Fusion360 to FreeCAD for CNC and CAD / CAM to LinuxCNC with the Path workbench

since Fusion 360 came out a few years ago I've been using it to draw parts for Machining on my CNC mill CNC lathe and 3D printer Fusion 360 is a really great program and I am very grateful to Autodesk for making it available to hobby users free of charge nevertheless there are several reasons why I am switching to another program the online constraint has often cost me nerves when I urgently needed apart but the Autodesk servers were down or my internet connection was unavailable the planning uncertainty that important features disappear in the free version or even the complete possibility of use is restricted as has often happened in the past and the subscription price is simply too high for hobby users who only use it occasionally the compulsion to use Windows I have Linux in my workshop and the family computer is also not suitable for Windows 11 due to Microsoft's unjustified Hardware requirements freecad doesn't have any of these disadvantages which is why I wanted to try it out I haven't only heard good things about freecad in the past so I was curious to see how it would work for my Sterling engine I need electrodes to erode tantalum counter masses this was an ideal first project for freecad to create tool paths for the CNC milling machine with Linux CNC using the pathw workbench so I installed freecad version 0.211 and was very surprised how easy the workflow was when designing with freecat everything worked similar to fusion with a difference in the little things while Fusion always suggested the simplest and most desired solution and everything worked very intuitively fread did not help you hear and everything had to be determined precisely yourself there are a few stumbling blocks here but with a little practice they will certainly disappear quickly for example I sometimes find it a little difficult to recognize which dependencies are missing and what effects they might have also the selection of surfaces from a sketch for further editing is not so intuitive and sometimes only possible with difficulty but all in all the construction part is very good and I was able to draw everything I wanted even if sometimes only via detours so for me freecat is a fully-fledged replacement for Fusion for design technical drawings and 3D printing and apart from a few minor points I can recommend it without reservation next I wanted to use the path workbench to generate the gcode for my CNC milling machine this also worked surprisingly smoothly and apart from a few minor problems I was able to create the required tool paths very quickly in some cases I even found this clearer than infusion which is also due to the much smaller number of settings for example I had problems with the definition of the workpiece 0 point I don't know whether it's a bug or a feature or whether I'm simply doing it wrong I also have to get used to a few peculiarities for example the Adaptive job composes the curved paths from straight lines with G1 which of course has to be smoothed by an additional finishing pass with G2 G3 a gcode file must then be created from the jobs using the post processor here too there is a very wide selection from many CNC controls I need the post processor for Linux CNC the output G-Code now had to prove its suitability on the milling machine when plunging into the workpiece with a helix I selected the feed rate much too small it's very slow I'll pay more attention next time I really like like the Adaptive job you don't even notice that the circular arcs are made up of straight lines I didn't pay attention to the Milling Direction when finishing the inside the surface quality would have been a bit better if I had used a climb cut in general I could have used a more Cut Rate but it was also my first attempt with freead so I was a bit more careful overall I am very SA ified with the pathw workbench for creating tool paths there aren't quite as many setting options as with Fusion but everything you need is there the only thing I really miss is the ability to create tool paths for the lathe the lib lathe workbench is still in the experimental Alpha stage when I have some time I will try it out until then I will continue to generate my Turning Point Parts with Native cam or Fusion in conclusion I can say that I am very positively surprised by freecad after playing around for two long afternoons I am already quite familiar with freecad and have produced my electrodes for eroding without any major problems I will definitely continue to use freead the many different workbenches still offer a lot of possibilities that I would like to try out when the libl workbench is finished I can uninstall fusion and have found a fully fledged replacement for it in freead thanks for watching and as always I am very happy for any comments and suggestions

Channel: My engines

Views: 3,274

Keywords: Freecad, Fusion360, cad, cam, path workbench, diy cnc, Linuxcnc, Freecad CNC, cnc, Freecad path, stirling, stirling engine, micro chp, chp, diy engine, duiy build engine, diy energy, mach3, mach4, mach 3, mach 4, 3d print, 3d printing

Id: f3A45thAmQ4

Length: 7min 18sec (438 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 21 2024