Stop 3d adaptive machining my vice

[Jools-Taylor]

Is there a way to stop 3D adaptive from machining my vice? I've tried the tab where you add model surfaces but this seems to make it want to do extra passes. As though the stock is now deeper and needs to be machined away.

Surely there is a way that you can say this is a vice so please don't crash into it. Currently I have to draw freeform boxes round it and restrain it but this is a massive chore to get things the right size and distance away. 

[seth.madore]

At the moment, the best practice is to use Boundaries to control where the toolpath goes.

That said, we are working on improving the fixture avoidance logic, stay tuned for a future release that's going to drastically improve this behavior..

[programming2C78B]

I just draw a boundary box, say 1/8th away from the jaw face and +tooldia around the part, at minimum. Set the tool to Inside

Don't forget you can also add the vice as a model selection inside your adaptive. That trick alone saves a lot of headache! You can then false-model the vice more open that it will be to add in a safety factor in your cut paths AND toolholder clearence. 

(ie if your dovetail is 1" wide, set the jaws to 1.05" apart)

[Jools-Taylor]

Ah great. Yeah I just use bounding boxes but then it becomes a major ball ache trying to get the 'tool path inside' or out side stuff right. Just needs to do it for us 🙂

[Jools-Taylor]

Yeah I do all of that. It's just the frustration of when that does nothing to help.

[DarthBane55]

You only need to add a dimension to 1 line.  Maybe you are trying to constrain it too perfectly.  So you draw this huge rectangle that is much bigger than you stock, and you put 1 dimension on the line near the jaw, say 0.125 as per @programming2C78B.  It literally takes 10 seconds or less to do, and you can reuse this rectangle on all your roughing ops that need to avoid the vise.  If you do that, you should certainly avoid the "ball ache".

[programming2C78B]

Heres a real world example. In this case I did along boundary center. 

Here is inside. I am adapting out a slot in a part, with back relief (hence that angle)

[Jools-Taylor]

It becomes more in depth and problematic whin you're trying to do more complex parts. I'm not trying to avoid the face of the vice, also the sides. So it would just be easier if the program just avoided it.

[programming2C78B]

You making it harder than it needs to be. Simply draw a "C" shaped outline around your vice, with the safety allowance you're after. Make the other 3 sides of the shape just 1" past your part OD. This can all be done in one sketch. 

[Jools-Taylor]

That would then take the chunk out from X- (away from the vice). This stock has to be left in as there are other operations done that require the rigidity that this stock gives. This is then machined away in the final operations.

But either way they're work arounds and this thread wasn't really after workarounds, though I appreciate others input and it's good to see how you would approach it. 

With this thread I simply wanted to highlight to Autodesk that there are places where I think that the software could be improved. 

[seth.madore]

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@Jools-Taylor wrote:

With this thread I simply wanted to highlight to Autodesk that there are places where I think that the software could be improved. 

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Yep, we're well aware of the shortcomings in regards to fixture avoidance and we're actively working towards a better solution. And when I say "actively" I mean that in the present tense, not "at some point in the distant future" 😉

[Jools-Taylor]

Cool. 
It would be cool. 

On 3d adaptive it's also difficult to machine the bits I want on that part. The options in the second tab when selecting geometry made this quite a not straight forward challenge. 

But as it's being worked on then it's all cool and I look forward to the next iteration.

[programming2C78B]

Seth please make sure that there's a separate field for Stock to Leave and Fixture Avoidance! I don't want it to be .01" for both! 

[seth.madore]

Yep, separate values for Fixture avoidance and then Stock To Leave on the Model (both Axial and Radial options for both)

Here's a sample toolpath that's clearing a 5th Axis vise, no selections where made, just set to "Rest Machine from Setup Stock".