I am used to using variables in Fusion 360 and I guess I have gotten used to them It would be nice if we could use stock_bottom etc as variables and have the values automatically update.
I have a design I cut from various pieces of stock I have. My stock is varying thicknesses, and I would like to be able to use variables in my toolpath settings so that all I have to do is change the stock thickness value in Design → Job Setup, and then all the toolpaths recalculate automatically.
Current workflow, for example, I am cutting a simple tray, and on the first production run my stock is 1" thick I want to cut a pocket that’s deep but not all the way through my stock so I set the pocket to be 0.8" deep. I add in a v-carve to add test into the bottom of the pocket,and then add an outside contour toolpath with tabs that is set to 1" to cut out my finished tray.
On the second production run my stock is now 0.8" thick. I have to alter the pocket, vcarve and contour cut to accommodate all of this, leading to mistakes, missing values to update etc etc.
If you supported the variables, for example, stock_bottom, when initially setting up the file I could enter the pocket depth as “stock_bottom-0.2”, I could use the same variable to calculate the depth for the v-carve and the contour cut etc.
When I want to cut a file, I could change the stock thickness in Create, and then all the tool paths recalculate. Then, I could send it to Motion—it’s a much faster workflow.
Ideally it might be nice if instead of having to open create to update the stock_thickness, when I loaded a job in Motion it would ask me what the value for stock_thickness is, so that I could quickly enter the new thickness and start the job.
I understand that simulating the job is important to ensure that there are no surprises, but when you have a well-set-up file with many sequential sessions, this could save a lot of time.
I know that user @mmlmrx asked a similar question a while ago and I was hoping to see if their idea had been listened to.
