Heads Up (word of warning) Fusion 360 Users

[o2photo]

Hi all,

Just documenting my newbie woes in getting Fusion 360 CAM up and running with the Probotix in the hopes it will save someone else the headache.

I had been using Meshcam for my 3D CAM until now, but I've outgrown it, and their customer support is next to non-existent. So I downloaded Fusion 360 (totally free for hobbyists and business under $100k revenue). The CAM end is absolutely fantastic and what I've been looking for. A lot of efficiency can be wrung out of the 3D paths I do for molds, etc. I have Aspire, but I really only find it useful for 2D and 2.5D. I continue to draw in Rhino as that is what I learned on, so it's just the CAM portion of Fusion for now. Fusion opens Rhino files natively, so no more STL business!

However, being fairly new to this, and not knowing what I don't know and all... I spent a day of head scratching (and calling Len). I would have seemingly random Z height changes after I'd start a tool path. Only after emailing photos to Probotix and talking to Len did I realize they weren't random, and they were offsets declared by Fusion in the file. Who would have known? Oh yeah, someone who knows what they're doing, ha.

If you are new to this and, like me, you just jump in head first without checking the water, here goes.

There is not official Probotix post for Fusion, so the only option is LinuxCNC, which by default inserts two lines that foul with LCNC, a "T" line (T3, 4, 5 etc) and a G43 line (offset specific to that tool). Know what LinuxCNC supports? Tool tables and tool offsets. So there's no file read warning or whatever. It's happy to run it. On mine, Tool 1 in Fusion is a .25 flat end mill. When LCNC looks it up, it's a 1.25 inch end mill.

At any rate, you have to delete or comment out those the tool declaration "T" line and change the G43 line to G49 (49 is cancel offsets). Time after time it would either cut high or plow into my part. Hint: if you see a tool and an offset in the bottom of the control screen rather than "no tool", you have lines in your code you need to handle. If you JUST change G43 to G49 (delete everything after G43), it will work, but the "T" line will totally foul up your live preview and mess with your head. The settings are sticky within LCNC, even on restart, so you need to 'reset gcode' to get things back to how they were.

All that said, the options to really strategize and tailor the tool path in Fusion are more than worth the day I had to troubleshoot. Super fantastic time saver. Now I can rip right through unimportant stuff like mold facing and really spend some time on the part itself.

I've attached a photo showing the offset in the DRO on LCNC.

Marc

[o2photo]

The DRO - compare Z and G54 Z - 1/2" offset:

IMG_2987.JPG (263.27 KiB) Viewed 4906 times

[MZtech]

Very helpful Thanks!

[nickmcc247]

So have you or anyone else found a post processor that works better and you dont have to manually edit G43 line?

[MZtech]

As many are using Fusion 360, I wonder of we should start a channel for this?