesTooling]

You can select more than one setup, simulate then export as a STL. You can then reimport the stl and select the mesh using From Solid to continue machining.

Here I selected both setups and simulated. You even have the option of selecting individual ops from different setups and running a simulation.

I don't think you'll ever get anything but a mesh from the simulation, does powermill have other options?

Mark

[Anonymous]

Yes, powermill uses stock model from other types (.iges, .step, etc).

I think it would be great if there was a macro in fusion to not have to go through sim, selecting setups, making stl and converting it to solid body. Just a shortcut to do all this in the background. Maybe its something you'll consider adding into fusion. Would be a great time saver and safer way to handle that, eliminating human error of forgetting to select an op, or sim not running through completely before exporting. 

Thanks in advance. 

[Anonymous]

I just tried to simulate multiple setups, and it runs through the first setup and set of operations and updates the stock (you see material being removed) but then it runs through the second and third setups, tool moves but no material changes.

[HughesTooling]

Did you have the simulation set to standard, fast is only 3 axis from the top. 

Can powermill export to other formats though? All the software I've used can import a stock in pretty much any format but all export as a mesh. I'm sure you know the problems converting a mesh to nurbs so I don't think there's much of a chance you'll get an export as something other than a mesh or are you just after a mesh in another file format.

MArk

[HughesTooling]

Also you don't have to convert the mesh to a body anymore, you can select the mesh directly using From Solid in the setup. There are requests for from previous setup so we'll get it eventually, Mill\Turn already has this option.

Mark

Edit, I'm sure mill\turn used to have the option to use stock from previous setup but it looks like it's no longer there.

[Anonymous]

I understand that, Im just posting this in the Idea section because this is where I thought users could request features on fusion. Im thinking, because the program already has the capability to do this, just requires many steps, that it would be very easy to create a macro in the fusion program to export stock model in any format you desired without needing to manually go through simulation, mesh conversion, setups, etc. 

Im just saying, instead of going through all these steps to do this, only to have a mesh model that's unusable in powermill or any other software as a stock model, this would be an absolute asset feature to myself and anybody else using fusion in a real production environment.

A quick way to export a stock model in a usable format would've saved our company a $40,000 spindle this week. And of course, of course, of course it is not fusions fault for that crash, that is in no way what im trying to say here, I'm only saying that a feature like I've described would have been used and prevented it, and im sure many other people would like to export usable stock models as well for a variety of applications (outsourcing, cross software programming, QA, customer reference, job completion timeline, etc etc).

I'd really appreciate it if you'd consider bringing this up with your project manager or programmers to see how easily this could be integrated into the next update. It really would only be a short macro in your software to skip all the steps needed to come out with a usable stock model from previous operations and/ or setups. Thank you.