What's up blend? - Issues with creating blend toolpath

[5X-machines]

Hey everybody,

I normally don't have issues with blend and have used it in the past but now for the life of me can't get it to work in this instance. I'll attach the part to make it easy to look at but all I'm trying to do is finish an exterior fillet.

I could use flow instead which works fine except I prefer being able to use stepover over number of steps .

It is on a 5-axis machine but thinking this should only be a 3+2 at most.

Thanks,

[LibertyMachine]

Hmm, this is an odd one. It "should" work. I too do not care or the "total number of stepovers" in Blend...I'm not sure I understand the thought behind that one...

I'll poke away at it today after I get my machine back up and running.

[Marco.Takx · Accepted solution]

Hi @5X-machines,

In my opinion, you haven't done anything wrong.

But I have a workaround for you so you can work further with programming this model.

I've created an offset surface with a distance of 0 and I used that surface as a driving surface.

The Multi-Axis setting is activated, but without Multi-Axis it is also working.

If my post answers your question Please use  .Accept as Solution & Kudos This helps everyone find answers more quickly!

[al.whatmough]

To be honest, the number of step overs option was to make sure we supported workflows where users traditionally used Flow.

[5X-machines]

Thanks the reply Marco!

I tried it out and it works like a charm. However, given the workaround would this be a bug with blend that should be reported?

My only other thought was that there was some defect on the surface which caused blend to fail as this originally was a step file.

[Marco.Takx]

Hi @5X-machines,

I know @jeff.pek and @al.whatmough have looked at this post so they can bring this model to development to take a look at this.

Remember, it is still in Beta. There should be a reason for that

If my post answers your question Please use  .Accept as Solution & Kudos This helps everyone find answers more quickly!

[BjoernJohnsson]

Hello

Yes, this is a bug. I have crated a ticket for it, you can track with the ID CAM-11756.

Regards,

Björn Johnsson

Sr. Software Engineer for HSM CAM

[andriy.badin]

Hi @5X-machines,

I would like to let you know that this issue was fixed and it will be released soon.

Best regards,

Andriy.

[akash.kamoolkar]

Hi @5X-machines 

Just to update you, we have fixed this issue in the latest Fusion 360 update that just went live.

Regards,

Akash Kamoolkar

[Anonymous]

how can i use blend its not on my fusion i have the latest version

[jeff.pek]

You can enable the Blend strategy by turning on the "Blend Strategy" preview feature in Preferences -> Preview Features.

Jeff

[DarthBane55]

*This is not a rant! 😃

Hello, just out of curiosity, how long should a feature stay under preview features?  This post originated from 2018, so a good 3 years, and still under preview...  I think (which is worthless I know 😂) that this list should be worked on and reduced to 5 preview features at a time, and nothing new introduced until the list is 5 (approx. lol) long.  We get tons of new stuff that works somewhat, sometimes...  But how about making these preview features fully functional before adding more?  The list is incredibly long, just keeps on getting longer with every update.  If the thing is under preview for 3 years, isn't it that it has been forgotten, or cannot be made to work right (then delete it)?  

Honestly curious to know if Autodesk thinks 3 years on a preview list is normal, if so, I'll try my best to adjust my expectations.  I prefer reliability over a list 100 long filled with stuff that half works (again, I understand my opinion is worthless, but I'd be curious to know 🤔 the % of users who prefers a long list of stuff that doesn't work half the time over the list getting smaller and smaller because it has been worked on and made a real feature).

[BjoernJohnsson]

I can't answer all of your questions, but I can give you some answers when it comes to blend.

Blend has been in development and in preview for a longer period than usual for a project like this. It was actively worked on and intended to get to a releasable point, but then changes in the organization caused changed priorities, and blend was put on hold. Still, it was used by enough people and had promise enough so it wasn't removed.

This has changed, and blend is now an active area of development again.

Concerning the number of features being tested, the list is larger partly due to the number of development teams being higher, so such a limit would not improve the speed for any individual feature, as it is usually different teams doing the work.

I hope this gives you some perspective on why things are the way they are, and why blend has been in preview for such a long time.

[DarthBane55]

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@BjoernJohnsson wrote:

This has changed, and blend is now an active area of development again.

Good to know, thank you!

Concerning the number of features being tested, the list is larger partly due to the number of development teams being higher, so such a limit would not improve the speed for any individual feature, as it is usually different teams doing the work.

Fair enough, hopefully things start to get more stable and out of preview quicker then!

Thanks for your answer, appreciated.