Saving stock for re-use on next OP?

[LibertyMachine]

Peeling this question out of the long winded post I made the other day. I'd like to give this one it's own discussion for people to search and comment on.

I understand how this is supposed to work, but I'm wondering if this is intended, or is it a "work in progress"

Setup first operation on a part. Define stock (typically raw material size). Program all operations. Go to Simulate, run it complete through with Stock turned on. RMB>Stock>Save Stock.

Now, that is where it starts to get dicey. Is it intended that I save to my local hard drive? But my Fusion file MUST be saved online? Should they not be together? (hint: I prefer them both off-line with a cloud backup mandatory)

Next issue is when I go to establish the Setup for the 2nd op. When it comes time to choose stock, I'm not given the option to load stock from the .stl model I saved to my computer. I'm only given the same options that I had on my first setup. In fact, it is not until the end when I go to Simulate the part that I can RMB>Load Stock, and even then, I need to do it everytime I click the "Simulate" button. Need to make a change to a toolpath? Go ahead, make the change, click "Simulate" oh......,yeah, you need to load the model again.

[jeff.walters · Accepted solution]

You are absolutely correct this is a work in progress. I'm not sure about the saving locally question (I happen to agree with you) because I'm not a developer and am not sure what the plan is. I can tell you that it is being worked on.

[LibertyMachine]

Thank you Jeff, just wanted confirmation that the devs were aware that there were issues and it was on the docket for imrovement at some point.

Oh, when you say "I Happen to agree with you" are you referring to saving off-line with cloud backup, or simply keeping files tied together on the cloud? Or is this a "gotcha" question 😛

[jeff.walters]

I'm saying I agree with you that they should be kept together and there should be an obvious option to save the file in the cloud as well and locally. I can see cases where being able to do both can satisfy our user’s customers so they don’t lose work over it. I see that the Cloud can and will be a huge success for everyone, but until it is totally excepted it can cost some shops work until it is.Just my prosonal opinion.

[LibertyMachine]

I agree with what you say. The biggest thing for me is having files spread out here and there. Personally, I don't run anything that is top secret or federally controlled, so I'm not worried about that aspect.
Of course, all of this might be changing when they roll out the DM-WIP update next weekend (hopefully)

[Anonymous]

What's DM-WIP?

[LibertyMachine]

Data Management, Work In Progress. It's basically what the update is going to be next week. They haven't released a lot of details about it, just that it's a whole new infrastructure. 

[Anonymous]

Are there any new updates on the reusing/reloading of stock material size from the intial operation?  It seems you should only have to set-up your stock size once instead of for each and every operation.

Thanks!

Jason

[HughesTooling]

Take a look at post #5 in this thread the key is to Ctrl + left mouse button select all the ops you want to simulate, don't select the setups just select the ops in the setups. There's a sample file in post #6.

Mark

[Anonymous]

Thanks Mark but my question pertains to the initial stock set-up (pre-programming) and not the simulation package.  

After initially setting up my stock parameters in Setup1, I continually have to go back in and reset the stock size for all setups thereafter.  360 CAM knows the stock size I started with and it knows what I've taken away in the first setup, so it seems it should be able to dynamically populate the new stock size for each setup thereafter.  Make sense?

-Jason

[HughesTooling]

It sort of makes sense but what if the next setup is for a different part, or are you machining mutipale parts from one stock? When I use multiple setups each one is for a different part and I use relative size box and it resizes when you select the model. 

Mark

[HughesTooling]

Hi Jason

I went back and read the first post a bit more carefully, I see what you're after now. Is this something you need more for 4 axis work when indexing rather than 3axis. There is an option to Continue Machining from Previous Set-up if you select Mill/Turn on the setup, I don't know if that could be used for just milling with a bit of effort. 

Mark.