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Automatic Programming for nearly the same parts

Fabaaa
Explorer

Automatic Programming for nearly the same parts

Fabaaa
Explorer
Explorer

Hello everyone,

 

after lots of time using the Fusion 360 for my hobby 3D Printing and Creating I also joined the milling part as well.


First of all I need to say that I do really enjoy this product becuase its just so intuitive, online and there is a huge community behind. This helped me a lot in the past just by reading this threats. 

 

As my person, I am a professional cad cam programmer/machinist with experience in differend kind of machining such as turning, milling, 3D Printing and laser melting. My work is in the dental Industry where I can use all of this technology. 

 

For now I am looking for my new project to get some cnc programms for a lot of pretty much the same parts.

I choose already a PP and made some modifications for my machine where I get a usable Gcode. 

Whats comes as next is always the same procedure, Outside rough, drilling, inside rough, outside finish, inside finish (For an example). 

The difference in the parts is just the diameters and the length or mybe the cone. 

 

Is there a way to get this done automaticly by using parameters or so?! 


I do have all the Step files I created, but if I go to the manufacting section in my part I can copy my setup into it, but I need to change all the diameters and length by hand. 

 

I hope you can get the point of it. Otherwise I gonna try again :slightly_smiling_face:

 

Have a great day everyone and greetings from germany!

 

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leo.castellon
Collaborator
Collaborator
Accepted solution

Have you tried using templates? Right click on a toolpath that works well for your part and near the bottom there is an option called " save as template".  Save the template to a folder with a name for your family of parts, or whatever makes sense to you.  Then on new part, set up your part, then right click on your setup, and go near the top and use "create from template" . So basically it is using your proven toolpaths and you are just applying them to your new geometry. I am not aware of anything that is more "automatic".

 

LeoC

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Fabaaa
Explorer
Explorer

Hi Leo,

 

yes thats exactly I am doint right now. 

Seems to be a good solution for my point. 


Thank you! 

 

 

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DarthBane55
Advisor
Advisor

Templates are good, and just in case you did not know, you can select all of your toolpaths in 1 shot and save them all under a single template.  So when importing, you have them all at the same time.

 

If your parts are very similar, same features but different sizes, you can also copy the part.  If you copy the part, modify it, and regenerate your toolpaths, they will conform to the new geometry, as long as you simply modified the sizes.  That would be even more automatic because you don't have to reselect anything in the toolpath, simply regen.

You mentioned you use step files, so if you import every time, this won't work, but instead of importing every time, can you not modify the file yourself?  You can use direct modeling to modify an imported model as well.  So after the 1st part is programmed, copy it, modify the sizes, and regen toolpath, done.

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Fabaaa
Explorer
Explorer

Hi Darthbane,

 

yes this is what I did know. Mark every Toolpath and made them to one template. 

When I finish one part I make a copy of it and keep going with the next one. 

 

The only thing is that when I make any changes in the future I need to find a way to get them into my old programs as well.

But it seems like there is no other way than to go into the project and update the Toolpaths with the newer template.

 

Its just that I come from another cam called worknc. 

There you have a little tool where you can create a geometry. This you can split into "Inside" and "outside". 

For every "step" you can give a number. (Like straight cylinder(1) then comes a cone (2) then a radius (3) and so on.)

After you made this you can easily use your template and you get a nc code as output. This uses the numbers to get the dimensions for diameter and lenght. 


The advantage of this is you can easy modify the geometry and after you can make an nc output and update all the files you have  by one step.

 

I hope this brings no confusion :slightly_smiling_face:

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DarthBane55
Advisor
Advisor

Oh I see, I think I somewhat understand (I've never seen worknc), but it seems like you can build your geometry kind of like we build a holder in Fusion isn't it.  So you'd work always in your master file, just update these numbers and you get your new updated toolpath.  That's the way I understand.

Maybe you can do the same, using parameters.  I am not sure, but say you put all your values in parameters in Fusion, and simply update those values, then regen, I guess it would be a similar result to what you are used to?  You can name your parameters too, so it's easy to find what is what.

Just an idea, not sure it works for you...

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wstoneandsons
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Use as many 3d model aware toolpaths as you can. With flat, adaptive and 3d contour you should be able to make your program CAD agnostic.

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