Fusion 360 - Facing Toolpath Deep Dive

This video will demonstrate what the different options do in the Fusion 360 Facing toolpath as well as some of the things NOT to do with facing.
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[@lovethepirk]

Grinding out trying to learn CAM right now and this video was a great fundamental video with a few solid advanced options tossed in, thanks. I really appreciate the default settings you applied in the end, much love from florida.

[@DCT_Aaron_Engineering]

Another thumbs up from me Kevin. Great work as always 👍

[@ryankondratieff2077]

Thank you very much for the detail you go into. Appreciate how you go over a majority of the tabs and everything you can do with them. Keep up the great work will be checking your page first from now on when I have questions.

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

Hey Ryan! Thanks for letting me know. I'm extremely happy you found this useful.

[@TMCmakes]

that "set as default" for checkboxes was awesome! thanks for these videos, i learn at least one awesome thing every time i watch one.

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

Hi Mike. Good. I’m glad you found it useful. I try to get something a bit obscure talked about in the videos that I do.

[@flr169]

Great video. Love the tip at the end. It's been applied.

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

Facing seems to be one of the most common things we do and I thought it would be a good idea to give it some in depth coverage.

[@chrisleech1565]

This landmark chapter is highly underrated :-) Thanks for the hand up. Looks like I am going to checking out your back catalogue now buddy:-). I subbed some time ago but didn't follow up. Regards, C

[@garyainslie8200]

really good video, it helped a lot. thankyou :)

[@peteredwards2371]

Thank you 👍😊

[@jaimelucy2010]

Great explanation thanks.

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

Hi Jamie. Thanks for letting me know. Hopefully you came away with a thing or two.

[@elijahcbr6009]

You fixed my problem. I was using model top for all of my height settings and I couldn't get multiple passed to face .25 off for my 2nd op. Used stop stock top for my top height and model top for my bottom. Got multiple passes now THANKS!!

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

Did you do the Titans of CNC tutorials? Is that where you learned to set everything to model top? If so, forget everything you saw in those tutorials :)

[@elijahcbr6009]

@Mechanical Advantage I'm doing the 8m tutorial now!! Lmao, im impressed you knew that. The other thing I had to change was to make my zero the middle of the part.

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

I used to teach all the training classes at NYC CNC. People would often do his tutorials before my class and it was probably the number one issue we had in the class. Everyone that did the tutorials set their defaults to model top. I have no idea why he would have advised people to do that. It defeats the whole purpose of associative CAM

[@elijahcbr6009]

@Mechanical Advantage that's awsome, I'm hoping one day to take his classes.

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

@@elijahcbr6009 I’m not just saying this because he doesn’t bring me in to teach them anymore, but the price for the class is pretty high now at $2,000 for 3 days.

[@Afraidof7]

Was the stepover actually 1.9 or did it magically change it to some other number when you went to simulate?

[@n0f8r]

awesome, super useful info - that geometry stock selection thing is what I came here for. There's a reason you see folks having problems there so often - that's truly Terrible UI design... 2021 as I write this, can't believe it's been this way for over 3 years already...

[@HughesEarthworks]

Very nice Kevin. Great tip on making default in the compare and edit. Is it possible to make the default setting for simulation to show stock and also be wall paint? That is very annoying to have to turn stock on every single time.

[@bluehandsvideo]

I was going to say the same two things! lol

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

Jason and @bluehandsvideo. Bad news/Good news here. There is no way to do this, however, it has been submitted to the Autodesk Fusion 360 IdeaStation and the idea has been accepted. That being said, it looks like the idea was accepted quite a while ago and hasn't been implemented yet. It would be great if more people went and commented on that thread. It may put the pressure on them. You can find it here forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-ideastation-request-a/cam-default-simulation-settings/idi-p/6257405

[@HughesEarthworks]

Thanks Kevin. I commented on the post.

[@bluehandsvideo]

posted a comment. :)

[@nephosl5292]

Is there a way to start the facing ON the contour? By default (like in your video) the facing starts outside of the contour.

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

Hmm. There may be a way to do what you want, but it might take a little thinking to pull it off. Can you email me more specifics to kevin @ mechanicaladvantage . com? (Remove spaces)

[@enricodesign619]

nice trick with the make default via list

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

Thanks. That is a sort of non-obvious one but pretty helpful at the same time.

[@356B]

wow

[@TimberWood.Customs]

Can I use the facing operation to flatten a piece of wood and not face down to the top of a design. I want to just take liek 1mm off of the op of a boad to flatten that. How do I do that with this operation??

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

There are two ways you can do this. On the passes tab, you will see a stock to leave field. If you check that box you can specify how much material you want to leave above the top of the part. An alternative way to do this would be to use the bottom height field, which by default should be set to model top, and put a positive offset value of what you want to leave above the top finished surface of your part. Hopefully that helps, let me know if it doesn't.

[@TimberWood.Customs]

@@MechanicalAdvantage so if I am flattening a Cutting board, I am going to create the size of the cutting board as a 3-D model. Then I’m going to use that 3-D model as my stock. So for the option with setting the bottom to a number wouldn’t I want to make it a little lower than the top of the 3D model, so that I’m removing a tiny bit of material off the top?

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

I'd probably need to see the example a little better. Typically you want to make your part the exact size you want it to be. And then make your stock a little larger. In you case, it sounds like you want a 3D model for your stock. To me it's easier to make things the size you want to end up with rather than trying to get creative with tricks to get to the size you want.

[@jeffr8282]

Hello. There is one detail that I'm not understanding. The WCS XY is in the center of the model and I have my part centered in the stock (0.355 model height, 0.375 stock height, so that's 0.010 to cut off the top and bottom). But where is the WCS Z; at the surface of the stock or surface of the model? If I make it at the surface of the model, the simulation looks as I expect, facing the surface of the model. I can set my stock height to be anything greater than the model height and the sim is correct. But the resulting G-code shows the Z height of the cut is at 0 no matter what i set for the stock height. Obviously, this cut is at the surface of the model but on the real machine the Z surface will be the stock surface, which is of course is above the model top, and the G-code will cut nothing. I would have expected Fusion 360 to know that the stock surface is above the model surface and adjust the Z accordingly. For my setup that would be G1 Z -0.01. Setting the WCS to the stock surface fixes this problem. But it seems the Fusion 360 isn't behaving as I would expect. Thank you.

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

Jeff R I think a good way to think about this is to think about your workflow for setting the part up in the machine. What surface do you touch off on? The top of the stock, correct? That is how you want to do it in the setup as well. Put the WCS on a Stock Box Point and everything will work out from there. Fusion knows where the part is in relation to the WCS. That is the reason the simulation works out both ways (model top and stock top). Top of the stock is what you want.

[@jeffr8282]

Consider a simple torus shaped part centered in Z but not in XY. Equal facing is needed top and bottom. A top stock point allows facing plus other ops like boring the center of the torus. But, flip the part and all you have is the center hole for alignment. Now the center of the torus is offset from the correct WCS and mayhem ensues. Instead you can start with the model point center of the torus which makes flipping the part easy as the WCS lines up. But this point is below the stock top and not correctly considered by F360. It will set the facing depth at 0 regardless of the stock dimensions.

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

Ah....I see what you mean. Remember, you can create a many setups as needed to fully machine the part. My rule of thumb is that, with the exception of soft jaws, if the part moves in the vise a new setup and WCS are required. So in your flip example, you would use the center of the torus as the X, Y and then I would choose the bottom of the part as my Z face since it is machined. Fusion may not give me that point as one of the default stock or model points, but I can always add a work point and use the selected point option for the WCS location. You can feel free to email an example to [e-mail].

[@legendfpv]

not a deep dive

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

What didn’t I cover that you wanted to see?

[@v57163]

@@MechanicalAdvantage I think Pass Direction set to 90deg would do the trick of facing only surfaces what you selected. No? Might be faster, for 0.00149 seconds LOL

[@hi_is_this_clorox_bleach]

The noises you make swallowing are ridiculous

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

Just like it is ridiculous that your mom didn’t swallow you.

[@hi_is_this_clorox_bleach]

@@MechanicalAdvantage 💯💯💯