Mill a piece longer than machine in multiple sections?

[Anonymous]

Is there a process for working on stock longer than machinable area?

My gantry is 4'x4' with open ended Y axis. If I want to work on something 4'x8' for instance can I separate my model or paths into sections; mill the first half, pause machine, move stock forward, mill the second half? 

I have found options in Vectric, V-Carve, and this article on fixturing but can't find anything in Fusion. 

Thanks very much for your time. 

[Anonymous]

Here are the toolpaths I see:

[HughesTooling]

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@Anonymous wrote:

If you send a file please expect that I am going to open it and take notes. I have a lot to learn and I really appreciate your time! Not sure what happened but this is what I see when I open your file:

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Are you sure you opened the correct file? This is what I see.

Mark

[Anonymous]

Oh man it takes a village.... Thank you Mark. I realize now it was gearsoups file I was looking at again. Guess I need to take better notes

The combination of sketch boundaries and touch surfaces makes sense to me now. Very elegant.

Thanks for your patience everyone. Time to mill!

[stevempotter]

To use a sketch as a machining boundary sounds like a great idea, but this does not seem to be an available option for the 2D Engrave operation (see screenshot).

True?

Why isn't it?

[HughesTooling]

Engrave only works with sketch curves or edge curves. The curves have to form a closed boundary, not sure your font is a single line in places. Take a look a the file in this post as an example of using a sketch. If you still have a problem can you upload the file. 

If you are working with a single line font use trace instead.

Mark

Edit used wrong link, updated to correct one.

[dagroenewald]

Any chance someone can write a brief step by step guide on how to go about doing this.  Something a bit more detailed that "use a combination of sketch boundaries and touch surfaces"...

I am just trying to get my head around Fusion 360 and generating 3D milling instructions.

I am planning on machining 4 alignment holes through the stock into the table so that the stock can be repositioned easily in preparation for the next cut.  Let's assume the following:

1. part is 800mm long, 100 wide
2. stock is 1000mm long, 120 wide
3. first two alignment holds made at 10,10 and 100,10 (x,y)
4. second two at 10,510 and 100,510 in the first operation
5. part machined to y520 in first operation and from y520+ in second operation
6. stock is then shifted 500mm for second operation
7. the machine can cut 600mm in the y direction and 500 in x direction

How would sketch boundaries and touch surfaces be used to generate two operations such that the stock can be moved after the first operation without needing to rehome or align the machine?

[Steinwerks]

You won't be able to get away from aligning your machine to a feature
without specific fixturing (which is still aligning to a feature really),
so there is no really easy shortcut here. You'll have top locate off of
something as a new WCS such as a bore, which means the part will need
overlap between setups.

I can try and make a quick screencast sometime in the next few days but I'm
pretty busy so can't guarantee anything. Perhaps someone will jump in
before me though.

[dagroenewald]

Thanks, if you get a chance it would be much appreciated.