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6 min read
Learn about the progress we’ve made with our ModuleWorks partnership, including three new machining strategies you can preview today: Rotary Pocket, Rotary Contour, and Deburr.
Earlier this year, we announced an agreement between Autodesk and ModuleWorks to bring even more advanced manufacturing capabilities to Fusion 360. Since we made the initial agreement, the Autodesk and ModuleWorks development teams have worked closely to identify the most valuable capabilities to add to Fusion 360. A great deal of attention has gone into the overall user experience. All of the new features look and feel just like any others that are already in Fusion 360, making it extremely easy for new and existing users.
In this article, we’ll share more information about the first wave of new ModuleWorks capabilities available in Fusion 360, which we just released as preview features in our recent product update.
As announced in our recent product update, you can now preview the following three strategies:
These three strategies are initially available for Fusion 360 customers to use via “Extension Preview.” This provides an opportunity for users to experiment with the new functionality to see if it’s right for their needs, as well as provide feedback to Autodesk. Following the preview period, the new ModuleWorks capabilities will be released to customers with a subscription to the Fusion 360 Machining Extension.
Let’s take a more detailed look at this first wave of new strategies that you can currently preview.
Kicking off with two new 4-axis machining strategies; Rotary Pocket (also known as “4-axis roughing”) and Rotary Contour (also known as “4-axis wall finishing”).
Rotary Pocket is ideal for those wanting to use simultaneous 4-axis machining to remove large amounts of material from parts efficiently. This is ideally suited to the machining of cylindrical or conical shapes but is not limited to these kinds of components, meaning it can also be used on free-form geometry. The strategy supports ball nose, end mill, and tip radiused cutting tool types.
Rotary Contour complements Rotary Pocket by efficiently machining the sidewalls of pocket features, also using simultaneous 4-axis machining. It is best suited to parts that contain pockets or nested features with sidewalls that radiate from the central axis of the part.
Rotary Pocket and Rotary Contour include the following advanced options for additional control over the style and extent of machining, including:
The third new strategy available to preview is Deburr. As the name suggests, you can use this intelligent toolpath to remove the small burrs that are often left on the edges of parts after CNC machining. Without this strategy, you would typically need to remove these burrs by hand, a process that can be both time-consuming and poorly controlled.
Deburr works by identifying sharp edges on parts and then producing toolpaths that intentionally remove a small amount of material from the edge using 3-, 4-, or 5-axis machine motions. When using multi-axis machining, you can use a range of options to precisely control the machine motion and tool orientation while adhering to the subtle limitations of the specific machine type.
Deburr includes the following advanced options:
The strategy supports many different types of cutting tools – including end mills, tapered, conical, or chamfer tools. However, the strategy works particularly well when combined with ball nose or lollipop cutters – especially if wishing to use 5-axis machining.
Stay tuned — there are plenty more features from our ModuleWorks partnership to come! We’ll be sharing more details about the next features in the coming weeks, including:
Excited to try Rotary Pocket, Rotary Contour, and Deburr? Activating Fusion 360 preview features is easy. Follow the steps outlined on this page, and you’ll be able to access these three preview features and more.
In the meantime, download Fusion 360 today to explore our extensive CAM offerings:
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