Automated CAM without AI - Fusion 360 Container Templates in 2024

Tired of wasting time in CAM? If you do enough work up front, you don't need to. Still think conversational is faster? You just suck at Fusion.
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[@nocturnalwelding5166]

Even though im only half way through because its midnight, I think its safe to say that this is the best video on the net!!!!! Really appreciate this one! Thanks!

[@AudacityMicro]

When I was editing this video, I honestly couldn't tell if it made any sense or not 😂

[@advil000]

This is a fantastic video. Please do more of these for Fusion if you have good tips. There is just jack all out there for more experienced users in the middle of the spectrum trying to do stuff solo. We NEED videos aimed right at people like me who know all the basics... I NEED real use case end-to-end examples like this one. I'll be implementing these templates asap. I can tell you that the new Manufacturing Model option in CAM has also changed my life. I can put all the nasty sketches and patched up modified models in there for production rather than making a mess of the main model which should stay pristine.

[@P1-Engineering]

Thanks for sharing! Recently started building something similar for our tool & die shop but you shared some nice ideas I can further build on.

[@AudacityMicro]

Awesome! I'm glad it's helpful!

[@davidrahn9903]

This a great! I'm not a fusion user (camworks and hsmworks within solidworks) but this method can be adapted to other systems with a bit of ingenuity.

[@AudacityMicro]

Absolutely! I don't have much experience in other CAM packages, but I would be shocked if something similar didn't exist!

[@davidrahn9903]

You mentioned some mild rework that's somewhat typical at the end of the video. A tip I figured out from running a handful of machines now. If you standardize tooling manufacturers and have a repeatable machine you should track cutter comp offsets for a few months and build that into your templates as negative stock to leave. I can get bores within 20-30 micron (.02 mm) without comping reliably first time now on the Datron M8 I run. Same on some YCMs I used to run. This applies to outer profiles as well, but it's more variable. The whole video was super informative and has me thinking about how I can adapt it.

[@joell439]

This is awesome - thank you!

[@AudacityMicro]

I'm glad it's helpful!

[@DenzilMakes]

Great video lots of useful information. We’ve been using the container method for a while but still got some improvements from this video. Two potential improvements: You don’t need to use glass to make the stock transparent, you can right click the component/body and set the opacity control. This could be important if you want to get an accurate weight of you setup to make sure you’re not overloading your A-Axis as an example, the HRT160 is only 45lbs unsupported and workholding adds up fast. To stop the bore going to deep you could use the tool_fluteLength for the depth.

[@AudacityMicro]

Thanks! I'm glad you found it helpful. Very valid point on the opacity. For the bore though, I have had that thought too, but realized it didn't work after some testing. It would work fine if you were only ever doing thru-holes, but it might bore too deeply on a blind hole. I'm not sure this is worse than what I'm doing? Because this would fail with a scrapped part, but an intact machine, where as my method could potentially result in a crash. Might be a situational thing depending on the type of parts you commonly see.

[@gcodemfg]

great vid. appriciate all the info in this.. and thanks for adding the Rob video also.

[@AudacityMicro]

thanks! I am glad you enjoyed!

[@xyzspec82]

This is gold!

[@AudacityMicro]

🙂

[@wacomtexas]

This is soo useful! I'll never get around to doing it.. 🤣

[@AudacityMicro]

Right now in my experience container templates work better than the "AI" solutions that everyone is working on, but I bet you give it a few years, and those plugins will probably be better. So you may be able to buy your way out soon.

[@rlockwood2]

@@AudacityMicro before long they'll compliment each other nicely :)

[@kyleblakely2090]

how did i not know you can add folders to CAM setups. That just made things look so much cleaner

[@AudacityMicro]

I had that same thought like six months ago 🤣. I believe they snuck it into an update

[@davidawaters]

@@AudacityMicroit’s been around for a couple of years at least. I use folders to probe and move my wcs in the middle of progress, as you can assign a different wcs to a folder. Basically, I rough the part exposing a hole or surface from the first setup, then probe it and automatically move the XY slightly, then do the finish machining. To do this, as far as I know, you have to use folders, so you can have some toolpaths (including the probing) use g54 and others use g55. I’m not sure I explained that well 🤷‍♂️

[@AlWhatmough]

Excellent video! Container method is a great method to automate.

[@AudacityMicro]

It has worked well for me! I suspect at some point, the various "AI" tools will eventually get to the point where they are better (maybe a year or two out? Depending on where certain companies focus their attention), but we're not quite there yet.

[@AlWhatmough]

I look at it a little bit differently. At least, for the tools that were making with Toolpath. my perspective is, we will allow you to make containers capable of much more that has higher life logic built into them

[@AlWhatmough]

As you pointed out, this is an expert level video. I also expect that many users will be able to do this level of automation with far less need to know how to master the software.

[@AudacityMicro]

That makes sense to me! The inability to add simple logic is definitely a constraint at the moment. "don't bore deeper than the bottom of the hole, OR the length of the tool" is basically impossible to implement with the current tools, but it's something you guys can handle easily in the API.

[@rlockwood2]

Great overview.

[@AudacityMicro]

is there anything you would add? anything I missed, or that you would do better?

[@rlockwood2]

@@AudacityMicro we've changed quite a bit, too much to summarize in a youtube comment. I think at a minimum, someone on my team is committed to doing an AU talk this year.

[@davidawaters]

Good video. I’m a big fan of cam templates but I save individual ones in folders like adaptive, 2d contour finish, 2d contour ramp, horizontal, face, corner radius tools, thread mills, etc. and if I’m making a part that is halfway similar to another, I’ll just copy paste all the toolpaths into the new part. Cam templates make programming thread mills and radius tools a 15 second job.

[@m10lover]

Id love to have those templates, Im struggling

[@lawmate]

Cool vid. Nice to see you going in to that much detail on the toolpaths. I recognise the workflow. One thing I'd add is to set up user defaults on all the text boxes. It's like a single option template but the fusion defaults arent that good. Like where you do your hole recognition, you can set the small end to tool_diameter - 0.1(mm) and the large end to tool_diameter + 0.1(mm). If you set them as user default, you basically never have to re-enter that info

[@AudacityMicro]

Makes sense!

[@C3DPropShop]

Today I learned that params can be generated on the fly with (param=val). Faster than using the menu!

[@AudacityMicro]

Yup! It's really handy!

[@BeardedWorks]

While this may not be everyone's cup of tea, i can say i enjoyed it and learned something. I could see this really saving someone some time if they had different products with similar overall form and slightly different features. Are you posting over shared network to your haas or using a usb? Also in the video i saw you select in control for your wear comp. I have heard others say to always use wear. How does that interact with the Haas control? Thanks, Jake

[@AudacityMicro]

You would be surprised at how flexible these templates can be. I have a handful, one for "vise parts" one for "round parts", now this one for super glue workholding, and a few other assorted ones for different workholding methods. I'm a jobshop, and do a huge variety of wildly different parts, and these templates serve me really well. My machine is too old to do network share, so I do everything over USB. Though the guys at Chatter do have a really cool wifi USB thing that I would love to add at some point. I do use full diameter compensation instead of wear. At the end of the day, it does accomplish exactly the same thing as wear, but technically is a little more dangerous. Really the only reason I use full diameter comp, is that is what works with my Renishaw tool diameter measuring macros. If I wasn't using the tool setter to measure tools, then I would use wear comp since it's safer.

[@BeardedWorks]

@@AudacityMicro ya i may have to dive into the templates. Ah that might be why i was getting an error when trying to run my thread mill. Running a haas with reinshaw probing also. Getting an error in the control saying the tool was too big, of course after it had already plunged to the center of the tool where it was to threadmill. Ended up turning it to in computer and it ran fine.

[@AudacityMicro]

yeah, for threadmilling I do the compensation in the computer, and adjust the stock to leave. That lets me store that data for the next time I do the same operation. I don't do big production runs, so most of the time tool wear is a non-factor for me.

[@Jason-ck5cq]

Download template would be nice :-).

[@AudacityMicro]

It's available to Patreons. But if you send me an email, or a message on Instagram, I'll hook you up.

[@chrisr1241]

Immediate like and follow of me… great one!

[@AudacityMicro]

Thank you! I'm glad it was helpful!