Adapt Milling Strategies Based off Material of Part

[jacobXNNNF]

I frequently use Fusion 360 for 3-axis milling, primarily on wood. I've observed that many default settings for milling strategies, such as Flow, Parallel, and Scallop, seem optimized for metal rather than wood.

One significant distinction is the preferred milling direction along curves. With wood, milling downwards is often more effective to prevent tear-out, a concern less prevalent with metals like aluminum. Some strategies don't even allow for this manipulation to prefer a downward-milling operation.

It would greatly enhance the user experience if Fusion 360 could either:

1. Automatically adjust strategy settings based on the chosen material, or
2. Offer material-specific presets to streamline the setup process.

Thank you for considering this suggestion. I believe it would be a valuable addition for many users.

[programming2C78B]

I don't think any software does this for wood, and with proper feeds, speeds, tooling, and stock to leave tearout isnt too much of a concern (outside of unique instances of knots or weird grain patterns). It also depends how you orient your stock. Even with a hand router, I do Climb Milling on all my final passes and never get chipout or burns. The biggest thing is to watch out for "horns" or hard corners that are less than 90* 

If something is commonly an issue (like milling across endgrain) then I'll program it as it's own path, with tangential extension THEN take the part to width. You'd also do this process when working with trad hand tools! 

[jacobXNNNF]

Thanks for chiming in! I get where you're coming from with the feeds, speeds, and tooling. In our factory, we're producing a large quantity of guitars and basses non-stop, and the cycle times need to be short to keep up with the demand.

We're running our machines fast, which works great for efficiency but not so much for avoiding tear-out on some of the trickier parts, like guitar and bass necks. These parts have got all sorts of curves and angles that are just asking for trouble, and we've gotta take extra steps to prevent tear-out, like adding initial cuts to sensitive areas.

I’ve been working with wood and programming for these specific parts for quite a while, so I get the drill. But wouldn’t it be beneficial if Fusion 360 had a few more options to help out with wood? For example, more strategies that let you choose downward milling would be super handy for our work.

I totally get your point about programming carefully for tricky spots like end grain. But when the clock is ticking, having a software that already knows the deal with different materials would be a game-changer. It’d cut down on setup time and make the whole process smoother and faster. Especially for prototyping stages of product development.

In short, while we can (and do) program around these issues, having Fusion 360 offer some features specific to wood milling would be a killer addition for folks like us who are working with wood as well as metal. It’d make things easier and more efficient for all of us in the community.

[programming2C78B]

I get that, but you're almost asking for a material specific software when there is other higher priority issues inside almost all CAD programs trying to be figured out. Human intervention is just going to have to take place here. If you guys are facing a real issue, I could be available to do some consulting. I built full time for many years by hand and then with CNC's I built myself. 

Im sure you guys are already looking into running chip breakers, compression bits, high helix tooling, and the proper paths. Take a look at some guitar factory tours to see how they manage with an even higher demand - Carvin and ZELINSKY had good videos out. 

Both of those videos are on my playlist. 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2gDX-LWdL8neK9cH2WX4wrn2Ol3xsQxc