Production with Fusion 360

Welcome back to the Risen Blog. After the two previous articles, concerning a general overview and an analysis of the design with fusion 360, today we will delve into another aspect of this program, the so-called production tab.

The Production environment

Why talk about the production card and not simply about CAM? Fusion 360 offers numerous alternatives for our workshop needs. The first cards, milling and turning, allow you to create programs for a CNC, similar to many other CAM software. The Additive tab allows you to create paths suitable for 3D printing, both with filament and resin technology, and for sintering of powders. With the Inspection tab it will be possible to create measurement paths on the machine to create work origins directly from the real piece, and to create inspection reports to be attached to the parts made. In the manufacturing tab we will find the functions to create paths for cutting plates with all the most common technologies. Finally, in the Utilities table we can adjust the instant preview of the raw material, manage the additional components and link the 3D model of a machine to the CAM so as to be able to simulate the movements we are going to realize in a realistic way. In the next paragraphs we will analyze each of these cards in detail.

Preview of a toolpath generated through Fusion 360

Milling and turning

Let's start by talking about the more traditional features for a CAM, those for chip removal. First of all we find the setup function (not only in these tabs, but in all those of the production environment); with this command we will be able to decide which machine to use, determine the origin of the machining, indicate to the program which models represent our blank and the finished part and much more. Once our setup has been set up, we can start inserting machining with numerous strategies for both roughing and finishing. The various processing strategies have all these 5 sub-tabs: - Tool, to set which tool to use and the cutting parameters - Geometry, where you can select which parts are to be machined and other geometric options such as the orientation of the tool. - Heights, to adjust the heights of release, start and end of processing; this tab becomes the diameters tab when we perform a turning operation - Pass, through this tab we can define how many roughing passes to do, whether to go to multiple depths and whether to leave some stock material. - Links, this last tab allows you to adjust junctions and other linking movements between the various passes. The drilling and tapping operations are also present in the milling and turning card, while the operations relating to the spindle change are included in the turning card. It must be said that the creation of toolpaths is not always intuitive and it is often necessary to resort to "working" geometries in order to get what you want. We also include the inspection part in this section; with the functions offered it is possible to create a probing path on the machine that will generate a new origin for the machining. It is also possible to create manual, guided measurement paths which, through the use of measurement tools with data transmission, allow the automatic compilation of an inspection report.

Esempio di simulazione con il modello macchina

Additive Manufactoring

Fusion 360 owes part of its success to the 3D printing hobby community; also for this reason the chance to program this type of machines was enthusiastically welcomed by users. As mentioned, this slicer allows you to create files that can be managed by any type of 3D printer (those using powder bed require an extension), including those with multiple extruders, useful for obtaining composite parts or for dedicating a specific material to be sacrificed for supports. Similarly to other software of this type, it is possible to create a library of machines and materials, in order to automate the process of preparing the files; options for semi-automatic positioning of parts on the work surface; generation of various types of supports and all the options necessary to create our printing path. There are also numerous options relating to the printing parameters, with the possibility of creating different presets for the same material. The options for the automatic probing of the printing surface are very convenient, as well as the possibility of automatically creating a tower for checking the printing temperatures, as well as the preview of the automatic estimated printing time.

Anteprima di un programma di stampa 3D

Extension packages

As mentioned in other articles, some features of Fusion 360 are included in add-on packages, which allow us to customize the software to suit our needs. Today we are talking about the Manufactoring Extension, a package linked to the Production environment. Within this package we find all the most advanced features for the CAM, such as the ability to create multi-axis paths, automatic hole recognition, additional functions for on-machine inspection. Almost all the functions related to plate cutting can be obtained through another extension, Nesting & Fabrication. Depending on the work we have to do, this extension could be indispensable; as mentioned, the options for sheet cutting are very limited in the basic version, while for milling this extension automates several steps and unlocks features that are not necessary in all workshops. At the time of writing this article, Fusion 360 extensions can be used as a free trial for 7 days, after which it is possible to obtain access on a daily basis (using cloud credits) or through a monthly or annual subscription.

Conclusions

Also as a CAM program and as a slicer Fusion 360 proves to be an accessible and very flexible program, with many possibilities to customize our experience of use. Fantastic faeture to completely simulate the movements of the machine in order to avoid unpleasant surprises in the workshop. Precisely dictated by experience, it would be nice if the trace function allowed to create more roughing and finishing passes and offered the possibility of translating the path in height. Beside that the basic features work great for the price, it just takes a bit of time to get used to them. The only sore point is the need to pay a price equal to 2 years of subscription of the basic program to have access to the most interesting features. In the next article we will conclude our journey to discover Fusion 360 by visiting the simulation environment.