Not sure if anybody is able to point me in the right direction but I have my LR3 partially assembled and I’m in the process of building a temporary table for it to sit on, I have a model made in the free version of sketchup online and I’m wondering what’s the best way to achieve what I’m trying to do.
I want to make a speaker cabinet, each panel cutout with holding tabs but also recesses with the correct depths where they are needed, I also have some angles on the edges of a few panels I would also like to cut with the cnc, I have made sure to orient the panels where the angles are not going under themselves. I only have a 3d model currently and have layed each panel I need cutout onto a 1220mm x 2440mm board.
I am running skr pro, and currently only have estlcam downloaded, would an STL exported from sketchup be sufficient or do I need to upgrade so I can export .dxf, or do I need to make a 2d vector drawing from scratch.
Many thanks, Ash
Won’t let me upload images to this as I’m a new user but I can send pictures another way if you need to visualise what I need to do
From the description of what you are trying to make it sounds like it would be a lot easier to do this in 2D in Estlcam. I’m sure it would be possible to achieve the same result in 3D but if you are getting started I think 2D would be a lot better way to start.
Also, if this is your first cut its usually recommended to try your cut either in the air or on pink foam. Much cheaper and safer if there are any issues.
To be honest I have never used an STL in Estlcam so I cannot say one way or another. I would imagine it would be relatively quick to whip up a 2D drawing and import that. If I was in your shoes thats the way I would go for sure.
When you open an STL file in EstlCAM, it gives you the option to convert it to a 2D model. Then it just cuts along the toolpaths that you select to the depth that you specify.
I use the free version of Fusion, and it only lets me export as STL, so I have done this a bunch of times.
(EstlCAM version 12 for sure, I think the same for V11)
For your first few projects, I recommend sticking to contour cutting (i.e. cutting all the way through the material). Angle cuts, recesses and the like are highly suspectable to problems if the plane of travel of the router is not absolutely parallel to surface of the spoil board. Any small deviation will be noticed in the fit and finish of your finished piece. Typically, you make them parallel by surfacing the spoil board, but it is beneficial to put in a chunk of hours with your machine before doing the surfacing.
P.S. If your angle cuts can be done with a chamfer bit, then you can cut them in 2D without resorting to STLs and 3D cutting.
You can export faces from fusion 360 as DXF using a plugin made by Shaper Origin. I don’t remember precisely where I found it/what it was named - but the point of the plugin was that you could take all the necessary faces and export them as separate DXFs and then easily setup cutting in estlCAM. Of course - you could also use fusions post processors for the task, but I’ve sticked to estlCAM because ease of use and being comfortable with it.
One of the Fusion 360 updates killed my Shaper Origin plugin. I don’t know if there is an update. I never looked. There is an alternative solution. You can right mouse click on sketch in Fusion 360 and save it as a DXF. I use this all the time for laser cutting. Typically I use a new sketch and project the geometry (either from another sketch or from the 3D model) to that sketch so I only export the lines I want to use.
