New Avoid/Machine: Unable to remove surface groups

[FrodoLoggins]

I started working on this file a few months ago prior to the new Avoid/Machine options were pushed out. I'd like to remove these selections as I no longer need them. But I can't. Clicking on the X does not delete them:

There's also some funky stuff going on with dialogue boxes hiding under their parent and tooltips blocking me from clicking on things shown in the video above.

This is the toolpath in question:

[a.laasW8M6T · Accepted solution]

Hi

You can't delete them because they are connected to the selections here:

When you deselect the drive surfaces under geometry they disappear in the Avoid/Machine Dialog 

The Model one cannot be deleted as its linked ultimately to the Setup model and is present in all toolpaths that use the Avoid/Machine

[a.laasW8M6T]

I Should Clarify that some of the Surface groups are auto populated in the various toolpaths.

things like Model and Fixture are taken from the setup.

For Flow Blend Geodesic etc the Drive surface group comes from the selected drive surfaces.

For Swarf(and advanced Swarf) the Swarf Surfaces and Floor surface groups come from those selections and so on.

You can add additional user defined surface groups to further control how you want to machine or avoid various areas.

More info here: https://help.autodesk.com/view/fusion360/ENU/?guid=GUIDFCF0C83A-507A-48E3-9F08-15F104B20CBF

[KyledbQVJUB]

I'm having the same problem, this new interface is incredibly stupid.  I'm stuck at work when I should be pumping out parts because of this.  Autodesk does not look good at our company right now... The face selection system does not work.  I cannot delete the model group of auto pop faces, even after unchecking the model box.  How is there now way to do this?  And why would this change be auto updated to everyone automatically?  It's affecting every single 3d path option to the point they are practically unusable!

@KyledbQVJUB - this post has been edited due to Community Rules & Etiquette violation.

[KyledbQVJUB]

Was able to get by for right now by telling it what not to machine in subsequent groups. Should not have to do this. This right here is why people still use Solidworks.

[JaykReed83]

I was a super-fan of this software when i started using it two years ago. First time programming, within a month i was very efficient, pumping out programs left and right with virtually zero issues. However, these last couple months have been extremely aggravating. My work output has probably decreased 80% and its all due to the recent updates to the interface. Im assuming theres no way to roll back to when "avoid/machine" wasn't used in every type of toolpath? 

[seth.madore]

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@JaykReed83 wrote:

 Im assuming theres no way to roll back to when "avoid/machine" wasn't used in every type of toolpath? 

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No, there is not. What issues are you running into, specifically? In most cases it should only an extra couple of mouse clicks. The upside is that you now have the ability to touch OR avoid multiple surfaces, something that wasn't possible before. While it may take some adjustment, it's a huge step forward in flexibility

[JaykReed83]

Hi Seth,

Thanks for your response. And thank you for previous responses. Ive gotten
stuck a few times and defaulted to the forums, and I believe you've been the
one to help me every single time.

Im trying to scan in the drafted end of this part (red) with a 1/4"
ballnose. But i just cant get it to cooperate. I have it working in the 3rd
operation. But im trying to merge the 2nd and 3rd op. And i cant replicate
it inside the 2nd operation.

It flagged the .f3z file and wont let me upload it. Its only 7MB. Ugh.

Heres a quick example of what im trying to do. Hopefully this one works.

[jw.hendy]

Fair, though Autodesk is really going with the bleeding edge/rolling release model. For hobbyists like me, it creates a pattern of not using it for a while, start up Fusion, wait for it to load, get excited to work, be told it must update, then run into something new like this.

I understand that for Autodesk programmers the design all makes perfect sense. I'm probably dumb or dense or something, but found it incredibly unintuitive to have an un-deletable entry in avoid/machine surfaces that requires double clicking to bring up a separate window, then to set it to avoid so that my manually added surfaces would be the only ones machined.

I'd almost suggest a popup when you start fiddling in that area of the toolpath settings like "Hey! First time using the new Avoid/Machine interface? Click here for instructions!" Then take me to a documentation page. I feel like people would be annoyed by that, but it's hard to know what is learnable from messing around vs. what will take me 10min before I give up and decide I need to google what the heck is going on. Plus, you have to know the right incantation to google to find this set of instructions for this new interface vs. all the other general questions about using avoid/machine in general, or questions about the old interface.

[tessa.colledge]

Hi jw.hendy,

I just want to inject a quick additional comment to the great advice that Seth is giving here. You can set the model to Avoid more quickly by using the little drop down on each row of the table (see attched picture), which is what Seth was referencing when he said that an additional 2 clicks will get you to a position where you can select touch surfaces as before.

I realise this does not solve every problem you are encountering with the new interface, but it hopefully adds a bit of efficiency back into your workflow. 

We are aware that the loss of the old simple workflow is felt heavily by some of the community, and we are looking at ways that we can address this.

All the best,

Tessa Colledge

[jw.hendy]

Thanks. Hate to beat a dead horse, but another example of where without already knowing this, it's unintuitive. My floating toolpath window must be narrow enough not to show the arrow.

Indeed I can click the graphical avoid/machine indicators, but it's not obvious one can do this vs. it being shown for reference.

To balance my criticism... I did find a nice video overview of avoid/machine in the Sept 2024 What's New article. I have not looked at those before, so I can consult them in the future. Per my original comment, I pause between uses enough that it's also not obvious which update would contain the new feature (I tried Nov 2024 What's New first, then didn't find any mention of avoid/machine, so I moved on to Sept 2024).