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In this episode, Lars Christensen and myself talked about Fusion 360 and the features and benefits that it has for CNC router users. Lars has been with Autodesk for over 5 years now and is known around the world for his Fusion 360 tutorial videos on YouTube with over 100,000 subscribers.
In this episode we discuss:
- Using Fusion CAM for CNC Routers vs. Conventional Milling Machines
- Fusion 360’s unlimited use license for hobbyists and small businesses with under $100k/year in revenue
- Fusion 360 is based off of mechanical CAD and uses HSM Works for CAM which was purchased by Autodesk
- 90% of CAM operations that are required by CNC router users are found in the 2D CAM section including: 2D Adaptive Clearing, 2D Pocket and 2D Contour
- Lars discusses possible future plans for more CNC router-related content in his videos
- 4th axis capability within Fusion 360
- Fusion 360 post processors and the Autodesk Post Library
- Solidworks vs. Inventor vs. Fusion 360
- Fusion 360 is able to open Solidworks files due to the “Any CAD” capability
- Fusion 360 is cloud-based and has full support for the Mac operating system
- Discussion of Feeds and Speeds within Fusion 360
- Using Foam and cheap end mills when first learning
- Using good quality end mills once you become more proficient and the benefits they have
LINKS FROM EPISODE
Great podcast! So much of this applies to me and I’m sure many other hobbyists just starting out with CNC routing. Love the information about speeds and feeds near the end. It was just recently after busting too many of those 1/8″ bits on 6061 that I decided to just run testing lines to get the right setup. The advice here is right on for my situation.
I bought Fusion360 specifically for the CAM side. Having a lot of experience in CAD (dating back to AutoCAD 12) but none with CAM the learning curve was not bad at all. Love the CAM simulation – much clearer and well defined than a few of the competitive products out there and what I thought was going to be a lot longer process (yes, I did check out a few of Lars’ videos for help) turned into getting stuff made within a very short time. The only thing I don’t like about Fusion360 – the mouse options are too limiting. I use another CAD system which has a much better mouse setup for 3D modelling (L&R button instead of holding shift and wheel button) but that’s just preference. Thanks for the podcast!!