In this lesson we'll compare, traditional versus an adaptive tool motion toolpath. After completing this lesson, you'll be able to, use simulate to inspect a toolpath and modify a toolpath parameter. In Fusion 360, we want to get started with the supply dataset, adaptive versus pocket. We're inside of the manufacturer workspace and I want to note that we see two different operations under setup 1. We have a 2D adaptive and a 2D pocket. We're going to be taking a look at the way in which they approach the same geometry and we're going to be simulating these. Before I get started, I want to make a note about an option in the utilities tab in Fusion 360. Under actions there's something called automatic, in-process stock generation. Once that's turned on, you also have an option in the bottom center section of your display, that allows you to toggle on and off the in-process stock generation. What this does, is it allows you to select an operation and see what material has been removed from that stock. When we select the entire setup 1, you can see that we have a transparent stock visible on the screen, and when we select each of these operations, we'll see the stock that's been removed. While this is a great option, it doesn't allow us to compare the differences between adaptive in 2D pocket, because they are machining the same geometry. Keep in mind if you want to toggle that on and off, you can do so by using F8 on the keyboard, by going down to the option to display and process stock, or you can go to your utilities and completely turn it off. From here the first thing I want to do is take a look at the adaptive tool motion. I'm going to turn off in process stock generation and take a look at this from the top. Notice that we're currently displaying the tool, which is okay because we can see through it, but I want to make note of the way in which the tool motion is happening inside of this pocket. If we zoom in on some of the areas, you'll notice that we have a green entry point. We have these green lines, which are going to be our lead in and our lead out transitions. We have our blue lines which is going to be our cutting feed and then we have these yellow lines which are rapid movements. If we rotate this view around and we take a look at these motions, what we're actually seeing is that, with an adaptive tool motion there's a micro lift that's happening. The tool cuts at the Z level and then it comes away and pulls up just slightly, it does a lead in in the vertical and horizontal directions, and then it does a rapid movement over to the other side, and then it works its way back down. If we take a look at the 2D pocket, it simply takes the outside contour of the pocket and does an offset. What this means is that, a pocket that has these smaller areas in the corners, is going to have a large engagement of the tool as it enters those corners. The adaptive motion doesn't have that because it takes these micro cuts keeping a consistent chip load on the tool. Let's take a look at both of these and simulate. I'm going to start by selecting only 2D Adaptive 1 and I want to go to my actions and simulate. From here I'm going to begin to play this operation. You'll notice that on the right-hand side we're showing the tool path, as well as the stock. There are several options that we can toggle on and off, but for right now let's leave these default options on. What we're seeing with the adaptive tool, is a helical entry and then as it gets closer to those corners, you can see that it's starting to do these cuts, where it's keeping that consistent load on the tool. It has those rapid movements, to go back and forth between the start of a cut. This happens all the way through the entire part, it does these micro lifts and these micro movements, to keep that consistent chip load on the tool. Notice that we're leaving a small amount of stock on the wall and if we take a look at the colorization and we do a comparison, we can see that the material left in blue, is not matching the size of the original part in green, and that's because we left some stock on the floor and the walls. Let's close this, select our 2D pocket and repeat the actions by going to simulate. Notice that when we're inside of here, what we're seeing is the removal of the material, from the adaptive. Now we don't want to take a look at the material removal based on the adaptive, we want to take a look at what the 2D pocket is removing. When we take a look at the mode, the stock mode right now is set to standard, but it is still showing the material that's been removed by the 2D adaptive. I'm going to take this operation, I'm going to drag it up and have it recalculate. Now I'm going to take a look at this 2D pocket and we'll go ahead and play through. Once again it has the helical entry and with the helical entry, it's going into the part the same way the adaptive did. However the helical entry is a little bit smaller. Once it gets down to its final depth that we've set, then it's going to start offsetting the outside of the contour. What we'll notice is that when we get into these corners, you can see that we have full engagement of the tool. It's cutting across 180 degrees of the tool. This is much different than that adaptive motion which was keeping a consistent load on the tool. What this means is that, the same feed rate is being used for the small sign cut, as it is when it's entering this corner. This is going to have a lot of chatter, the machine's going to make a lot of noise and ultimately, it's going to put more wear on the tool. There's going to be more heat, there's less room for that chip to eject and we're going to see that the tool is going to deflect and we're not going to get a great finish. That doesn't mean that a 2D pocket is not a great operation for certain types of geometry. It just means in a situation like this, where we're entering this corner, it's not going to be the best option. What I'm going to do is right-click on 2D pocket and I'm going to suppress it for now, and then I'm going to take a look at my 2D adaptive and make some changes. By editing this tool path, we're going to go into our passes and we're going to turn off stock to leave. I'm going to allow it to go all the way to the bottom of the floor and the sides of the walls. If we want to we can also determine multiple depths, if we feel like we're taking too deep of a cut. But in this instance if we take a look at the tool we're using a 3/16 flat and there are some general guidelines that we can talk about when we're using adaptive tools, depending on the type of material. It's always a good idea to consult your tool manufacturers references for whatever material and tool you're using. In most cases when we're using an adaptive toolpath, for steel, the tools can cut the entire flute length and up to 20 percent of the diameter for a sideways engagement. When we're talking about aluminum, the depth is generally 1.5 - 2 times of the tool diameter, but it can be the entire flute length as well. In those cases we're really talking about 30 percent of the tool diameter for a side engagement, but in some cases depending on the material, it can go up to 50 percent. When we're doing hardened steel, the depth of the cut can be the full flute length again and the sidestep is generally limited to about five percent. These are rough guidelines and again it's always important to consult your tool manufacturer and also do some testing on your own. You might find that you can take a much deeper cut than you're used to, because the tool engagement or the optimal load that we're talking about, is keeping that consistent load on the tool and we're not getting any sideloading. Now that we've made adjustments to the tool, I'm going to turn back on, my display in process stock and we can see that now when we view this we're cutting the entire pocket. We can also change the stock to transparent which will let us see the underlying geometry. In this case making a small adjustment to the 2D adaptive, allowed us to get a cut of the entire pocket assuming that we don't have any critical features or details and it happens relatively quickly. The last thing that I want to do, is I want to compare the amount of time it takes to cut. We're going to right click and go to machining time and see that with the adaptive, we have a rapid distance of 14 inches, feed distance of 95 and a total feed time of six minutes. The total machining time is six minutes and 29 seconds. If we take a look at the pocket, the machining time, doesn't display when it's suppressed so we'll need to go ahead and unsuppress this operation, allow it to regenerate, which happens under actions. We can select generate or use Control G on the keyboard and then we can take a look at the machining time. Note that the machining time in this case, is going to be 38 inches for the total feed distance, one inch for the rapid distance and the machining time of two minutes and 45 seconds. In this instance, you'll note that the machining time is less, but we're putting a lot more load on the tool and that's based on the sidestep or the engagement that we have in the passive section, the optimal load of 0.075. If we modify the pocket operation to have that same amount of step over, in this case the maximum step over was 0.170, but if we set it to 0.075 and recalculate this, it's going to take quite a bit more time for that operation. We'll go check the machining time once more and you can see that it added some feed distance and it added some rapid distance, but it also added to the machining time. Of course machining time is one piece of the puzzle when we're talking about machining geometry. We have to also consider tool life and also how hard we can push the tools. We can likely push that 2D adaptive operation much harder, and likely we're pushing the 2D pocket a little too hard. As we start to explore more examples, we'll talk more about setting up the feeds and speeds, but ultimately that information really should come from your own testing, your own knowledge and the manufacturer's recommendations, because every type of material is going to be different, the machines are going to be different and also the end mills that you're using are going to be different. Take what we have here, as just some rough guidelines in terms of engagement and how fast you can push the tools and then you can use that information to start building your own set of defaults. Once we're done here, I'm going to navigate back to a home view and make sure that I do save this before moving on.
