Autodesk® Inventor CAM™ 2021.3

Release Notes

Build 8.3.0.23869 / 13 January 2021
Autodesk, Inc.

CONTENTS

This document covers both Inventor CAM products:

• Inventor CAM Premium
• Inventor CAM Ultimate

What’s New
System Requirements
Installation

WHAT’S NEW

The following changes have been made in the current update (2021.3):

Changes for Pattern

• Fixed an issue in which the toolpath preview was not displayed when creating a pattern. (#26385)

Changes for Post Process

• Fixed an issue in which posting NC code to the root folder of a drive failed. This mainly affected people using a USB memory device. (#26450)
• Fixed an issue where "Reorder to minimize tool changes" was not working. (#25909)

Changes for User Interface

• Fixed an issue in which the Geometry tab was not displayed in 2D Face and turning dialogs. (#26298)
• Removed a (non-functional) entry for "Additive" from the drop-down list of setup types (#26364) and a "Position" group from the Stock tab for setups. (#25651)

Changes for Milling

• Fixed a problem with the 2D Profile strategy where the default setting for "Outer Corner Mode" was set to "Keep sharp corner" when the compensation type was "In computer". The default has been reverted to "Roll around corner" as it was previously. In some parts, this caused some passes to fail to generate. (#26434)
• Avoid a case where 2D adaptive would crash the application if the radial clearance value was too large. (#21704)

Changes for Rest Machining

• Improved the functinoality to avoid air cutting when machining from a setup stock with undercuts or rest machining from previous operations. (#25539, #24388)
• Improved the handling of multiple rest surfaces to be consistent whether they are computed from previous operations, setup stock, or model bodies. (#24387)

Changes for Turning

• Added the ability to use grooving tools in a turning profile roughing operation. (#25787)
• Added the ability to use grooving tools in a turning profile finishing operation. (#22283)
• Added the ability to select a grooving tool in a turn threading operation for the machining of Higbee (blunt start) threads. (#24541)
• Added the ability in turning profile roughing operations to angle the cutting pass while entering material. (#19508)
• Fixed an issue where a turning profile finishing toolpath with no-dragging turned on and direction set to front to back was machining back to front. (#25924)
• Fixed several issues where certain turning profile roughing toolpaths were not being calculated. (#25905, #25484)
• Fixed an issue with certain turning profile roughing operations with canned cycle turned on where the canned cycle profile was gouging into the back of the stock. (#25525)
• Fixed an issue with certain turning profile roughing toolpaths with back to front direction that were generating incorrect entry moves. (#25253)
• Fixed an issue with certain turning profile roughing toolpaths with back to front direction that were incorrectly generating a vertical entry move along the back of the stock. (#25250)
• Fixed an issue in turning profile finishing where the toolpath was going beyond the back Z limit and gouging into the material. (#25157)
• Fixed an issue with the sub spindle feed plane position not updating after it was changed in the turning secondary spindle chuck parameters dialog. (#25036)
• Fixed an issue with turning profile finishing with compensation set to "in control" where the resulting toolpath was not compensating for stock to leave. (#24944)
• Fixed an issue with a sub spindle setup with "continue rest machining" turned on where turning operations in the sub spindle setup were not detecting rest material remaining from operations from the main spindle setup. (#24220)
• Fixed an issue with certain turning profile roughing and finishing operations where the tool limit parameter was being shown for the wrong stock Z limit. (#23561)

The following changes were made in an earlier update (2021.2):

Changes for General

• The 'Send Feedback' item on the Help menu has been changed to 'Contact Support'. The new item now redirects you to the Autodesk 'Contact Support' site which offers various options for sending information to our Support teams. (#24491)

Changes for Post Process

• Fixed an issue in which the Document Properties were no longer output during post processing. (#23167)
• Fixed an issue in which Order by tool no longer worked across folders within a setup. (#23200)

Changes for Probing

• Fixed an issue in which an override of the driving WCS was also changing the WCS that the probe should update. (#24641)

Changes for Simulation

• Fixed a crash that could occur in certain cases when simulating toolpaths. (#24091)

Changes for API

• Fixed an issue in which an extra period was output before the extension in post output. (#23419)
• Add the ability to set the Notes for an operation via the API. (#24570)

Changes for Milling

• Fixed an issue where the clearance distance for avoid surfaces in linking was not respected. (#22275)
• Fixed an issue that could result in a potential collision of the holder if the top of a 3D Adaptive Clearing operation was set below the top of the model. (#21665)
• Fixed an issue where 3D Adaptive Clearing could sometimes cause an internal error that stopped execution when holder protection was enabled. (#23845)
• Fixed a problem with holder collision protection when selecting 'pull-away' for 3D Contour operations. This could cause the holder to collide with the model. (#22865)
• Enhanced the tool-axis movements for 5-axis Flow, which will now be smoother. (#20630)
• Fixed issue with multiple depths in Engrave, where arcs were incorrectly transformed into line segments. (#23126)

Changes for Linking

• Fixed a problem where some linking moves did not respect the avoid surface clearance for Pencil and Constant Scallop toolpaths. (#23071)
• Relinking is now performed correctly when smoothing is enabled. (#21963)
• Fixed an issue where touch/avoid surfaces were not honored in trimmed toolpaths. (#22488)
• Improved arc leads on vertical walls. (#22637)

Changes for General Turning

• Removed the constant surface speed option from turning threading operations since it did not apply. (#22108)
• Added the ability to do rest machining in a turning operation when the previous operation is a suppressed turning operation or an unsuppressed milling operation. (#2004, #23338)
• Improved the spun profile results in some cases where the result was very slow to compute and not very accurate. (#10249, #11670, #21832, #23312)
• Fixed an issue with certain turning profile finishing toolpaths with a neutral or horizontal tool that gave an error upon generation. (#21950)
• Fixed an issued in which using even depth of cuts in a back cutting operation could hang the process with specific geometry cases. (#23030)
• Fixed an issue with single grooving toolpaths where the tool was gouging into the model if the single groove edge selection was at the back of the model. (#9735, #24376)
• Fixed an issue with certain turning profile finishing toolpaths where the tool was incorrectly machining a radial groove when set to not allow grooving. (#23979)
• Fixed an issue with turning thread operations with use cycle turned on where the simulation was not generating threads on the stock. (#22075)
• Fixed an issue with turning thread operations with use cycle checked on where the rendered toolpath was not correct when the file was loaded. (#22370)
• Fixed an issue where turning profile finishing toolpaths with direction set to back to front were not seeing the correct lead ins. (#22027)

Changes for Turning Canned Cycles

• Fixed an issue with certain turning profile roughing operations that generated errors when canned cycles were turned on. (#22888, #22984)
• Fixed an issue with profile roughing canned cycles where the simulation was showing "no stock to leave" left on unmachined stock. (#19273)

Changes for Turning Profile Roughing

• Added "no drag" machining to turning profile roughing operations. (#17256)
• Added a parameter to turning profile roughing to specify whether stock to leave should be applied to remaining stock as well. (#21993)
• Fixed an issue with certain turning profile roughing toolpaths where the Z stock to leave was not being left on the face of the part as expected. (#23130)
• Fixed an issue with certain turning profile roughing toolpaths that were gouging when even depths of cut was turned on. (#20595)
• Fixed an issue with certain turning profile roughing toolpaths where the first pass was not retracting out of the model at 45 degrees. (#22400)
• Fixed an issue with turning profile roughing and finishing operations with the tool limit appearing in the wrong position for left handed turning tool holders with counter-clockwise spindle direction. (#21994)
• Fixed an issue with profile roughing with direction set to back to front where the tool was feeding into the material horizontally instead of vertically. (#24120)
• Fixed an issue with certain turning profiling operations containing arc moves where the toolpath was gouging into the model. (#22719)
• Fixed an issue where certain turning profile roughing toolpaths could not be generated without suppressing certain design features. (#22959)
• Fixed an issue with turning profile roughing strategies with even depths of cut turned on where the final cut was too thin. (#23079)
• Added the ability to use even depths of cut with turning profile roughing toolpaths when the cycle is set to back-cutting. (#23122)
• Fixed a problem with certain turning profile roughing toolpaths where the tool was rapiding into stock during the first move if the toolpath was starting inside a groove. (#23251)
• Fixed an issue with certain turning profile roughing toolpaths where the tool was not machining to the back Z limit. (#23422)
• Fixed an issue where turning profile roughing operations were giving an error during generation if the model was overridden with a sketch. (#23916)
• Fixed an issue in turning profile roughing toolpaths where the first retract move was starting outside the part to x / z clearance instead from the surface of the material. (#24139)
• Fixed an issue with certain turning profile roughing and finishing operations that were gouging into the part when grooving was set to allow axial and radial. (#24298)
• Fixed an issue with certain turning profile roughing operations with tangential extensions with tool limit set to contact point where the stock limits coincide with an edge. (#22103)

The following changes were made in an earlier update (2021.1.2):

Changes for Multiple WCS

• Fixed an issue in which multiple work offsets were not working for posting or simulation. (#24086, #23803, #23981)
• Fixed an issue in which order-by tool was not working when using multiple work offsets. (#24149)

Changes for Probing

• Fixed a crash which could occur when using WCS Probe operations. (#23787)

Changes for Turning

• Fixed an issue with turning profile roughing operations where the first pass was shallower than the other passes. (#21923)
• Fixed an issue with turning profile roughing canned cycles with tangential extensions where the first point in the canned cycle profile was incorrect. (#19745)
• Fixed an issue with certain turning profile roughing toolpaths working on the face of the part that were gouging instead of returning an empty toolpath. (#20765)
• Fixed an issue with certain turning profile finishing toolpaths that were incorrectly generated if leads were not specified. (#22302)
• Fixed an issue with certain turning profile finishing toolpaths not generating correctly when a negative stock to leave was specified. (#22490)
• Fixed an issue generating certain turning profile finishing toolpaths with a negative stock to leave. (#22472)
• Fixed an issue with turning profile finishing where it was not cutting material in an axial groove as expected. (#22156)
• Fixed an issue with turning profile finishing with multiple passes and direction set to both ways where the leads were incorrect. (#22471)
• Fixed an issue with inside turning profile finishing toolpaths where the lead out was not being created if it was extending beyond the clearance radius. (#22141)

Changes for API

• Removed an extra period (".") that was output before the file extension when posting. (#23419)

The following changes were made in an earlier update (2021.1.1):

Changes for Post Processor

• Fixed a problem in which the Document Properties (such as customer, part name, and drawing number) were no longer being output during post processing. (#23167)

The following changes were made in an earlier update (2021.1):

General Changes

• Improve the performance of sketch editing when the Inventor CAM addin is loaded. (#21144)
• Fixed a crash that could occur when attempting to generate toolpaths from the root browser node. (#21547)
• Fixed an issue in which previously installed posts could be removed during installation of an update. (#22792)
• Fixed a crash that could occur during startup or loading Inventor CAM if an invalid saved template was present. (#21693)

Changes for Setups

• Fixed an issue in which an "Unspecified error….." message appeared when attempting to create a Setup. (#14864)
• Fixed an issue in which it was not possible to remove or re-select the machine configuration from the setup. (#21616, #21513)
• Fixed an issue in which Chuck Front was not appearing as an option for the origin in a turning setup. (#21645)

Changes for Turning

• Fixed an issue with certain turn profile roughing toolpaths that were rapiding into the stock before a cut. (#19873)
• Fixed a problem with turning profile roughing operations with retraction strategy set to maximum retraction where the tool was retracting to an unknown X coordinate. (#19443)
• Fixed an issue with certain profile roughing toolpaths that were gouging the part while retracting. (#19799)
• Fixed a problem with turn profile finishing with multiple stepovers where the first stepover was not machining all the material it should. (#19700)
• Fixed an issue with certain turning profile roughing toolpaths that were taking too long to generate. (#20081)
• Fixed a toolpath generation issue for certain turning rough profiling toolpaths. (#21349)
• Fixed an issue with certain turning profile roughing toolpaths that were not cutting material up to the stock back Z limit. (#20787)
• Fixed an issue with certain profile roughing and finishing toolpaths that were not generating if the turning profile ended in an arc at the back. (#20932)
• Fixed a problem with generating toolpath for certain turning profile finishing toolpaths with compensation type set to in control. (#21262)
• Fixed an issue with certain turning profile roughing toolpaths where they were either giving an error while generation or gouging the model. (#21546, #20805)
• Fixed an issue for certain turning profile roughing where the toolpath gouged the model if it went beyond the back of the model. (#21498)
• Fixed an issue with turning profile finishing where the toolpath gouged while returning for spring and multiple finishing passes. (#21346)
• Fixed an issue with certain turn rough profiling toolpaths that were not leaving enough clearance on material during a transverse rapid move. (#20731)
• Fixed an issue with certain turn profile roughing toolpaths not being generated when machined with a face neutral tool. (#19628)
• Fixed an issue with certain turning profile roughing and profile finishing toolpaths that gave an error during generation. (#19801)
• fixed an issue with certain turning profile roughing toolpaths with unequal X and Z finish allowances not generating correctly. (#20502)
• Fixed an issue for certain turning profile roughing toolpaths with grooving set to dont allow grooving that were generating an incorrectly inclined toolpath for a horizontal section of the part. (#18898)
• Added the ability to reduce the spindle speed at a certain radius for a turning part-off operation. (#9881)
• Improved the X and Z clearance functionality for turning profile roughing. This project aimed to remove annoying error messages and handle corrections internally and also disallow users from setting either clearance to 0 since it might create situations where the tool might rapid into material. (#19641)
• Fixed an issue with certain turning profile roughing toolpaths with turning tools using round inserts that were not machining a groove. (#19779)
• Fixed an issue with turning grooving operations where the "Repeat Finishing Pass" parameter was only visible when roughing was enabled. (#19636)
• Fixed a problem with turn profile finishing where the toolpath was gouging into the model when there was a front tangential extension defined. (#19060)
• Fixed an issue with certain profile finishing toolpaths with tangential extensions not being generated. (#22253)

Changes for Milling

• Fixed an issue with lead-out gouging on a Flow operation in certain conditions. (#19918)
• When ordering "Outside to In" was selected in a Morphed Spiral operation, the resulting toolpath machined bottom to top as well as outside to in. This was corrected to that it will always machine top to bottom. (#17699)
• Improve the computation of raster zigzag links for Parallel operations so they are less likely to be rejected for no obvious reason. (#21652)
• Fixed an issue that caused a gouge in certain conditions when tangentially connecting linking moves for Contour operations. (#20316)
• Fixed an issue with several operation types that could cause a crash when Avoid surfaces were provided which were below the minimum Z. (#22060)
• Fixed an issue in which the Feed Height was incorrectly being raised when the vertical lead-in height was below the Feed Height on single pass contour operations ("Multiple Depths" and "Ramp" are disabled). (#19602)
• Fixed an issue that could occur in linking moves for a Spiral operation. (#18702)
• Fixed issue with certain characters not being cut with multiple depths in an Engrave operation. (#18006)
• Fixed an issue in which Bore and Circular operations could gouge when using "In Control" compensation. (#20099)

Changes for Drilling

• Restored the ability to use "Select Same Diameter" when using the "Selected Points" option in drilling operations. (#20802)
• Fixed an incorrect toolpath computation for Thread Milling operations when using a straight lead-in (arc radius of 0). (#21494)

Changes for Pattern

• Fixed a crash that could occur when creating a new component pattern if an assembly contains suppressed occurrences. (#21852)

Changes for Simulation

• Fix several issues that could occur when using fast-3-axis stock simulation. (#22117)

The following changes were made in an earlier update (2021):

What's New

General

• The HSMEditor has been updated to the latest version for the 2020 release. (CAM-12417)
• Many icons in the user interface have been refreshed to improve constistency with Inventor. (CAM-11316)
• CAM functions for 2D Profile are now enabled when the Flat Pattern environment is active in Inventor. (CAM-10631)
• A warning is now issued if you edit a machine configuration that is being used in multiple setups, since the changes you make will affect all setups that reference the machine. (CAM-10281)

Post Processor

• New functions 'section.getModelOrigin' and 'section.getModelPlane' were added to provide access to the work coordinate system of the CAD model. (CAM-12614)
• A 'reset' parameter has been added to the createAxis function, which can reset the current rotary axis position to zero prior to scanning the section for the optimal rotary starting position. There are also corresponding 'axis.getReset' and 'axis.setReset' functions. (CAM-12300)
• Post Processor: A new variable 'machineParameter.spindleSpeedDwell' has been added which specifies a dwell time in seconds when the spindle speed changes during a drilling cycle. This can be used to correct expanded gun-drilling cycles. (CAM-9495)

Fixes

General

• Fixed an issue in which the stock contours preview was incorrect when another tool orientation was selected in the operation. (CAM-12649)
• Fixed several issues in which toolpaths were not being invalidated when specific parameters were changed: Safe Z, Origin or Chuck Front in a turning setup, Entry and Pre-drill positions, Bottom Height 'from selected point'. (CAM-13938, CAM-13360, CAM-12632, CAM-13218, CAM-12991)
• Avoid incorrect parenting of the Machine Select dialog, which could lead to a crash. (CAM-13443)

Toolpaths

• When using a cutter with a corner radius in 2D Adaptive, the upper edge of a pocket could be gouged in some circumstances; this is corrected. (CAM-11596)
• Allow machining two open bores within the same operation. (CAM-11647)
• Fixed an issue where the software could hang when calculating helical ramps on a contour pass. (CAM-12129)
• Fixed an issue in which toolpaths might not get created when using the "Fillet" option (Mac only). (CAM-12279)
• Fixed an issue where faceting could occur in Scallop operations. (CAM-12326)
• Fixed an issue in which helical links were detached from their cutting segment and a further lift and plunge was inserted in between to join them. (CAM-12364)
• Jet will now provide the user with a better warning when no path can be computed. (CAM-12953)
• Contour with Both Way and Roughing Passes used to produce partial toolpaths. This has now been fixed. (CAM-13309)
• Fixed an issue in which entry positions were inadvertently removed from 2D Chamfer operations. (CAM-13676)
• Fixed an issue which caused irregular cutting passes for the scallop strategy. (CAM-13757)
• Fixed an issue where some arcs were misformed when offset. (CAM-13135)
• Fixed an issue which could have caused gouges when smoothing for sampling strategies is enabled. (CAM-13266)
• Fixed an issue in which a toolpath would not regenerated after smoothing was turned on or off. (CAM-12599)
• Fixed an issue in which rapid retracts of undercutting tools could fail to report some collisions. (CAM-11401)

Turning

• Fixed leads when "Use fixed lead direction" was turned off for certain inside and face grooving operations. (CAM-10679)
• Use more accurate round shank holders (instead of square) for visualization and simulation of some turning tools. (CAM-11423)
• Fixed issues with toolpath verification, simulation and NC code when an angled turning tool with compensation set to tip tangent was used for profiling, facing or chamfering. (CAM-11617)
• Fixed an issue where the compensation point for a boring tool was incorrectly previewed in the tool library. (CAM-12236)
• The non-functional 'Radial dimension mode' dropdown was removed from the turning / turn-mill setup dialog. (CAM-12448)
• Fixed an issue in which the tangent compensation point for a turning tool was incorrect when changing the tool direction. (CAM-12856)

Post Processor

• Fixed an issue in which "getOptimizedTCPMode" was returning an incorrect value. (CAM-11367)
• A post processor error is no longer generated when a multi-axis operation has a constant tool axis of 0,0,1. (CAM-11794)
• The post processor now considers a drilling operation to be an axial center drilling operation instead of a milling operation when it is within a tolerance of X=0, Y=0. (CAM-8185)
• Fixed a problem in which linear values from the machine configuration dialog were not recalculated according to the output units. (CAM-11877)

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SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

• Autodesk Inventor CAM 2021 supports Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit.
• Inventor CAM 2021 is compatible with the 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 versions of Inventor, Inventor Professional, and Inventor LT.

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INSTALLATION

New installation

• Inventor must be installed prior to installing Inventor CAM

• If you need to install Inventor, it should be available to you in the Autodesk Account Portal

• Before you install Inventor CAM 2021, please make sure to run Windows Update, install all Windows Updates that are pending on your machine, and reboot:

  • For Windows 10: Windows Update is available in the Update and Security section of Windows Settings, which is available from the Windows menu.
  • Windows 7: Windows Update is located in the Control Panel, which is accessible from the Start menu.

• It is sometimes necessary to perform a Windows Update multiple times to completely update your operating system.

• Verify that enough disk space is available on your machine to install Inventor CAM 2021.

• Before installing Inventor CAM 2021, please uninstall all prior Autodesk beta products.

• Download Inventor CAM 2021 from the Autodesk Account Portal (preferred) or cam.autodesk.com.

• Follow the instructions to download and launch the installer. Temporary extraction is to your temp folder. Operating system errors regarding very long path names can occur if the temporary location is nested too many levels deep.

• If the installer does not launch, browse to the folder where the files were extracted, and double-click setup.exe.

Updating an existing installation

• When a new update is available, an update notification will appear in the Autodesk Desktop App.
• Please download and install the update package.

Before installing an update there is no need to uninstall a previous Inventor CAM release; but if you prefer to do so, you can uninstall the relevant release in Programs and Features in Windows Control Panel by accessing “View installed updates”.

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FEEDBACK

We encourage you to provide your feedback to us and help make Inventor CAM even better. If you encounter issues not covered in this document, please report them to Autodesk through your reseller, on the CAM discussion forum, or to the Inventor CAM team using 'Send Feedback' on the 'Help' menu.

The Autodesk CAM Team
For more information visit us at: http://cam.autodesk.com

Copyright 2020 Autodesk, Inc.