tklus wrote:I was about ready to pull the trigger on a seat of bobcad cam and thanks to youtube's suggested videos I ran accross fusion 360. It is free to hobbyists, students and start up companies. It has 2.5 and 3D machining stratagies and is pretty easy to learn. I currently use Autodesk Inventor at work so I can import my files directly to fusion. It also has an amazing similation option built in to the software, no need to output the code and run it through a seperate verifier.
Tim,
Thanks for the recommendation! I had been having serious issues with the various CAM packages I had been evaluating, and not terribly happy with any of them. Then I saw your post, and decided to give Fusion 360 a try. While I have to say I'm REALLY not fond of the CAD portion (may it'll grow on me, but my attempts at using it thus far have not gone well) but the CAM part, yeah! I have to say there are a few things I'm not happy about (inability to copy/paste actions from prior models or prior steps) but otherwise I like it. The tutorials are a bit buggy (especially if you are on a PC rather than a Mac), but I managed to wade through it. I suspect they just aren't keeping the tutorials in sync with feature changes/bug fixes/updates, but in one instance (I think it was a bore operation) it just flat ass didn't work at all on two of the four holes and threw up a completely useless error message. Also many of the tools it tells you to pick, just aren't in the standard library (or at least, aren't anymore) for the tutorial lib.
Anyway, I had two models I had been trying, and failing, to generate GCode for to my satisfaction with other CAM packages for a 2.5D milling operation. With fusion 360 tho, I got the first one finished that same day (including installation, tutorial, and muddling through my first model), and the second one, I finished in about an hour the next morning.
I'll continue to do my CAD modeling in a separate package (Autodesk Inventor 2014 in fact), but instead of trying to use the HSM plugin for Inventor (which only does 2D) I'll then save my model out, load up F360, and do my CAM in there!
So again, thank-you for the recommendation. You saved me from the various other CAM packages, as well as having to purchase one that I wasn't happy with but might have gotten me closer to what I did want.