CNC Vector Maching disaster

I have been trying to get a simple bit of CNC milling design from my TurboCAD software to Luban and on to my SM2 350. I have tried .svg, .stl, and .dxf.
The .svg format seems to be the only one that brings any sensible info across.
but the depth info is not there, at least Luban ignores it and asks for a depth to be set. Also there seems to be no way of getting a decent vector cutting with the areas cleared out. It is an 8mm thick 100mm x100mm block of dense foam. the large complex cut out is 6mm deep and the ring cutout is 5mm deep.

SVG is only 2D, so there would be no depth information. As others have mentioned, you’ll likely need to use Fusion to generate the desired CAM output you’re looking for.

Maybe you could have two different jobs? One to mill the 6mm deep areas, and a 2nd job to mill the 5mm area?

Yes. I actually do that. I do my design in Illustrator, and make one SVG per depth. The trick with Luban is aligning the files. As Luban does not respect the dimensions of the imported SVG. So you have to scale and position the files manually.

Is there any other choice fusion 360? is a way out of my league on price. I need something I can buy and use without an annual license fee.

You can use free hobby license as long as its for personal non-commercial use. But there is a pretty steep learning curve.

I paid for an annual license last year (thinking I’d get local storage) but alas its all cloud based. I never used ANY of the additional paid features.

How do I locate the free hobby version? I can probably work my way into a new CAD system, I started away back in 1983 with HP Draft, then ME10, ME30 and Solid Designer I used all these products as a designer and also designed and ran training course on all these products within HP. So finding my way around a new CAD system does not hold any terrors with me. What I am constantly battling with is the stupid way PCs work. All my CAD work at HP was based on nice logical UNIX machines.

They hide it pretty well.
Go down to the bottom of the page:

-S

FreeCAD is also an option, but like most open-source software, it’s going to be less polished and more temperamental than a commercial product. Mind you, you can put it on a nice, logical Linux machine, so there’s that. :wink:

More people here use Fusion 360, though, so it’s easier to get help for.

OK I now have the hobby version of Fusion 369 and have recreated my model there in the design mode then went to the manufacturing mode and set up a tool and use the milling flat pick to get a tool path that cuts my pockets. a bit of trial and error but it was fairly easy. It took me a liitle while to get the hang of the slice command in the design mode to get the non circular parts of my pockets but I got there in the end.
Now I am stuck, how do I get my machine path from fusion 360 to the SM2. I could start experimenting with all the file export commands and choices, but maybe somebody can save me going through that bit of the learning curve.

By the way I did have to resort to using the touch face command to select the upper face of the stock to prevent it trying to machine that face.

Manufacture > Actions > Process will turn out gcode.

Have you gone through: