CNC newbie extreme frustration with Luban

Snapmaker 2.0 (3-in-1)
1

I am a new owner of an A350. Actually took delivery of it almost a year ago but job overload and some family medical issues have kept me from really trying to do much with it until now.

Trying to use it for CNC for what seems like should be an exceptionally simple and easy task:

creating a flat plastic ring, approximately 191.5mm outside diameter and 170mm inside diameter, out of flat 1/4 inch black Lexan sheet, as a spacer to fit around a speaker grille. No other details. Basically just cut a flat donut out of a sheet of flat plastic.

This seems like it should be easy but I seem to be beating my head against the wall with Luban.

I have lots of technical interests and aptitudes, people usually ask me to help them figure things out, so this can’t just be me.

I want to make this simple part without having to become a CAD design guru up front, so I tried to look into simple CAD tools and techniques. I’ll get deeper into CAD at some later point when I need more capability.

Settled on Inventables’ Easel CAD to start.

Made the dimensional file, of diameters and thickness.

Used Easel’s function to export to a .ZIP, which, after being exported as a zip, then unzipped, is supposed to, and seems to, include an .SVG version of the design.

So then I open Luban. I bring the .SVG into Luban.

The 2d depiction of the part that I drew in Easel (with a 7mm thickness) shows up on the screen in Luban.

I set the work dimensions and try to generate gcode but I end up dead-ended. I pick “vector” and then try to go to “Generate G code and Preview” but the “Generate G code and Preview” is greyed out, and, when I hover he cursor over it, it shows a circle with a slash through it.

I have read and re-read this until I want to scream

That set of “instructions” says to watch this video, for how to generate the G code

I have watched, and re-watched, that video until I want to scream and throw things.

That video is TERRIBLE. Spiffy, yes. Instructional, NO.

it whips through some version of the software that is from over a year ago, and doesn’t match the user interface in my (updated, current) Luban, and is all about pulling up someone else’s design, and it blazes through things so fast that it’s really impossible to follow, let alone absorb and comprehend.

Again, that video is TERRIBLE. It’s marketing puff, not instructions. Especially not instructions for anyone who is entirely new to trying to do CNC work of their own designs. It may make sense if you already know how to do it, but is completely ridiculous for someone new trying to learn how to do it. And it doesn’t bear much resemblance to the screens I am seeing in the Luban which I have recently updated.

The A350 seems like a very well thought through machine. I am eager to learn to use it, for all of its functions, and I have a range of interests for which I can see my using it for many things.

Luban CNC, especially without better instructions, seems like complete and total crippleware for CNC. It’s sending me into some kind of dead end, where I can’t generate gcode from a very simple .SVG, and with the total shortage of step-by-step instructions, I can’t even tell what kind of dead-end I am in, or what I could or should do or try differently, to get out of this dead end.

I’ve scoured Youtube but not found anything that gives me any sense of why I am hitting the dead-end that I am.

Thanks in advance for suggestions

2

It is. You’ll notice a number of the more advanced users here recommending Fusion 360 instead.

3

Sadly the power of Fusion 360 does not seem to help very much when the base accuracy of the machine is so appalling…

While I have been fairly optimistic and confident so far… that is waning after observing some of the results…

Pug

4

What problems are you having? Because I’ve found mine to be extremely consistent for cnc. Can’t push it too hard or fast though.

-S

5

3DP is not to bad, I designed a coin case and printed fixtures for top and bottom to hold in the semi finished work piece with a fairly loose 0.2 extrusion.

The actual hardwood carved parts after fairly conservative adaptive clearing & stepping and then a very fine finish pass produced a rubbish dimensional part. (eg, close to +/- 1mm on several dia circa 100mm)

Can I manipulate this machine to actually CNC vs ‘carve’?.. Probably… but I might save energy and use it to build something better! So win/win!?

This machine lacks standards and calibration (which is sort of fine (although a few issues of safety come to mind)… )

Lastly, I am not actually sour. And I’m OK with my machine purchase. SM seems to be opening some community input after the trainwreck update but it may serve them better in the longer term to engage with standards and tolerance driven engineers to ensure their specifications are delivered.

Pug

6

I must say I can actually get very good accuracy with the cnc function. As most things I have done are functional parts and mostly using mdf I can get very accurate and well fitting parts.

It takes some getting to know the machine and I am using fusion for cnc gcode generation and can’t complain. Some jobs take over 10hours, but it does get me to the results I want.

7

Thanks for the comiseration, but is there really no “first rung on the ladder” before something like Fusion 360 if I want to try to design and make simple CNC parts using my Snapmaker 2.0 A350?

I learn this kind of thing best in a hands-on step-by-step way so trying to dive full-on into absorbing even the basics of Fusion 360, before I can crank out a simple flat part, is extraordinarily frustrating

8

Personally I use fusion only for the CAM part, i.e. generating the tool paths. I don’t do my designs in Fusion.

I often use OpenScad, which is great if you have a background in software development. A lot of people use tinkercad which is great as well and a lot easier to get started with.

Once the design is done you can import it into fusion and use that to generate the tool paths.

9

2nd the Tinkercad.
Even though I now know Fusion when I need to do something quick and simple (and even not so simple) I still use Tinkercad. It’s interface is super easy to learn.

Easel by Inventables is really great for making signs, doing v-carving, more 2.5d stuff. Really great preview of what it’s going to do. Unfortunately the free version has lost some of the functionality it used to have, but sometimes it’s worth spending $20 for a month of it as needed.

-S

10

Thanks for the continued suggestions.

Easel looks like a really good fit for my current skill levels and my current project.

Where I am dead-ended is that Easel doesn’t seem to have the option to choose Snapmaker as a machine, or to export a design in a file that I can bring into Snapmaker’s Luban- I tried getting an SVG out of Easel via the download of a .zip out of Easel, and Luban gets as far as showing a 2d depiction of my design from out of Easel, but then Luban won’t let me generate Gcode from it

Thanks

11

You can’t control your SM machine from Easel, but you can download the g-code. (not in the most logical place)

Screen Shot 2022-01-02 at 7.42.25 PM
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Make sure you set spindle speed to automatic and 12000 rpm.
File type needs to be .cnc. (i think it automatically saves as .gcode)
Need to save roughing and detail separately but not like you don’t have to do that with Fusion .
The one thing to be aware of is that the work origin gets set as lower left. So be careful to be aware of that before running boundary.

-S

12

Thanks for the continued suggestions.

I need some kind of more basic intro.

I’d gladly settle for either Luban somehow ingesting my SVG from Easel in a way that Luban would then itself (Luban) generate the gcode. I can’t understand how Luban is managing to see and show my SVG and its dimensions, as designed, in Easel, but Luban won’t proceed to generate the gcode

13

If anyone, who is further up the learning curve than I am, is willing to please take a look at my .SVG from out of Easel, to see if it has any defects that would cause Luban to “grey out” and block the step at which I would generate gcode

(by the way, the image and dimensions show correctly in Luban, it’s just that Luban grays out and blocks the step at which I would generate gcode)

14

It really doesn’t get much more simple than Easel. You should be able to do the pro trial for a week or more.

There are some strange things that sometimes happen to svg files when imported to Luban. Like sometimes you need to convert text to paths. And you need to save as a simple svg. Not sure how easel saves svgs. You can create svg files more easily in any graphics program that supports vector. Inkscape is free.

-S