Fusion 360 Personal Edition Changes Coming Oct 1

[Sword]

Thomas Sanladerer does a good job of talking through the changes in his video on the subject. I mostly use it for designs for 3D printing, so the g-code is handled by the slicer, but I would think that a little work with "Find & Replace" in notepad++ would help with the no rapids situation.

[Muzzer]

Expand on that a bit.

I doubt they would make it a simple matter of changing a few F values. I expect you will find all G1s and no G0s in the code. How would you know which moves to make rapid?

[Sword]

Yeah, depending on the complexity of your part and the length of the file, it could be a tedious task (sure that's what they would aim for), but I'd start by looking over the code and see if there was some kind of repeating pattern that would be were there should be a rapid, or if the code was modal, it could be as simple as searching for any G1 Z that was at your clearance value. Where there's a will, there's a way.

[Sportbikeryder]

it could be as simple as searching for any G1 Z that was at your clearance value.

Good idea.
If an unusually large clearance value was used, this may be even more obvious to then pull out of the code.

[Sword]

The internet sort of blew up on this over the last week. Lars Christensen (creator of many great tutorial videos) talks with the VP and GM of Fusion360. The VP/GM admits that things should have been better explained and their reasoning for the changes sounds reasonable. As Lars states at the end, you can just edit your code for rapids and M6 tool changes as needed. Step file export has been added back in.

[wjh308]

The internet sort of blew up on this over the last week. Lars Christensen (creator of many great tutorial videos) talks with the VP and GM of Fusion360. The VP/GM admits that things should have been better explained and their reasoning for the changes sounds reasonable. As Lars states at the end, you can just edit your code for rapids and M6 tool changes as needed. Step file export has been added back in.

For what the software does I am happy to pay for it.

[slodat]

For what the software does I am happy to pay for it.

Here, too. I don't get all of the bickering online.

[Richards]

Have you looked at FreeCad from freecadweb.org?

[GBCues]

Hi Mike,
I took a look at the FreeCad website. I was interested in what CAM functions were included. I found references to 3D printing, LinuxCNC, and grbl, and how you might go about creating your own post processor, but no other posts built in.
Am I missing something?
CAM is one of the great values in Fusion360
I'm committed to Fusion for a year, but always interested in what other packages offer.
Thanks
Gary

[tkbot47]

My 2 cents. I've used a couple of separate CAD and CAM programs, and for the most part, they require annual maintenance fees to get upgrades and sometimes support and fixes. Looking at the non discounted annual subscription for Fusion 360, I can tell you that number compares pretty well with the annual maintenance/upgrade fees for any one of several separate CAD or CAM software packages. When you think that with paid Fusion 360, which is 3D parametric solid CAD, CAM (HSMWorks), FEA, Eagle electrical cad/3D/PC build/temp analysis, among other things, it is indeed a bargain compared to other packages. If all you are looking for is some quick and dirty CAD or CAM, there are other options, of course, but for a complete well supported package, it seems tough to beat.