Cad/cam For The Hobby Machinist

[Inflight]

I could have better rendering but it would require a upgrade to in my video card...

Fusion 360 uses Cloud based rendering. Doesn't use my local resources at all.
In addition to static rendering, they can do 360 degree rotational renderings, again all cloud based.

Matt

 

[petcnc]

Hey guys after reading your posts I downloaded and started learning it. It is my first CAD program so I cannot compare to something familiar but it looks amazing! I will try to learn it and I intend to make it my cns's workhorse.
Thank you for informin me of it's existence

Petros

 

[Baithog]

I'm a bit late to the thread, but I have been twisting in the wind trying to come up with a way to effectively use my little X2 conversion. However which way I tried to go at it, it always came down to thousands up front or hundreds per month. I was well into sketchup when I realized that it did alright for woodworking joints, but failed with my machining designs unless I purchased the pro version. The same with turbocad. All of the cad approaches were either missing the CAM, or it was less than capable. And full featured, 3-D CAM ain't cheap either. Fusion360 sounded great until I read the licensing. I misinterpreted the licensing for enthusiasts, too. My thanks to Dan for pointing that out. There is a potential gotcha later on. While the educational licenses carry long term renewal commitment, the enthusiast license doesn't, and we could potentially see them take it away in the future. It is a common business model in the software domain to give it away until their users are hooked, then start charging or bombarding with ads. The 3-D printing fad is fading. Like the early personal computers (Comodor 64, Atari 2600, Timex Sinclair, and others) lack of software to make them more than just a toy was just not available. The same for 3-D printing. If Autodesk or someone else comes up with a mass market 3-D, integrated design program, they will become the standard for the next wave of truly useful 3-D printers for the home.

I have started the Fusion360 video tutorials. I expect that this is going to be fun, and I may even do more than a couple of CNC projects this year because of it.

 

[gjmontll]

Although I've owned TurboCad for several years, I'm a CAD novice. I didn't seriously start learning and using it until this spring when I started my "Greg's French 75 mm Cannon" project (see the Other Projects folder on our forums). I struggle but do manage to get the job done, just not at all efficiently.
Hearing about Fusion 360 on this forum, I investigated it for my hobby use. It looks promising, but I don't want to climb a new learning curve in mid-project. Regardless, I did download it and did a bit of playing around - not very successfully.
My favorite method of learning new software is with a reference manual or perhaps a book. But I don't see any such items have been published. To learn it, it looks like I need to watch videos and do their tutorials.
My cannon project drawings have been 2D. So far, I haven't been able to import them into F360. But as I'm about to start on a new major assembly on the cannon, I may spend a day or two focused on getting acquainted with F360 then try to put it to work.
Greg

 

[SEK_22Hornet]

Finally got my 64 bit machine up and running and started working with Fusion 360. I admit I have struggled a bit to get started, but it is starting to click. I managed to get a 3d model of a part drawn up and started looking at the CAM side. No post for my machine, so I have now had to dive into modifying a post processor. I have a pretty good start on that using the Mach3 post as a starting point. Have done some playing with 2d and 3d milling strategies and am very impressed with what I have seen so far. Need to spend a few hours more learning the finer points of modeling and finish up the post before starting to cut any metal. I will certainly stay with this and hope Autodesk keeps it out there for us to use in the hobby market. I have used BobCad-CAM at work for 2.5d router programming, importing dxf files from a cad program and really like the integrated cad-cam approach much better. I signed up for the fusion 360 forum and have poked around a bit, but need to dig into it to finish the post processor. I'll probably run out of winter before I get done! Here is my first model just for grins! - Dan

 

[bjornsh67]

I have a license for alibre pro, moi3d, rhino3d and simlab composer. Fusion 360 cost less than my maintenance fee for those tools and i can even get fea, thermal simulation and what appears to be capable 3 axis cam package ( and for those who enjoy the finer art of surface modelling,tspline).

My worry is that fusion 360 is cloud based. But so can be said about alibre too....

Bjørn