Create an adaptive clearing toolpath

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In this video, will create an adaptive clearing tool path.

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After completing this step, you'll be able to Create a 2D adaptive clearing tool path and use rest machining.

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In fusion 360, we want to carry on with our gear housing for CNC mill.

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Note that op two is currently active and this is where all of our new tool paths are going to be.

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So this is going to represent the stock and the WCS or working coordinate system.

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So from here we need to start removing material and we're going to do that by using some adaptive clearing tool paths.

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I think it's important to note that we have tool paths in a 2D drop down as well as a 3D drop down.

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There's a 3D adaptive clearing and there's a 2D adaptive clearing.

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When we talk about 2D adaptive clearing, this is going to be based on contour or chain selections.

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it's going to be a model aware type tool path and it's generally used when we have complex contours and we have geometry that is sloping.

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Now in the case of our 2D adaptive clearing,

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this is going to work best for this geometry and we're going to get started by creating it with a half inch flat end mill.

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Remember that we have a lot of presets and we're going to start with aluminum roughing.

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We're going to move on to our geometry and note that currently there is no pocket selected.

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I'm going to turn on stock contours with no other settings and say okay and try to allow it to create this tool path.

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Now, if you'll remember when we created a facing tool path, we were able to use just our stock contour however, are to the adaptive needs a selection.

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For example, if I select the outside edge, you'll notice that it's machining the outside of the part.

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If we change that arrow, it's going to machine the inside of the part.

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So we need to be aware of what geometry were actually machining and we're going to start by machining the outside,

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and getting it down to a depth all the way to the bottom and that way we have enough material removed,

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we can go back and then have a finishing tool path.

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From here, the next thing that I want to do is move onto my heights.

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Generally the height is based on the contour. However I want to use a selection, going to use the bottom of the part.

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I'm going to allow it to go down to that but I want to add a small amount back to it.

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Remember when we machine to the other side, we took off close to a quarter inch,

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so I'm going to go down to about 0.2 when we simulate these tool paths.

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This would leave a small amount of that stock material.

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Now that's okay because this is going to be the most efficient when we're talking about machining the actual geometry.

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However, since the goal here is for us to understand the tool paths,

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I'm going to re set this to zero,

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and I'm going to allow it to machine all the way down to the bottom even though I know that it's not the most efficient.

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I want the final stock to look right.

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So again, that's an important distinction that we need to make sure we understand

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When we machine the other side, we took off the majority of the material and we left a little bit at the top.

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And again, we're machining all the way down because we're dealing with a new piece of stock.

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On the past this section, we have some options that we want to make sure we understand.

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We're going to set the axial stock to leave 20, that's how far it's going down in the Z direction.

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But the radio stock on the other side, we left

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So I'm going to take down a little bit more material.

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I'm going to leave 0.2 and that 0.2 is going to allow us to get close to finishing tool path,

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that we can come back with like a quarter inch end mill and finish everything off.

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We don't need to worry about multiple depths with this part because we're dealing with a half inch tool and we're using an adaptive motion.

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That adaptive motion keeps a consistent chip load on the part based on this optimal load value.

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Right now, it's set to an eighth of an inch, which means that's how much of the tool it's engaging When we're creating these cuts,

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all the other settings, I'm going to leave as default, I'm going to say okay, and allow it to create this tool path.

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So once again you'll note that it's going down to that bottom contour but it looks like it's leaving a little bit of material.

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Again, this is because we face the other side first and when we created this tool path, we only selected that bottom edge.

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So if we go to our heights section,

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we actually need to subtract a little bit in this case minus 0.5 and that will allow it to go all the way down past the original top of the stock.

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Again, this is important to understand that we're doing this to make our stock look okay.

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But in reality we know that that materials already been removed.

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So for the most efficient tool path we would want to take into account the material that's been removed,

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and then we could actually simulate both operations at once for right now,

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let's just go ahead and modify these values.

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Knowing that we're going to use the most efficient tool path.

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Now that we know that the stock removal looks fine.

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So I'm going to add back .2 inches.

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And in order to validate this, I'm going to select both setups by selecting setup and I'm going to go to simulate,

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I'm going to jump ahead a few tool paths until we get to the other side And notice that we're leaving a small amount of material in the middle.

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So that .2 was a little bit too much and we need to reduce that amount.

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So this helps us better understand what we need to change and what values we need to use.

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So in this case I'm only going to raise it up.

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Once again I'll select both setups going to simulate and this time I'm going to jump all the way to the end.

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You can see that this leaves a small amount of material and that's because we left .5 on the other side and on this side we left .02.

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If we want them to be consistent, we can again modify our parameters one more time We can go into the passes and under stock to leave,

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we can set this at .5.

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That will give us the exact same amount of material left on both sides.

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And last time we'll select both setups and will simulate, jump all the way to the end.

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And now that looks about what we're expecting its machining from both sides and it gets as close to that final shape.

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So again these are important considerations that we need to keep in mind.

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We need to remember what material has been removed from the other side and we need to account for it whenever possible.

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But we're not done with our 2D adaptive.

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Again we can duplicate it just like we did with some of our drilling operations,

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but I'm going to start again by creating a new to the adaptive and this time I want a machine some of the material on the inside,

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so we haven't removed any material here.

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Notice that when I select this face it's coming from the outside of the part,

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it's going to use the information that I gave it and it's going to know that it's dealing with an open face.

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I can select multiple chains,

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I can come in here and I can select all these different areas and allow it to go machine all of those individually.

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When we take a look at the passes we need to keep in mind whether or not,

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we're treating this as a roughing or finishing tool path.

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When we're using something like a 2D. Pocket that has a finishing option.

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When we're using a 2D adaptive, that doesn't have a finishing option for us.

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So in reality this is not the greatest way for us to use to the adaptive.

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And because of that I just want to make sure that we understand that when we're using these tool paths,

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there are some great options for example removing the material easily from the outside.

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But when we're talking about using a finishing tool path, we really need to consider exactly what the end goal is.

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So for this face I'm going to create a facing tool path. I'm going to go into my 2 inch face mill.

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I'm going to allow it to use the entire stock contour.

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But keeping in mind that we could actually make a selection and get a little bit closer.

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So either option will be fine, it just depends on if you do this before the adaptive or after the adaptive,

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and then this will help us determine exactly what material needs to be removed.

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So you'll notice that when I select that edge, it's leaving a small amount of material here.

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And the reason it's doing that is because we selected the actual edge of the part and what it's actually seeing is that extra .05.

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So in the passes we need to add a small amount of offset that we need to account for that extra amount of material,

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so that pass extension or stock offset either option will help us.

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We're going to go ahead and add that and now we're able to machine everything,

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so we can rotate this around and we can see that we no longer have that little lip going to left click,

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and then I want to come back and I want to make sure that we take care of these pockets.

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I'm going to do this with a 2D pocket operation and once again I'm going to change my tool, and I need to keep in mind the order of operations,

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whenever we're using a 2D operation and we're jumping, between let's say half inch flat mill,

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and that face mill we're going to be invoking a tool change and that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

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So I'm going to have to make some more adjustments to these tool paths.

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But let's create our pocket tool path by selecting this inside face noting that it is going over that opening,

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we'll do the same thing in each of these and then finally this one here we're going to go to our passes,

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we're going to turn off stock to leave and we're going to allow it to create finishing passes.

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This is another area where we have to be careful.

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If the boars of these were critical, for example a press fit bearing,

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then likely we would not want to use the pocket tool path as our final tool path.

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But let's take a look and see what it can actually do and notice that it actually cannot get in and machine out those bores,

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it can only do this one small step.

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So this tells me that I want to make some adjustments. I'm going to select, Edit.

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I'm going to go back to my geometry and I'm going to de select some of these areas.

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I need to hold down the control or command key and then I can select delete.

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So now we allow it to go in and clear out that first small lip,

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and that first small lip is actually just a slight clearance for the gears that are in the housing.

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Whereas the other areas are going to be press fit areas for things like bearings or clearance for shafts,

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so there's going to be more critical and will likely have to take a smaller tool in there and machine those out.

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This is a great place for us to save.

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We've done a few things, we've added it to the adaptive of facing operation and we've come back and we've cleared a little bit of geometry.

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There's still a lot more to do. So let's always make sure that we save often and then we can move on to the next step.