Please add parameters for CAM

[thburn]

Hi,

if you are in model workspace you can use user defined parameters e.g. for sketch dimensions, dimensions of objects etc..

This is very comfortable. But unfortunately parameters are not available in the CAM workspace.

Even if I create parameters in the model workspace I cannot access them in the CAM workspace e.g. inside toolpath settings.

Lets say I have 8 toolpath. 4 with Lead-In radius 4mm and 4 with Lead-In radius 6mm.

If I later want to change the 4mm to 10mm I have to to it 4 times - for each of the 1st 4 toolpath one time - this is really time consuming.

Better would be to use the parameters. Then I can just change the parameter and all toolpath that use this parameter will update.

BTW: I know the 'multi-edit' feature where I can edit multiple toolpath at once, but this sheet is very big und uncomfortable to use.

I would prefer parameters for CAM as well.

Thanks!

[Laurens-3DTechDraw]

@thburn

Sounds like a great idea.

Those things should of course work in every environment. 

[thburn]

@Laurens-3DTechDraw: Thanks for voting - and yes parameters should work in every workspace of F360 by default. I really wonder why we have to request this - but glad to have this board here to request this 🙂

[SeanMurphyADSK]

Strongly agree - it's nice that CAM updates based on model changes (which can be parametrically modified), but I'm often frustrated by the manual work I have to do in CAM that could be done automatically if only the parameters I set in the model were available in the CAM window.

A small suggestion to go along with this: it would be nice if there was a keyboard shortcut for parameters instead of going modify --> change parameters (very unintuitive location, especially for beginners who are probably missing out on parametric modeling as a result). Typing s --> para --> enter is reasonably quick though.

[Cbyrdtopper]

Yes! Strongly Agree!  I'm using parameters to adjust the number of "wings" on a cutter head.  In my CAM Circular pattern, I want to use my "NumberOfWings" parameter in the "number of instances" instead of having to type in 4, 5, 6, etc.  This would be very helpful when updating the CAM.  All I would have to do is regenerate my toolpath and not go in and edit the pattern.  

[MkMrA2]

Right, I'll repeat this request. 

A simple example is the Stock to Leave value in the CAM workspace - you obviously want to use a parameter there for a fit offset - so the parts slide past one another during assembly. I like to use 0.005". But I need to be able to change it everywhere. And I might want different parameters for the floor offset and the side offset. 

Mark

[bassbonematt]

@MkMrA2 This is the exact reason why I came here to see if there was a way to use user parameters in CAM. Fitment is a huge use case, e.g. stock to leave, depth of cut, etc. And when working with new tools and materials, I'm constantly tweaking RPMs, feed rate, stopover, etc. as I learn. Yes, you can use the Compare and Edit feature, but that's pretty clunky in comparison to a full-on user parameters implementation.

[dheco]

Count me in, I have a parameter driven model but in the CAM space I can not define the stock dimensions in the setup using the same method. I was very surprised this was not available.

[jcarter9753]

I really need this, the CAM formulas are already so flexible, if we can have User Parameters in there it would mean our parametric designs don't stop at the CAM section. Of course tool paths etc can be regenerated, but I'm machining a fixture where I have a Pattern of parts, this pattern is defined in User Parameters, but in CAM I have to measure and hard code these values. If I mis-type or change the clearance slightly I end up with scrap.

Please, spend a couple of days of dev time and get User Parameters into the CAM environment, it would really finish off this otherwise excellent formula and parametric based modelling/CAM tool.

[scottmoyse]

Just to aggregate these ideas a bit. I created an idea about this a while back, with @ArjanDijk having created the first idea relating to this back in 2016, but that one got archived:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/hsm-ideas/access-inventor-parameters-in-inventor-hsm-operation/idc-p/...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/hsm-ideas/allow-cad-parameters-to-be-used-in-tool-amp-toolpath-expres...

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation/user-parameters-in-cam/idc-p/8754227

[ArjanDijk]

Thanks @scottmoyse or bringing this up. Hoped that the HSM API would fly after releasing, but there is a standstill. I think Autodesk should release the option to edit the parameters from the API and access Inventor parameters from an operation together.

But if you look at the timeline:

January 2016: Introduction Fusion CAM API, not changed since then

August 2016: Opening Ideastation and this and this idea's

November 2017: After a customer that was promised an API within 2 years complained @al.whatmough created an idea about the HSM API

April 2018: HSM API had a first basic implementation

• Post operation
• Regenerate operation
• Suppress/Unsuppress operation
• Change operation name
• Read parameters

I read the API DLL and it seam that you only need to change "GET" to "SET"

So @jeff.pek . In 2017 you said "But, we'd definitely like to have as complete and useful API in Inventor as possible.". This seems like a nice step. Add SET to GET and read Inventor parameters from operations.

It would make HSM so much more powerfull?

[jeff.pek]

Hi Arjan - 

Have you looked at the HSMWorks API recently? I wonder what's your take on whether similar APIs for Inventor would be useful -- e.g., setObjectGeometry, setObjectToolView, etc.?

Jeff