For this lesson, we'll begin by creating a new design from file using

the FSAE steering wheel CAM final file and saving it.

When you've created a tool path it's a good idea

to simulate the tool paths you've created to see if

anything seems problematic and to allow the programs to check for tool crashes.

Just selecting the simulate tool might give

you an error that there are no valid tool paths,

even though there are multiple tool paths present.

To properly simulate, select the tool path or as in this example,

we'll select a setup then click simulate.

The tool paths in this setup will be shown on the in-canvas model.

In the display options,

the tool in the holder is being shown.

We can change this to be able to just see the shaft or just the fluid of the tool.

We use the holder option for clarity and we can also choose this to be transparent.

This helps to show if the tool and holder

look like they're going to be coming too close to the work piece.

Below the display options,

we can choose if the tool paths are shown.

There are several display options,

and while the full display gives a good overview,

it can be a bit overwhelming.

We'll switch to the tail option which will follow

the tool path so that we can keep track of what has happened.

At the bottom of this tab is the stock display option.

This can help you visualize how the stock is being

cut rather than just seeing the tool move through space.

The info tab will give us the information on the motion of the tool.

It's the type of information that would be normally shown on the machine.

It will tell us the position of the tool,

what operation is being executed,

what tool is being used and other valuable information.

The statistics tab will give information on the total machine time,

number of operations, and total tool travel distance.

At the bottom of the screen is a series of controls for playing the simulation.

There's a play button, buttons to advance a pass and operation,

or to the end of the tool path.

The slide bar at the bottom can control the speed of the playback.

At the bottom will be a series of color bars that show if there are

any collisions and the percentage of time

a particular operation takes in the overall run.

Watching the first contour we cut,

we can see how the tool works its way in and works its way down

the ruffing passes then goes around for the finishing passes.

Also notice that the stock was represented in green,

but the 2D contour tool passes are represented in gold,

but the drilling operations do will be in blue,

and then it will begin the adaptive clearing operations

that will be represented in purple.

The color coding helps visually segment which operations and

how many operations are being applied to the part.

We can speed up the progress of the simulation,

and when it reaches the last operation,

we will see red bars at the bottom of the screen and

the tooling holder will highlight in

red when the holder begins to collide with the work piece.

Zooming in on the part,

you can see the red band where the holder was colliding with the part.

This is an excellent demonstration of what happens in collision,

but realistically, we wouldn't cut the splines using this type of milling operation.

We'll remove this tool path by suppressing it in

the browser then run the simulation again and see there are no collisions.

We'll close the simulation and save the file.

Toolpath simulation

Autodesk Fusion 360 Integrated CAD/CAM/CAE

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