Steep and shallow needs credits now?

[dkpesonen]

I have a dog tag I made for my pup.  I'm a free licence, with a hobby desktop mill at home for my own uses.  I made one tag just fine,  but it was to large.  So it's been 3 weeks or so, I come back to resize my sketch and just use all the processes I had saved but now it's telling me my licence isn't suited for Steep and Shallow?  I just used it a few weeks ago.......   This a running change?   Is this a sign of things to come?  Am I going to just be loosing features every few weeks?

[daniel_lyall]

It was a free use period ADSK put in places so manufactures could get their stuff done for a lower cost because of COVID it was well documented what they were doing when and for how long.

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog

[dkpesonen]

I see.     makes me wonder....

[johnswetz1982]

Why would you need steep and shallow to make a dog tag? Wouldn't engrave me the most complex thing in making one?

[dkpesonen]

Well considering it was a 3D carved emblem.  and I guess I don;t NEED S&D  but it was the process that sped up the time and reduced the inches traveled of my machine.  His name is Batman, so it is the Batman logo inset in a 1/4" plate.   SO S&D seemed to go around the contours of the emblem much faster.  Most was a flat face that doesnt need the ball mill to go over.

[johnswetz1982]

Unless you had really tall walls, which I would think is unlikely you should be able to use parallel fine. I never messed around with steep and shallow but others have said that you can do the same with ?scallop? and ?parallel?

If you wanted to File>Export>*.f3d your file and attach it to the post we might be able to suggest a better machining strategy. 

[dkpesonen]

OK,  That be awesome.   Up until now ive only made 2D flat drawings and had to enter and keep track of depth in my CAM prog.  I was using SheetCAM  at best,2.5D   Just found Fusion a couple months ago and its neat as heck.  I can make even my 2.5D things with surface and simulate the mill process which has saved me a few broken endmills already.  You guys prob look at this and think its so simple.  but it the first thing Ive been able to do with curved sides.

[johnswetz1982]

Start with something simple and slowly get more complex (2d rectangle>3D box>3D box with holes in it>etc). Steep and shallow and several of toolpaths are in the manufacturing extension because they are considered a little more advanced than what a typical user would need or are a time saver like with step and shallow. I guess the thought being that if you need them for a job you are making the money to pay for them. 

Looking at you file, there is not really anything I would change other than maybe do the back first and dont run the cutout on the back. You did a fine job for being new to the software.

[HughesTooling]

Where you using Steep and Shallow to finish this area?

Did you want to finish the inner flat area with the 1/8 ball nose or a flat end mill? Above I used 3d contour and scallop. You can get pretty close to steep and shallow using slope to constrain what's machined by each op. Above I didn't bother with slope and just used contour for the fillet and scallop for the flat area. Is this what you where after?

Mark

[dkpesonen]

Ya it was a 1/8 Ball mill.  So the inside of the outer ring was a fillet, not a sharp edge as the drawing shows.   I just never drew in the fillet all the way around the oval.   I'll try that.  I remember making the drawing and simulating all kinds of process, but it was late at night.  One of the 3am cant sleep kinda deals.  So I can't 100% remember why I set on steep and shallow.  Just that it seemed to use the least amount of passes.   but then I guess stepover I changed to maybe?  I cant remember

[HughesTooling]

Take a look at the attached file. I've setup the scallop and 3d contour using slope angles so scallop does shallow areas and contour does steep. I've also setup a couple of different options for the initial pocket to machine the top face. 3d pocket probably does the best job, I need to use stock to leave and set the radial stock to -0.124mm to get 2d pocket to clear past the edge of the part. The way you used 2d pocked and selected the faces is not really safe in this instance as you end up plunging into the stock instead of some sort of ramp.

Mark