Hey, I have a reputation to uphold!
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So… Is there going to be glowforge support in fusion 360? I currently use it as my CAD/CAM for both of my CNCs & Plasma cutter. And was planning to use it for CAD for the Glowforge. Then use the web component to upload the DXF that I create in it. But the thread title has ‘CAM & GF Post Process’?
As far as I knew the Glowforge handles the CAM/PP with-in it’s own cloud? And IT would act as the CAM/PP for ‘traditional’ vector apps and the likes. F360 has a ‘database’ of pre-canned PP and has the option of customs ones. I had to do that to add 4th axis support for one of my CNCs.
Direct glowforge support in F360 would be interesting/handy.
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It would be really nice to be able to avoid Illustrator (and other terrible pieces of software) entirely when sending a drawing to the laser! I’m on the brink of being a Fusion 360 convert, this feature might seal the deal, for me at least.
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ya so I was doing a phantom sketch > DXF > inkscape convert scale 2.54 and it was always off by a pinch. with the post process (iff the looping checkboxes get added) and then boom direct svg and then send that into the glow cloud and then do the nesting in the glow ui
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Fewer steps in the workflow is usually a good thing. Unless it removes an important feature or two.
I have used Illustrator for a long time and find its features very useful, but it is mostly overkill for use with a Glowforge. IIRC, it was originally developed to create topographic maps, but then development efforts were redirected towards graphic design. It’s focus was on printed media for a while, and has adapted to becoming useful for web stuff too.
There are a few alternatives to Illustrator, as mentioned in the forums.
I do like the idea of going from Fusion360 to Glowforge setup that maintains the size of the original artwork.
No promises, but we’d love to find time to do it.
Our standard workflow right now for non-Illustrator is to export an SVG as a file, then drag-and-drop it into the Glowforge tab.
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any type of update on this as far as cam and loops ?
Thanks for the reminder, just reached back out to the CAM team to see if I can get an update on this. Will let you know what I find out.
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I just talked to the CAM team and I think this one will be a few months before it shows us but its top on the list. The team that works on this part of the product is from Denmark and they are on their yearly European sabbatical (yeah I want one too) so there is a slight delay in getting this in.
It will get in there soon so keep an eye out in the next few months.
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ya here in new England its 70 hours a week year round
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Interesting. I was in the process of creating a new PP for my CNC I just finished building for Fusion 360.
I was looking thru the ‘stock’ list and found this.
http://cam.autodesk.com/posts/post.php?name=glowforge
‘longDescription = “Generic post for Glowforge laser. The post will output the toolpath as SVG graphics which can then be uploaded directly to Glowforge.”;’
Spiffy.
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That’s very interesting. It looks like it was authored by Autodesk so I wonder if someone there had a beta, though I suppose it wouldn’t be necessary if the only output was an SVG file.
Come to think of it why bother with SVG output if GF will also support DXF. Is there something preferable about SVG compared to DXF?
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Not necessarily, It looks like the origin post possessor was for a Epilog laser. Thou I agree about using DXF, But @Dan has repeatedly said that they prefer SVG over anything else. At the end of the day- it does not matter what format get sent. As long as it dimensionally accurate it could be a potato format for all I care.
But the fact of using F360 to sent directly to the GF “Cloud” would be nice. A Lot of the stuff I make are assemblies that use different machines. The fact that all of the CAM info is in one ‘file’ is super appealing to me. Adding the GF into that fold would be epic for my current work flow.
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There’s been some talk in the Onshape forum recently about entities in imported DXF files not making proper basic shapes - say an imported square where the end points of adjacent lines do not connect. That makes it impossible to extrude the square into a cube, for example. Does anyone know if SVG does a better job of this?
At least one Autodesk/Fusion360 employee has ordered a Glowforge and is present on the forums. They may very well have put in a dev request for a glowforge-output function, and decided on it being SVG based on what had been said here.
i laughed loud enough to wake the dog.
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Be sure to convert your potato to SVG before uploading.
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Sounds like DXF input is still down the road a ways - do you still plan to develop for it at some point?
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Thanks - saw that quote after I posted the question.