v1.13 How to Name Fusion Cutting Data Presets

This is the second page in the Working with the Fusion Tool Library section.

Here, you’ll learn how to name cutting data presets ('Presets') within your Fusion Tool Library in a format that can be recognized by CAM Assist.

To compute a toolpath strategy, CAM Assist does not require cutting data to be fully configured in Fusion (see How to Configure your Fusion Tool Library).

Preset Name Format

CAM Assist uses the ‘preset name format’ to identify Fusion cutting data presets within a specified 'Tool library.

The preset name format contains two key items:

Material - this must be one of the materials that you can select from the ‘Stock material’ drop-down in CAM Assist (for a list of materials, see Supported Materials).
Operation - this must be a valid operation for the tool for which you can create cutting data presets (for a list of valid operations, Supported Operations).

You can name your presets anyway you wish but you must include the material ('Stock material') and the operation if you want its speeds and feeds to be used by CAM Assist.

There are two options available for the Preset name format

Material then Operation - for example, any of the following would be valid:
- Aluminum - Roughing
- Aluminum Flat finishing
- Stainless Steel - Roughing
- Brass Wall finishing
Operation then Material - for example, any of the following would be valid:
- Roughing - Aluminum
- Helical boring Aluminum
- Wall finishing - Stainless Steel
- Roughing Brass

CAM Assist will only recognize cutting data presets where the material aspect of the name matches the selected ‘Stock material’.

(You can also use any of the alternative names for a material, see Supported Materials).

Key information:

The order of the material and the operation is irrelevant
- However, it’s recommended that you stick to one format, if possible, to improve future identification and to assist with maintenance.
The preset name is case insensitive
- ‘Aluminum - Roughing’ is exactly the same as ‘aluminum - roughing’
You could separate the material and the operation with a hyphen
- This will make life easier for future usability and maintenance.

For more examples of how to specify the material and operation in your cutting data presets, see Two examples of the preset name format, below.

Identifying the operations associated with specific tools

So far, you’ve seen how you can use CAM Assist to specify the relevant Tool library, and the material aspect of the preset name format (the cutting data preset’s name).
However, there is still the operation aspect of the preset name format to be defined.

CAM Assist gets the operation aspect from the cutting data presets that are configured within Fusion for the selected Tool library. It just loops through each tool in the toolset and checks for any matching cutting data presets that are named according to the ‘preset name format’ (for details of how CAM Assist does this, see How CAM Assist recognizes Fusion cutting data presets, below).

In order for this to work, you need to know which operations you can use in the preset’s name. You can get that information from the relationship between the tool and the supported operations.

There are two ways to identify the operations related to specific tools:

OR

How CAM Assist recognizes Fusion cutting data presets (using the preset name format)

The following diagram shows the process taken by CAM Assist to identify cutting data presets for the selected ‘Tool library’ that are used on the selected ‘Stock material’

As shown in the above diagram

CAM Assist loops through all of the tools in the selected ‘Tool library:
- For each valid operation associated with that tool:
  - CAM Assist looks for presets that have been named according to the Preset name format (where material = ‘Stock Material’ and operation = a valid operation for the tool):
    - If a preset name match is found for a specific operation - CAM Assist uses the feeds and speeds associated with that preset.
    - If a preset name match is not found for a specific operation - CAM Assist generates the feeds and speeds.

The result of this loop through the tools and their associated operations is reported in the ‘Tool use’ table (see How to Get the Most from the ‘Tool Use’ Table).

Two examples of the ‘Preset name format’

The following examples use Aluminum and a limited range of operations.
However, you could also use any of the Supported Materials and any valid Supported Operations in your cutting data preset names.

Explanatory video

The following video explains two example formats that could be used to name Fusion cutting data presets to machine Aluminum.

The following screenshots show the Fusion cutting data presets used in the above video.

Next steps

If you haven’t already done so, please take a look at the following:

Supported Materials - used for the material aspect of your cutting data preset’s name.
Supported Operations - used for the operation aspect of your cutting data preset’s name.
Smart Keywords - also used for the operation aspect of your cutting data preset’s name.

‘Working with the Fusion Tool Library’ continues with How to Get the Most from the ‘Tool Use’ Table.