Just a simple question but is there any users of Fusion 360? I would prefer to stick with it vs moving over to Rhost and Eslcam. I have been learning it as I use it for the 3d printing side of things already.
CB
I don’t follow fusion very closely, but there is a lengthy post about it (I don’t blame you for not finding it, it was pretty buried):
https://www.v1engineering.com/forum/topic/fusion-360/page/6/
I will say that you can use fusion to do your designs, and then use EstlCAM for the CAM (and either use RHost or the LCD/SD card). EstlCAM is a lot simpler. But there is info on fusion if you want it.
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I use Autodesk’s Inventor with the same HSM post processor that is in the link Jeff provided. I’ve had great luck with it in all my designs. The ONLY thing I’ve had to use ESTLCAM for is v-carving. It’s not that Inventor/F360 can’t do the v-carving, it’s that it’s a pain in the arse trying to pull in a DXF and get it to use it the way I want. My wife usually creates items in adobe illustrator that she wants me to carve onto wood for her.
There is quite a learning curve, but once you learn it, it’s very powerful and I can bust a design out very quickly with it.
A couple of hints. You can design your part in either standard or metric. Once designed, you can select mm in the post processor. You need to remember to do this for the Marlin firmware. Otherwise, it cuts an extremely small version of your design.
There are a lot of good videos on youtube for setting it up and using it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I can’t help with the design side as F360 and Inventor are just different enough that I can’t really help. The post processor and CAM part is very similar, so I may be able to help you there if you get stuck.
I have been using fusion 360 for all of my 3d design work and yea, it is crazy powerful and had a butt load of new features for CAM that i am learning. There is a pretty large group of guy in fusion 360 facebook groups that i have been hitting up as well, just letting the ones here know about it. estcam and rhost is nice but both can be done with fusion and octoprint and i have 6 months of daily and long nights of work with so just wanting to say there is other options.
thanks for the link and info.
CB
I use Fusion360. I don’t use it for any post processing or control of the machine though. I just use it for design. I can take the STL and open it in Estlcam and it cuts just fine. Working on some pen boxes at the moment actually… I also use it to make stuff for my 3D printer, but again, just for design and use a purpose built app for machine control.
I use fusion for modeling and cam/posting, works great and has a ton of options.
I use repetier for sending the gcode that fusion creates
I use OpenSCAD for design; export the STL and do CAM in F360.