Fusion 360

Other CAD CAM systems used by Denford machine users but not supported by Denford themselves.
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bpmsl
CNC Expert
CNC Expert
Posts: 145
Joined: Mon 16 Nov , 2009 10:00 am

Fusion 360

Post by bpmsl » Sat 28 Jul , 2018 16:34 pm

Hi Folks,
Given how widespread Fusion 360 is becoming in the student / hobby / startup space due to its free licences I thought it'd be good to have some where to chat on here.

The Denford milling posts can be downloaded by searching for denford here:-

https://cam.autodesk.com/hsmposts

Unfortunately there isn't a turning post that I can locate. I am working on a FANUC based post from Nottingham hack space but having issues with getting threading working:-

https://wiki.nottinghack.org.uk/wiki/Denford_Lathe

I think this might be the culmination of viewtopic.php?f=16&t=5534

If anyone has any experience with this please join in the conversation...

Cheers
Barry

TDIPower
CNC Guru
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Posts: 613
Joined: Tue 29 Apr , 2014 18:38 pm
Hardware/Software: Starturn 5 (sort of running, I will get this done!)
Lathe cam designer V1.11
Quickturn 2D Design
FANUC offline and online programs.
Microrouter Pro NS V5 (microstep)
VR2 and VR5
Boxford VMC260
Techsoft 2d Design tools V1 > V2
ProDesktop
Fusion 360
Deskproto

Re: Fusion 360

Post by TDIPower » Sun 29 Jul , 2018 19:14 pm

Lots of thoughts on this and issues I have faced with both lathecam designer and quickturn 2d.
I've experienced a lot of problems with both programs over speeds and feeds, trying to take cuts so large it stalls the chuck through to ignoring tooling data and trying to part bar to large dia resulting in collision.
Threading command on older machines not being the same on newer but newer software not giving the option for which type to use.
As I have both lathecam and quick turn versions I can produce files from both for comparison.

I'm currently running a starturn 5 on dos but hope to convert it to run on vr by changing the control to that on a novaturn. I use fusion a lot a t work so would love to help getting a post processor set up for it.

Pete

jeremydraper
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue 28 Aug , 2018 15:50 pm
Hardware/Software: Denford Triac
Quick Cam Pro
Vr Milling

Re: Fusion 360

Post by jeremydraper » Tue 18 Sep , 2018 22:57 pm

I have done some good milling using this fusion 360 software on my denford triac,
The post processor has only one quirk where it sends the vrmilling virtual machine table off the screen, but delete 1 line and its all good.
This is so far the easiest software outside of vr milling and quick cam pro to use and to communicate with my denford.
I

MadeForThat
CNC Apprentice
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Posts: 91
Joined: Mon 20 May , 2019 15:15 pm
Hardware/Software: Micromill 2000:
Nextstep-4 axis
Novaturn ns:
denstep card (from swap)-atc

Re: Fusion 360

Post by MadeForThat » Mon 17 Jun , 2019 18:43 pm

Im afraid you are going to have to excuse my ignorance, but maybe this will help other noobies(like myself) that would love to generate tool paths inside F360. As I understand, this post processor will allow F360 to generate a machine specific, string of gcode. My question would be this: so long as the tool is configured correctly in F360, and the origin is set to the point you wish to touch off on the part, then what does this post processor actually do for us? It seems to me that when you are setting up a tool, you will have an opportunity to tweak every variable of how the machine will move the tool. Again, total novice, trying to figure where this fits into our shop information flow

Thanks,
Tom

TDIPower
CNC Guru
CNC Guru
Posts: 613
Joined: Tue 29 Apr , 2014 18:38 pm
Hardware/Software: Starturn 5 (sort of running, I will get this done!)
Lathe cam designer V1.11
Quickturn 2D Design
FANUC offline and online programs.
Microrouter Pro NS V5 (microstep)
VR2 and VR5
Boxford VMC260
Techsoft 2d Design tools V1 > V2
ProDesktop
Fusion 360
Deskproto

Re: Fusion 360

Post by TDIPower » Mon 17 Jun , 2019 21:38 pm

The post processor takes all the info you set up and the drawing info and then works out the paths to take and as you say generates the list of G code for the machine to interpret and follow. This is where it gets harder, not all machines will behave or follow some G codes, some need specific lead in information or lead out information, so the post processor needs to use the correct codes for the machine.

An example of this is My lathe, it will not work with some codes when it comes to things like cutting threads. In the lists of G Codes you can see there are different ways of achieving the same task, I'm sure in the old Denford manuals that came with the machines they included a list of the codes the machines used.

Pete

theoldbamboo
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri 23 Aug , 2019 11:17 am
Hardware/Software: Turn270Pro,VMC1300,Virtual turn, Virtual Mill, Fusion360

Re: Fusion 360

Post by theoldbamboo » Fri 23 Aug , 2019 13:24 pm

This may be of some help when using fusion360 with a turn270.
we had problems getting the drill command to work with the hackspace version.

We found this Post Processor
https://github.com/dubstar-04/FusionDen ... vaturn.cps
this post seemed much closer to working on the Turn270. All we did was remove the G54 commands.

So now we can drill, bore and lathe from fusion360 without any weird workarounds.
Anyway, may be of use to someone struggling with the same- although as usual we cant guarantee it will works in all configs but seems good so far for us.
and may be a good starting point
Hope this helps.
Attachments
DenfordTurn270.txt
(40.69 KiB) Downloaded 631 times

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