Fusion 360 to Glowforge workflow

Yeah, I mix and match enough that I keep the conversion factor on my desktop for when I mess up and mix them incorrectly.

It is 25.4 btw.

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I expect the small extra might be due to the line width.

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That’s an interesting point. I’m not setting a line width in Fusion or Inkscape. I take the default.

It will be interesting to see what the GF does with the line thickness. I assume the line is simply what the laser will cut on…So when my object says it is 3" will it be smaller when cut due to line thickness?

I think if your original shape was 60mm then that will be where the centre of the outline is. Looks like IncScape includes the line width, so it reports it a bit bigger but hasn’t actually changed the size.

Glowforge will cut on the centre of the line I think so you will get 60mm minus the kerf, which is very small. Eventually GlowForge is supposed to compensate for the kerf.

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The vector path runs right down the center of the line, unless you set it to be on the outside or inside of a thicker line.

(Going to be discussed in the tutorials I’m working on.)

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I sense a book in the works…

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Unfortunately…yep! There’s a lot to cover, and trying to keep it generic enough without being overwhelming is stretching my ‘splainin’ abilities somewhat. :smile:

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@Jules has the BEST tutorials!! I’ve been leveraging them for a few years now on the 3D printing side!! I was happy to see you are part of the GF community when I bought mine/joined!!

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Thanks Sal! That’s a most kind thing to say! ROFL!

Just got offered another write-up job over on the 3D printer side and turned it down this morning… too much going on right now to take it.

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Where are your 3d printer tutorials? They must be good if people come to my post to brag on them. :wink:

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They’re poaching her attention from the real work to be done - on your stuff right? :grinning:

Chuckle! Don’t know how good they are…they’ve just been viewed a lot since there hadn’t been anything written up on it at the time…the PETG write-up has over 60,000 hits and that was on a semi-private forum.

If you’re not into 3D printing though…it would be deadly dull reading.

ROFL! :wink:

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Ok —I’m definitely into 3D printing and always looking to improve, so where might I find them? :wink:

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Now I must know! PETG is my favorite filament.

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Seriously? You guys are crazy… :smile:

Okay, remember you asked for it…if you want something more general there’s a link underneath the PETG write-up to one of the Beginner’s Guides for getting started with the M2 as well…these were pretty specific to the M2, I’m not sure how much useful information you’ll get out of them.

Wait a minute…you might need to join the forum to see those, let me UL the originals.

Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started with the MakerGear M2.pdf (1.1 MB)

Print Settings for PETG.pdf (317.1 KB)

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This is a great resource - thank you!

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Doing some experiments with Fusion 360 DXF to Inkscape to Glowforge. Found that everything was getting shrunk down ~6.7%, even though I always work in mm when possible. Read that help dialog under DXF import (included above from scampa123) that mentioned something about 90 dpi, realized that 96/90 is 1.06666… I don’t know why this matters when doing a DXF import, but it does for whatever reason.

Did a little googling, saw that this was changed, upgraded to Inkscape 0.92.2 and now the dialog now says SVG is 96 dpi. Now all the dimensions are carried through faithfully all the way through the workflow.

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That explains why my template I made on the weekend was screwy. Thanks for that info.

I made a quick 1/4" BB ply template to trace some lines on some wood I was working in the shop. The Wood is 1.25" by 3’ so not really laserable. So I had to shape it the fun way. The template was 2.375 or 2.25" wide when I wanted it 2.5". I dickered it a tad on the work piece, so all worked out in the end.

Also along those lines, in a SolidWorks guy. Found this for SolidWorks to inkscape:
http://forembed.com/solidworks-to-inkscape-for-laser-cutting.html

Not sure if that helps for you fusion guys.