Fusion 360

[Hood]

Just doing further reading regards the Startup licence and in the legal notices page
https://www.autodesk.com/company/le...b-services/autodesk-web-services-entitlements
It says this

 

[WorkshopChris]

When I went to look at this earlier this week for a download on the workshop PC, I kept getting directed to the Autodesk Uk site that just offers a 30Day trial of the software.

 

[Hood]

When I went to look at this earlier this week for a download on the workshop PC, I kept getting directed to the Autodesk Uk site that just offers a 30Day trial of the software.

I got a popup asking if I wanted to go to the UK site when I was looking around, sometimes I said yes, sometimes I said no.
I am not sure which site I was on when I filled in the form.
I got an email back with links to the trial download but have not heard back regarding the startup licence, did see some mention of you get it when the trial expires but not sure if that is true, we will see

 

[ronan]

When I went to look at this earlier this week for a download on the workshop PC, I kept getting directed to the Autodesk Uk site that just offers a 30Day trial of the software.

You download the 30 day trial and then when thats up you tell them you are in using it for personal use or educational use or whatever.

 

[m_c]

Fusion 360 changed menu systems pretty recently, as there were a lot of complaints that the old menu system wasn't very intuitive.

I do personally still prefer Solidworks, but I've currently got no access to it.
The big speculation about how Solidworks became so popular, was pretty much every version could be acquired for free through illicit sources, and it was suspected SW themselves were providing the needed license key generator, which if true, was a stroke of genius. Produce a brilliant CAD package, which businesses would probably never entertain due to being the new kid on the block with little user base, so leak it to potential users to use at home, at which point they realise how good a package it is, they then go to work and convince their bosses that they really need to move to SW because it's better and does so much more.
Fusion 360 is essentially doing the same thing, however now Autodesk have a built up a user base, they're now trying to get money from more users by moving the goalposts for who qualifies for the free version.

Ok, a question for the Fusion users, do you know of a way to auto update the drawings/files from the cloud to my HDD?
I have been searching and there doesn't seem to be a way but you never know, so might as well ask.

Not that I'm aware off.
One thing that puts me of Fusion, is that everything is cloud based.
I do use it, however I avoid putting any of my business products on it, which I know is pretty irrational, but I much prefer to keep such files elsewhere.

 

[Hood]

To be honest, if I end up using it, I wouldn't mind paying for it if the price stays the same, it is not overly expensive. BobCADs UK agent are taking the P with their quote to me and my email to USA has gone unanswered. I know what you could get it for before but now I could pay for Fusion for 5 years and still be cheaper.

Cloud is not my preferred thing more due to what if I can't get access for some reason rather than security, my designs are not really commercially sensitive.

I am now saving a file in fusion then once saved I am exporting it to the Google drive folder on my PC, so I should always have it if anything goes wrong with the Fusion cloud or if I decide to move on. It is a bit of a pain having to do it but once in the routine it will become second nature and only takes a second or two.

 

[DAPPH]

The beauty of using Fusions cloud is that some problem may be highlighted by you or someone else's designs , so warrants a fix …. they work on it , sort it then everybody gets the fix .
I've found that that sort of continual upgrade is far better than a bi annual massive update that takes you nearly as long to get over having .

 

[Hood]

I have been messing with the plasma side the last few days and I seem to have it mostly under control.
The toolpath generation seems to be fairly slow in Plasma, certainly compared to Lathe but maybe that is just because the drawings I have been using for testing are relatively complex. It does however seem to take a long time only to say it has missed out sections because the leadin can't be accommodated, yet if you do the bits it missed in separate operations they will post. This is only really a problem on files with geometry that is touch and go for kerf width clearance.

I have also manage to adapt the post processor for Plasma to suit my machine, there is one part of the code I can't seem to edit out but that is not really a problem as it is just posting a Z Pierce height that my probing macro has already set the torch to, so it will just fly past that line anyway.

I suppose the next thing to do is have a look at Milling.

 

[Brad93]

Have you looked at the Hypertherm processor for plasma that is built into 360? Always spat out decent files for use on the Crossbow when i was at esab. I think i used NC files.

 

[Hood]

I use Mach3 on the plasma so I used the Mach3 post. It needed quite a bit of altering to suit the way I have my plasma set up but I managed by trial and error

 

[Hood]

Been doing some milling testing with Fusion.
All seems fine and the default Mach3 post processor looks to be good, no altering needed so far although I will definitely have to alter the rigid tapping part as the CSMIO controller requires M84 code rather than G84.

 

[Hood]

Had a go at altering the post processor to output M84 code in the correct format and it worked great, or so I thought

With the CSMIO it needs an M84 for each hole to be tapped rather than the usual canned cycle format of first position, canned cycle, next position, next position etc etc.

That means you have to do multiple tapping operations in CAM rather than one with 4 positions chosen.
That in itself is not an issue as you can just right click and duplicate an operation in Fusion and then all you have to do is choose a different hole on your drawing.

Seems however that the post processor will only spit out the pitch (P) and retract spindle speed (R) once, any following M84's only have the depth (Q) and the Infeed spindle speed (S) see below.

Has me stumped for now

 

[rory1]

I had a go at writing a post processor for fusion 360 for my old anilam controlled lathe, I was well out of my depth!

I ended up contacting autodesk through thier forum and they wrote one for me!!

Thier forum is really helpful

 

[Hood]

I am well out of my depth as well but I am a stubborn B
I have managed to adapt the lathe and plasma ones to suit, will persevere with this for a bit and see.

I thought maybe a drill a tap a drill a tap etc would work but nope, just the same

 

[ronan]

 

[Hood]

Not really sure if there was something in there that was for me or was it just that there is a vid of rigid tapping?

 

[ronan]

Not really sure if there was something in there that was for me or was it just that there is a vid of rigid tapping?

He said he had to delete a line out of the cnc code to get it to power tap.

 

[Hood]

Ok but my problem is not getting it to tap, it will do that no problem if it gets the right code.

What my problem is, is the post processor is not spitting out the right code. I could easily edit the code manually before I sent it to the machine (or edit at the machine) but I am trying to get the post processor spitting it out correctly so that I don't need to edit

This is my first real rigid tapping with the Chiron not long after I got it retrofitted. Hard to believe it was nearly 7 years ago

 

[ronan]

As rory and the lad in the video says, contact Autodesk and they will help. They seem to have a great reputation for helping people out.

 

[Hood]

As rory and the lad in the video says, contact Autodesk and they will help. They seem to have a great reputation for helping people out.

I may well end up going that route, I think I know the section that might be the problem and I have had an offer of help so we will see what transpires