For those looking for an alternative to Fusion 360. I use Solidworks and MeshCam. Not going to pay annually for Fusion for the rest of my life, plus I prefer my 2014 Solidworks without ongoing costs.
Took awhile but I finally found if I save the GCode as TurboCNC V3 mm in MeshCam the GCode files are formatted so Marlin is happy enough with the output.
Did need to add a command to turn on the spindle “M3 P100” to the top of the GCode. I deleted the entries before the first move in the MeshCam file and copied the " Header" entries from a fusion GCode file. It would be good if some guidance to post processing would be provided. Maybe someone more familiar could figure out what the Fusion post processor is doing.
Looks like this:
;Meshcam-test-grb-Rev1
;Cut Acrylic Capo Test mulitpass 1.5tool
;Machine
;vendor: Snapmaker
;description: Generic Snapmaker Marlin v20180725
M3 P100
G4 S2
G21
G90
Doesn’t seem to matter what is in the commented out lines.
One odd thing, running the boundary ck prior to printing causes the A350 to crash.
I too use Solidworks. I am very interested in any tutorials or information that would allow me to create properly formatted g-code from Solidworks CAM.
What feature are you missing in Fusion that would require you to use the paid version version and not the free version? (Assuming you’re not using it professionally)
There have been some discussions about Fusion 360 so far, but it seems that the free version functionalities are still sufficient. (there are some threads about that already in the forum)
We need some guidance. The guy at MeshCAM told me he didn’t want to do a post processor for Marlin because his experience trying to create one in the past was bad.
I got lucky and found someone who had gone through all of the post processors and found one that worked but not perfect. I just need to add spindle command to get the gcode to run coming out of MeshCam. And suspect I may find other issues over time. I don’t have Solidworks CAM so I don’t know if you have an equivalent option in Solidworks to the TurboCNC V3 mm post processor in MeshCam. No matter with Autocad slowly making Fusion a pay for product we need help with Marlin and post processing. In my A350 it says it is CNC is alpha software in Luban. Couldn’t agree more. Need some effort put to the CNC option. Fusion isn’t good enough as the only choice. Marlin isn’t used for CNC enough to be an option in most programs. Not sure what would be a good path to follow, maybe create a postprocessor that could take something popular like Mach3 code and process it into Marlin code.
4th axis would be good. (but right now I would prefer if the first three would arrive at my doorstep )
@staff: Maybe it can be a suggestion to try and see if you can get a partnership with the producer of meshcam (or other good software, but I did hear good things about meshcam). Negotiate a deal with them that snapmaker users get a discount for their software and you provide the post-processor.
Snapmaker gets a potential good software tool and Meshcam gets over 10k potential new customers.
The issue with Fusion is I don’t want to learn Fusion if I have Solidworks or you name the any other design product. The other issue is I am doing a prototype for a possible commercial product. Isn’t the whole maker ideal to be moving ideas to commercial products? The day they make Fusion CAM a pay for product Fusion is no longer an option for many. Real price for Fusion without discounts is $500 a month or near there so $3K a year. Thing crashes for me non-stop. Haven’t checked but SolidWorks might be competitively priced if I have to pay for Fusion. I know Solidworks better than Fusion and if I want to move my skill set to business I should go with Solidworks or other professional packages so my time and effort in the CAD/CAM learning process goes with me. This industry is killing off the maker community especially if the makers are unwilling to cheat the software license trying to make something to make this a better world. Shouldn’t this be a case where the tools be given away to the young so they can grow-up and make the future, become part of the economy, pay for licensed professional products. If I invest time the only non-replaceable thing out there in Fusion, I better be prepared to pay $3K a year for it. It is clear the features and acceptable use are a moving target. Now I don’t excuse Solidworks they should do more. I just happen to have a perfectly good 2014 copy of Solidworks so Solidworks is my choice.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love a free alternative to Fusion, especially since it cannot do 4th axis - a real problem for me since that was one of the reasons I got this machine.
As I understand, Solidworks is $3995 + $1295/year. Commercially that’s fine. For a hobbyist like myself that’s not. So that’s out of the questions.
Fusion360’s $495 a year is also out of the question for me. I’m not quite sure where you got $500/month, is that for the advanced machining modules? I know there’s lots of expensive add ons that are equally out of the question for hobbyists.
You could try estlcam… don’t know if it works with SM2 but I know other gcode cncs work well with it… it has a free trial and costs 60 for a permanent license… also there is carbide create… thats what shapoko machines run on and I hear it is free and quite good.
So while looking up estlcam, I came across something interesting:
Many hobby cnc mills, like the snapmaker, substitute the A rotary axis instead of Y. I think that’s what they will do here as well, so instead of X Y Z axes, it’ll be A X Z.
Does that mean fusion360 will allow that as a 3 axis machine?? I somehow doubt that, but hey, I can dream. EDIT: Looks like rotary toolpaths are only available in the Manufacturing Extensions $1500/yr subscription
I also doubt the snapmaker will allow full 4 axis simultaneous milling, that sounds too ambitious.
I wonder there are 2 open channels for add-on’s seems like running a 4th axis just needs power and control. Post processor I imagine a bigger issue than . never currently, never used 4th. axis so I don’t know.
Exactly the hardware is no problem but accurately controlling that hardware is not… and SM has a hard time programing basic things… like a wifi marlin console…
i did a CC test on my SM1 after i got it, the “Path workbench” GCode worked back then, didnt investigate on SN2 compatibility or if 4th axis stuff works, reading thro0ught your link currently, sounds interesting
Alternative to fuison is Solidworks and Free 2.5 axis CAM HsmWorks for SOLIDWORKS, bat Solidworks is not free. Postporcesor is the same like for fusion.
Postprocesor:
HsmWorks:
HsmWorks was originally an add-on for SolidWorks, but it was recently purchased by autodesk and integrated into its products.
I just got my Snapmaker A350 up and running today. Was a struggle until I read the above post - THANK YOU! I hate most of the CAD programs out there and in general these desktop CNCs are not very Mac-friendly. Fusion360 will limp along here with our slow Internet connection - and then freeze. I discovered a great program this last summer called ShapR3D that runs on an iPod and love it. In terms of its user-friendliness it seems that even a 65 year old person such as myself can do wonders with it. The bridge between it and the Snapmaker is Meshcam. No other programs are needed and one can get onto designing and producing items quickly, rather than face a long and steep learning curve.
In terms of the 4th axis - this will be a true 4th axis, not a rearrangement of 3. All the Grbl controller operated machines are limited to 3 but the proprietary Snapmaker unit is set up for 5 actually. According to Tracy at Snapmaker the 4th axis (complete with a Sherline 3 jaw chuck I think) will be out in a few months for about $599 (rough estimate).
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