INCREDIBLE Fusion 360 Probing Trick that I did not know! 

@John, If you probe the X and Y width instead of just the two surfaces it'll account for the center of the part. This allows you to use the outside profile tolerance of the part less error. Many people control the tolerance of their first op tighter than required by the print to minimize the second op location error. Great work as always John and team!!!

This is how I've done my second ops for years in fusion!

Happy to see a quick video about this! I actually sent you a message on IG recently about this topic and suggesting it as a video.

I actually did sort of figure this out one day while working on a project with a similar issue. I do a lot of that roughing the part and then come in to probe specific features and get on target for finish passes. Ultimately I tend to put points in space as an origin that generally match the intersection of my different probes planes, just so that in the machine when I'm initially setting up that origin I can probe those same surfaces manually with the control routines without a big chance for error. But there are times like this where some pin or other thing is a good origin to probe on a fixture but not for when the part is installed!

Hey John, I started using that as well. Works really well, especially on parts that I don't use softjaws for! Learn something new everyday!

Dang John, you've been missing for a long time! That's one of my favorite uses of probing in Fusion.

In the cam module you have the coordinate system so that the tool axis is along the Z-axis, and on your machine the tool axis is located along the Y-axis. Have you made any changes in the postprocessor so that it changes the Z-axis to the Y-axis? Or are these settings made on the machine? Is it possible to change the tool axis by making a setup in the cam module itself?

Would love to give this a try but my postprocessor doesn't support the Fusion Probing. Any info out there to incorporate this, doable for some one relatively new to PP editing?.

Can you use the same probing in fusion to find an angle? I see the angle along axis in the probing page to allow you to stop the program if it measures over a certain degree out. But is there a way to post that angle to a variable and then use a g68 coordinate rotation to square up the wcs. Would like to be able to toss some parts in and clamp down not perfectly indicated in and probe them, and rotate the wcs angle but can’t figure it out. Thanks

@1:06 how do you set “the rough approximate location” in fusion to know where the hole is? How do you know what those rough machine coordinates are going to be?

gotta say that is pretty cool.

Hi John, thanks for sharing. Could you explain how you update the work corrdinate after probe is done ?

Did you implement probing into your Okuma postprocessor yourself, or does the post processor natively support probling right out of the box? We just bought the Okuma Multus U4000, and got the postprosessor from 3dtechdraw for F360 through Massif. I struggle getting in contact with them to get answers. We are looking for a new way of getting a Okuma postprosessor .

Interesting 🤔. Good to know that you don’t have to probe the 0,0,0. My only issue with in process probing is when it probes a chip after roughing. I had a process going similar to this and on one part, it probed a chip and moved things way too much (0.015” or so). So I ended up putting a manual stop in place for the operator to check for chips. Most of the time now I probe just the first part and count on the stops to locate subsequent parts.

At the 1:00 minute mark, what did you mean “probe that coordinate system”? Are you saying, probe the hole and have the coordinate WCS zeroed in x and y, automatically?

Stacked Tolerancing........ I have been using this method for over a year, it does work great, however....... Let's say you're machining a block that is 1 inch square. If you measure the part in X at 1.001 and use this method when you flip for opp two you're going to be off by 0.0005. The same applies to Y. You have to be perfect on the surfaces your measuring from other wise it's going to transfer over to Opp 2. The math... If your part in X is over by .001, you would / I would set stock to leave at -0.0005. Meaning it removes 5 tenths from each side = 1 thou off. Hope this helps. Food for thought, I use the hole method a lot when it allows as John showed, but I don't use a drill bit as they walk. Here are some things I do that has worked really really well and does not do the stacked tolerancing. I model a 0.6 hole thru the part. I drill it with a 0.5 drill, then I bore it with a 1/4 really good endmill. Kennametal or Iscar or Gurhing (sp?). When I bore it, I slow it WAY WAY down. I typically do .001 IPT, 3500 RPM, 230 SFM.... Extremely slow. The reason for this is in most machines, you can put a dial indicator on a vise corner, then push on the table and you can get .001 to .002 movement. When you bore a 0.6 hole, the table is slinging around in a circle and under its own weight can push / deflect out ever so slightly due to centrifugal forces, your table is going in a circle. If you slow it way down, those forces are gone resulting in a near perfect hole. Now, let's say the hole comes out to 0.598 but it's almost perfectly round (nothing is ever perfectly round). Your WCS does not care about the size, it only cares about the very center. I do realize machining advise is like getting 3 redneck truck owners together, one with a Dodge, one with a Chevy, and one with a Ford and asking them,, "What's the best truck I should buy?" Then taking 5 steps back to watch the fight and oh by the way, no one wins.

This probing technique assumes that the part was cut correctly in OP 1. Can you use F360 to probe the features of OP 1 to verify that key features are in-spec before removing the part and transitioning to OP 2?

This also works in hsm works

I'm wondering why wouldn't you probe a machine feature like the nice and true jaw Chuck and cad your setup your in your manufacturing model? Now you can standardize machine set up across the shop relative to a vice or jaw no matter the geometry and no searching for coordinates on the floor? The only real thing you would have to watch out for is orientation of opp 2 and perhaps haveing crisp coupons to put in?? I understand it's going to either be hell at the computer or hell at the machine..

I do an alignment probe as well along the longest edge. The thing with doing an alignment probe is this though: you have to post the probing cutting toolpaths separately to the probing. For some reason, you can't post any toolpaths along with an "alignment" probe*. So, I post my probing as Op20, and the toolpaths that follow as Op30. *I'm using the Haas post processor for Fusion 360 on my Haas UMC500, so this may not be an issue for everyone...

I am wondering, how do you guys survived all this years without knowing this type of stuff in the modern CNC world.

Hi folks

Your face cam looks like it has some weird interlacing going on. At least for me. Pause the video while you're moving around. It looks like two overlapping interlaced fields. Easiest to see on your teeth. (Once paused, you can use '.' and ',' to frame forward and back in RU-vid). Compare this to the machine in motion, or the computer graphics.

That's actually strange that the hole doesn't work... why?

This sounds too good to be true…. Let me guess, this all works ONLY if you pay the $1500 fee for the add on….every year?

First

this guy keeps pushing fusion 360, what about other softwares