I will only be using it for milling, but because one day I might add a laser too, I checked the cutting option too. What I am not sure of is the “Max Feedrate”.
Now reading the forum it shows that this depends on the machine itself. I am not interested in pushing the machine to the maximum (yet) but would like to use the generic values for now. The V1 CNC config shows a max of 50mm/second, so I assume I can add here 3000mm/minute as generic value?
Hi Oliver, Thanks for the write up. I am curious if you figured this out. Any additional tips? Although more complicated, I would prefer to go the Fusion 360 route as well. My LowRider build is almost complete. It’s my first CNC that I’ve owned (although I’ve used a Tormach and a ShopBot at a maker space about 15 years ago).
My PC laptop is really under powered, so I do all my design work on my rockin’ fast MacBook Pro. I would prefer to stay in the Mac ecosystem for the entire workflow. I already pay for a Fusion 360 license, so I also don’t want to buy another piece of software (especially for a PC that I don’t want to use).
When I first started using my MPCNC, I had zero experience with CNC tools. Fusion 360 was my tool of choice for modeling for 3D printing, so I wanted it for my CNC jobs as well. For an MPCNC, a Fusion 360 machine definition is not required. In fact, I somehow missed them when I first started using my machine, and to this day don’t have one. It is possible that defining one would result in more accurate machining time estimates, but I doubt it makes any difference in the g-code generated.
You do need a Fusion 360 postprocessor that takes your toolpaths and generates g-code for your Lowrider. The link to the latest one is in this post, and it should work for the Mac.
In terms of staying with the Mac, the piece of the puzzle you are missing is the g-code sender that takes the file produced by the Fusion 360 postprocessor and delivers it to your Lowrider control board. If you are comfortable with running your jobs from a SD card, just save your file to a card, and you are done. If you want to send your jobs via USB or even wireless, you have more work to do. Ryan documents Repetier-Host as a recommended g-code sender (over USB). They have a Mac version, though I have seen some issues on the forum with using the Mac version.
As for your under powered PC laptop, g-code sending is a lightweight task. The laptop could be a shop machine for setting up and running your jobs.
I must confess I haven’t had the time to continue this quest:)
My CNC work is mostly doing the same jobs over and over so for now Estlcam works fine… however in time I still want to move to f360 instead of exporting it to some other tool so I could do some more advanced cuts in 1 step.
I did set up a cloud based definition so I can swap between pc & Mac, but like Robert mentioned the definition seems not to be a real requirement.
I also started to create a cloud based tool library, and ran some tests but, still need to create my first Gcode in Fusion.
So my main tip would be to create your own cloud libraries to easily switch between devices.
Oh, and I am that one guy that still copies gcode to an sd and puts that in the CNC
)
I run the code directly from the PC in the shop, using Estlcam as PP.