Converting 2D AutoCAD drawings into CAM files

[rj]

Is it Possible...

Hello All,

rj here. I am entirely new to this forum as well as CNC machine work. I just pre-ordered a carve king machine and am trying to get some fundamentals sorted out in order to make use of the machine once it arrives.

I trained as a machinist for 3 years just before CNC became well established but recognized that I was did not have the right mentality for work as a machinist and moved on to work in electronics. I understand about cutter speed and feed rate and those sort of maching standards. I was also able to pickup a lot of drafting skills along the way and I'm fluent in 2D AutoCAD. However, I know little about anything 3D. Any suggestions for converting my 2D AutoCAD files into useable CAM files?

It seems like Fusion 360 or Easel are the obvious choices to create the drawings and files I need to operate the CNC machine. I will admit I was a little disappointed to see both are web based. I have pretty slow internet where I am and web based software might be problematic -- has anyone had issues with a slow internet provider interfering with the CAM machine operations?

I downloaded the interface for the Fusion 360 and I started the program and quickly recognized that most of it looks foreign to me. Any suggestions for a tutorial?

I am going to setup easel next and see if things are a little more obvious.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

thanks,

rj

[Derek the Admin]

Fusion 360 will reside on your hard drive. At the shop I have a good connection but at the house I have an absolute trash mobile connection that might as well be dial up, but I'm able to work in Fusion just fine from there. You can work in Fusion in offline mode. It will save things for you in the cloud.

As far as a tutorial, the resources page at www.millrightcnc.com/resources has a pdf tutorial that well serve as a decent primer. My advise would be to stick with Fusion. Easel is more approachable, but in my opinion it leaves so much to be desired compared to fusion.

You can actually just import your 2d files as a DXF into fusion. You can extrude them into 3d files (I prefer this approach), but you can also take the sketches to CAM and do some operations from there. It's pretty simple though once you have the sketch in to make it a 3d model. You just right click on the sketch and click extrude. It will make your sketch a 3d model with whatever thickness you specify. Then the CAM is easier once it's a 3d model.

Also, check out NYC CNC on youtube. He runs a machine shop and has a relationship with Autodesk I believe. He has a ton of fusion tutorials. He was in my neck of the woods and I had dinner with him once. He's extremely knowledgeable.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7bu4JuPC_8
www.youtube.com/watch?v=txmsxUPegAM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hd348CNQ1Q

Some of us stuff is more targeted to a mill holding stuff in a vise, but it all translates pretty well.

[Derek the Admin]

Also, FYI: In one of those videos he talks about how you "have to set up a tool library." True for him on on the type of machines he use that have things like automatic tool changers or tool holders with offsets. Not so much true for us. I tend to set up tools, but for most work you can use the tools they already have in library. As you get more advanced, you'll want to measure the actual diameter of the tool and record that in a library (because sometimes a 6.35mm end mill is really 6.25mm), but I'd not worry about that now.

[andrew]

I use AutoCAD a lot... daily. If you're going to do some simple cutting and such with Easel, Easel won't import a dwg or a dxf... The way around that is you can open the DWG or DXF in Inkscape and save it as a generic SVG file. Then you can import the SVG into Easel and set your tool paths.

[rj]

thanks folks. I'll be watching youtubes and running some trial efforts and see if I can get up to speed. I am especially pleased that it's possible to load my CAD files into Fusion 360... I appreciate your help! rj

[Derek the Admin]

Glad we could help.

[dwkdnvr]

I'm just getting started with my M3, but this weekend I successfully generated a DXF file and loaded it into bCNC to generate the gcode. Aside from being about 0.2mm shy on the depth it cut well. I haven't seen much mention of it here, but bCNC seems to be a decent combo of basic CAM and sender functionality (although I haven't tried the sender functionality - just loaded the generated gcode into UGS). It might be worth checking out for a basic option - a bit of a learning curve, but I'm a complete newbie and managed to figure out the basics.