My Newb Plasma Table Attempted Build

I know I read 'somewhere' within the forum here that with plasmac one could use inkscape to output the gcode minus any Z axis stuff (stating plasmac takes over the Z axis movement). Was that Tom?

Pat

it's been a while since i messed around with fusion 360 on the laser but you can take a body from your drawings and create a rectangular pattern in as may rows and columns as you want with what ever spacing you want. it even has a tabs function in case you need to manage slugs from kicking up as well as a tool table for comp for a beam width.the other software i have not worked with.

Its taken me a good while to get my head around Sheetcam. Thre are lots of hidden gems. One thing that annoyed me that it seemed to have a mind of its own about cut order. So last full nest on 2mm I overrode it and it took for ages for me to set the order of each piece. So when I cut it I had a lot of warpage so I got to learn what the Sheetcam setting "Minimise for thermal distortion" really meant. Anyway, Les from sheetcam is a good guy and has contributed a bit of code to Linuxcnc and has always provided me with awesome support.

machinedude wrote:

it's been a while since i messed around with fusion 360 on the laser but you can take a body from your drawings and create a rectangular pattern in as may rows and columns as you want with what ever spacing you want. it even has a tabs function in case you need to manage slugs from kicking up as well as a tool table for comp for a beam width.the other software i have not worked with.

I was messing around in 360 last night with some dxf files I already made a couple of years ago. Autocad had features that you could nest with, although since I was using a vendor for cut work I didn't have much need for it. Fusion 360 should be even better. I like the idea of handling the entire workflow within one platform.

I don't yet understand all of this post processor stuff. I couldn't make out which one to use in 360 to write the gcode with on that simple part to test it out. I saw a Hypertherm Jet PP listed, but after looking at it I honestly don't know if it's even necessary with plasmac (Fusion won't generate the gcode without a PP selected from what I can tell).

Pat

tommylight wrote:

Yes and yes.
Inkscape is quite good at it, except it lacks a bit on the nesting part, but that can also be solved using groups, to a certain extent. And i think PlasmaC does remove the Z stuff.

I'm gonna give it a go Tom, thanks. I've never used Inkscape, but it looks pretty cool for making signs and I'm sure it's super easy for 2D stuff as well. If I ever get busy enough to need good nesting, I might be inclined to move into Sheetcam.

Pat

rodw wrote:

Its taken me a good while to get my head around Sheetcam. Thre are lots of hidden gems. One thing that annoyed me that it seemed to have a mind of its own about cut order. So last full nest on 2mm I overrode it and it took for ages for me to set the order of each piece. So when I cut it I had a lot of warpage so I got to learn what the Sheetcam setting "Minimise for thermal distortion" really meant. Anyway, Les from sheetcam is a good guy and has contributed a bit of code to Linuxcnc and has always provided me with awesome support.

I've watched many of the Arclight Dynamics tutorial vids on using Sheetcam. Looks like a really sweet bit of software. If I get to the point that I need good nesting features it's at the top of my list.

Pat

you can actually take one close to what you want and alter it to do what you want to some degree. you just have to open the post process up in notepad ++ to edit the post processor.

phillc54 wrote:

There is a Fusion360 PP here. forum.linuxcnc.org/plasmac/38438-plasmac-post-processors#159042

I gave that PP a try yesterday. It was returning some weird error on hole radii not being equal at start and end. I didn't post anything about it over in that thread yet, because I think it may be the underlying dxf file itself. I made the design in Solidworks and exported as dxf, and sometimes Solidworks has had a tendency to muck things up a bit when doing so. I'll redesign it from scratch in Fusion and see what happens.

Thanks for the lead!

Pat