'General' Section

Owned by Kevin Strider (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jul 12, 2024
3 min read

The ‘General’ section of the General Tab is expandable/collapsible; it enables you to do the following:

  • Specify the machining environment: ‘Tool library’ and 'Stock material’.

  • Edit the properties of the chosen ‘Machine’.

  • Specify the ‘Machining mode’.

Layout

The layout of the ‘General’ section changes depending on your choice for the following:

  • Machine - CAM Assist provides two categories: ‘Generic’ and ‘Local’.

  • Machining mode - CAM Assist provides two modes: ‘3+2 Axis’ and ‘3 Axis’.

  • Machining direction - displayed when the selected Machining mode is ‘3+2 Axis’.

The screenshot to the right shows all of the ‘General’ section’s features, including the ‘Machine Properties' and the ‘Machining direction’ options.

For information on each of above features, see below.

 

 

image-20240712-102534.png
‘General’ section - all features

Features

The following table describes each feature in the ‘General’ section, as shown in the above screenshot.

Feature

Description

Feature

Description

Tool library

The Fusion tool library to use within CAM Assist.

Stock material

CAM Assist will select tools, machining strategies, and cutting data presets based on the selected material.

For a full list of materials that you can use in CAM Assist, see Supported Materials.

Choose machine

The drop-down list contains two categories of machine:

  • [Generic] - a range of CA Assist generic machines offering a combination of speed, power, and torque.

  • [Local] - Fusion machines that are contained within the ‘Local’ folder of Fusion’s ‘Machine Library’

If a [Local] machine is selected:

  • The ‘General’ section is expanded to include ‘Machine properties’. CAM Assist requires a value for these properties to compute toolpath strategies.

  • The Edit machine properties button changes to Hide machine properties.

  • Continue from step 3 of the How to Edit Machine Properties instructions.

Edit machine properties

Enables you to specify a set of machine properties that are needed to compute a toolpath strategy for the selected part.

For step-by-step instructions on using this button, see How to Edit Machine Properties.

Machining mode

See Machining mode, below.

Machining Direction

Only displayed when ‘3+2 Axis' is selected for the Machining mode (see Machining mode, below).

Machining mode

The Machining mode drop-down contains two choices: ‘3-Axis’ and ‘3+2 Axis’.

Depending on which Machining mode is selected, the layout of the ‘General’ section changes, as shown in the following side-by-side screenshots.

Layout if the ‘3 Axis’ Machining mode is selected

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Layout if the ‘3+2 Axis’ Machining Mode is selected

Machining mode choices

As can be seen from the above screenshots, CAM Assist provides the following Machining mode choices:

  • 3 Axis

  • 3+2 Axis - if selected then a Machining direction is required:

    • Aligned to X, Y, Z axes - the tool orientation used to create toolpath strategies can only come from the +X, -X, +Y, -Y, and +Z axes.

    • User defined - the tool orientation comes from the orientation specified by the user in the Target setup(s) within CAM Assist.

    • Automatic - automatic 3+2 strategies are only available for evaluation through participation in CloudNC’s ‘Early Access Beta Program'.

For detailed step-by-step instructions on using all four choices, see Machining modes in the 'How-to Guides' section.