Said g-code checker is partly implemented (mostly the things I cared about at the time) and is implemented in javascript precisely because it makes it shareable: https://vector76.github.io/gcode_tpgen/checker.html
I would say it’s stalled in the sense that I’m not likely to add more in the near future but anyone could fork it and extend it.
Sorry if any of this duplicates something already in this long thread…
I’ve been playing with engraving in F360 and discovered that some of corner cuts, when it moves x, y and z at the same time we’re violating z max cut speed of the MPCNC.
I believe @jeffeb3 suggested that setting the max speed in Marlin would be a possible work around. While this may work it started me on a path to understand the post processor and the F360 API that drives the post processor. In the process I also discovered Autodesk’s extension for VSCode specially for building and testing post processors.
I now have a post processor that understands its current position and where it is moving to. With this information I can understand the type of move being made. If these moves are vertical retractions or horizontal moves above a safe height (a parameter zSafe) I turn these back into rapids. This corrects for most rapids and make the GCode much cleaner and faster. Since Marlin’s handling of G0 rapids is hit and miss I output the G0s with explicit feedrates.
While I was in the code I’ve reviewed the G1 code and how it handled feedrate. I found if you were moving in x, y and z at the same time (like during an engrave corner cut or any 3D cut) the feedrate for z was greater then the MPCNC max. Nothing I did in F360 solved this, except limiting all feedrates to be limited by max z.
I’ve now added code that takes every G1 cut and projects the federate into its x, y and z component and then scales these not to exceed the axis’s max feedrate then recalculated the resulting G1 vector’s feedrate.
The result is that a G1 can move in x, y and z at the same time and have a high feedrate when z is changing only a little relative to x and y. It z is changing a lot relative to x and y, like a corner engrave cut, then the feedrate gets scaled more heavily so not to exceed z max. These calculation seem to work well.
Originally I had hoped to do a pull request to add these changes back to guffy’s post processor but when I started to use Autodesk’s VSCode extension it required all the code to be one file. From that point the changes just started to increase and I now plan to just put this up on GitHub as a fork of guffy’s.
I still have cleanup work to do. Probing or any commands where the post processor outputs gcode that changes x, y, z position currently happens without F360 knowing this which messes up F360’s understanding of current position. The F360 API does have calls to tell F360 about these changes - I just need to insert these in the correct places when commands like probing are added to the GCode.
I’m busy a work currently so my time is limited in finishing what was a Xmas project. The reality is it will be several weeks more to complete this. Once it’s ready I’ll post more info.
Very cool. I look forward to your release.
This seems great. There are some really good things in there.
Keep in mind, creating the code is the easy part of an open source project. Supporting users and dealing with issues and maintenance is the tricky part. I think Guffy has done a great job on the side of really maintaining it. I would strongly suggest trying to work with @guffy to see if there’s a way to absorb the lessons you’ve both learned into one place.
This is an excellent solution and if every CAM did this, we would have a lot more CAM programs compatible with Marlin. The Z speed is the biggest source of trouble.
I haven’t even used fusion cam. But I know there are a lot of fans of fusion, so I would be very happy to see it return to useful.
This sounds like some really great ideas for the post-processor. Definitely looking forward to your release 
Here is a post related to an updated Post Processor https://forum.v1e.com/t/problem-with-fusion-and-z-feedrate/21487/14?u=flyfisher604
???
I found the fix here:
But for professionals - 500$/yr isn’t THAT bad. But it’s not for me, I don’t make much on this at all.
IDK, I spend less than that on the whole computer (I buy a new one maybe every 3-4 years). If you were using it 40 hours/week it would be more reasonable. But I still don’t like spending that much on software. And software as a service just drives me nuts.
That’s like one MPCNC per year, for a piece of software 
We pay for Adobe licensing. Even with the teacher’s discount, I think it’s $33/month 
But between the wife and I, we use 4 of their apps, so it ends up worth it.
It’s a lot, by all means. But comparing to a friend of mine who bought a full Solidworks license, 500usd is quite affordable for his firm.
Boo!!!
Oh well, it was a short but fun ride with f360 hobby. I squirted out several designs in less than a year since I switched from free cad .18 to f360. I have always been averse to “subscription plans” and this probably won’t change that. Looks like my Cnc work will be paused for a while as I learn cam on free cad 0.19.
I’m using the free version of solidworks now.
I think I was a little imprecise with the language. The personal version is free, I was just suprised that I suddenly had to registrer anew. Nothing drastic has changed, but they are continuously tightening the rope…
Seems like they make you register it once a year. Has it been a year since you registered?
Agreed.
The ‘free’ registration only lasts 1 year. Each year you have to click a few buttons to renew the license.
That’s very likely! I guess I should try out FreeCAD, but my brain gets fried when dealing with these CAD tools. The little I now know in Fusion get’s me on my way. I’m not sure if it’s worth it getting into a new program.
No you had the correct words in there. I think my first cup of coffee had not settled in and I misread it. Whew… I need to stop scaring myself like that lol.
Hello. I have been trying to learn FreeCAD as well. It is a different animal than F360. It seems to be, in a more obvious way than F360, a database-driven CAD program. The fact that is a DB program, and you need to learn that side of it, is intimidating to me. In my younger days maybe I could wrap my brain around it. However, If I have to struggle to learn F360 or FreeCad, and with Fusion always changing their licenses, and having to renew each year… IDK, I think learning FreeCAD is the one to put my effort into. But then I am left to the YouTube tutorials. We’ll see.
Also, FreeCAD seems to be friendly with Python. I need to learn that as well. So, committing to FreeCAD, while a struggle, and learning the Python side of it too, has more benefits to me (Python is useful in a lot of Raspberry Pi, Blender and other automation systems) so the energy/time to learn this all is not just for CAD. Sort of two birds with one stone?
Idk to be honest when I used FC a lot I didn’t notice programming or databases getting in the way much. Maybe it was what I did with it, and I was just not touching those areas where these complications arise. I do remember being too dependent on the spreadsheet and having to use a lot of my math skills to draw with FC though, va f360. Honestly I wish I ran into complications when I was using FC… then I may have learned some python, which of course is very useful in this neck of the woods.
