Fusion 360 FFF Slicer: G2/G3 Generation Now in Preview

Red Sand Robot

@littlehobbyshop
I think I got it to work. There are two lines of sneaky variables that I missed the first time I copied the blocks over, had to do with the var iOutput = createReferenceVariable({prefix:"I", force:true}, xyzFormat); // circular output1 and
var jOutput = createReferenceVariable({prefix:"J", force:true}, xyzFormat); // circular output variables being missing in my initial modification to your post.

For whatever reason, it is not working with a custom print profile, but I changed over to the stock "ABS 1.75mm" print profile and it was generating G3 commands for a flat donut shape.

unofficial rrf machine with arc smoothing.cps

1032.gcode

I think modifying the stock print profiles in certain ways may affect the curve fitting.

@bot I agree, fitting after the fact is not optimal but it is a step in the right direction. Probably leverage existing code from their CAM workspace to make it work.

littlehobbyshop

@Red-Sand-Robot Sneaky, I'll take a closer look this evening and publish an update on Github. Will probably start a new thread on here too, the old one got a little buried.

theruttmeister

@Red-Sand-Robot said in Fusion 360 FFF Slicer: G2/G3 Generation Now in Preview:

@bot I agree, fitting after the fact is not optimal but it is a step in the right direction. Probably leverage existing code from their CAM workspace to make it work.

I think they are probably trying to get firmware support for G2/3 to be more widespread before they go through the trouble of writing a new slicer that can actually take STEP or even native geometery from Fusion.

A Former User

slightly OT

Effective October 1, 2020, functionality in Fusion 360 for personal use will be limited, and you’ll no longer have access to the following:

Probing, 3 + 2-axis milling (tool orientation), multi-axis milling, rapid moves, automatic tool changes

Multi-sheets, smart templates, output options for drawings (print only).

Download options from public share links

Cloud rendering

Export options including F3Z, DWG, DXF, IGES, SAT, and STEP

Simulation and generative design

Unlimited active and editable Fusion 360 documents (10 doc limit).

Fusion 360 extensions

jwalker55

@bearer said in Fusion 360 FFF Slicer: G2/G3 Generation Now in Preview:

slightly OT

Effective October 1, 2020, functionality in Fusion 360 for personal use will be limited, and you’ll no longer have access to the following:

Probing, 3 + 2-axis milling (tool orientation), multi-axis milling, rapid moves, automatic tool changes

Multi-sheets, smart templates, output options for drawings (print only).

Download options from public share links

Cloud rendering

Export options including F3Z, DWG, DXF, IGES, SAT, and STEP

Simulation and generative design

Unlimited active and editable Fusion 360 documents (10 doc limit).

Fusion 360 extensions

Wow, can't even export to STEP. I guess it might be the beginning of goodbye to Fusion 360 for me.

A Former User

it certainly limits the usability of the slicer without exporting step files for sharing; shame.

arhi

@bearer said in Fusion 360 FFF Slicer: G2/G3 Generation Now in Preview:

Export options including F3Z, DWG, DXF, IGES, SAT, and STEP

looks like investing into freeCAD was not a bad move

jay_s_uk

If you sign up to the EAA https://www.eaa.org/ (for $40 a year or $36 recurring) you can get SOLIDWORKS student.

A Former User

@arhi said in Fusion 360 FFF Slicer: G2/G3 Generation Now in Preview:

freeCAD

has cam? https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Path_Workbench ... hold my beer, I'm going in!

A Former User

@jay_s_uk said in Fusion 360 FFF Slicer: G2/G3 Generation Now in Preview:

If you sign up to the EAA https://www.eaa.org/ (for $40 a year or $36 recurring) you can get SOLIDWORKS student.

thats pretty fly

Red Sand Robot

@bearer Screenshot 2020-09-16 105658.png

There is no mention of changing import options, so you could conceivably still import .step or.iges files. Also, Fusion project files can still be exported, so a workaround for storage of only 10 projects could be exporting the project and archiving it on a local storage solution and then re-uploading it when needed. Not sure what archived/active means, I don't see the difference between continually 'archiving' and then making a document 'active' unless the process is annoying enough to make it an unwanted step in the modeling workflow.

I think these changes were brought about from people abusing the personal license for commercial uses. Even then, a yearly subscription for Fusion 360 is only around USD $500, which is a lot cheaper than the major CAD/CAM players (Solidworks, Inventor, Solidedge, etc). (Yes, cheaper is relative, five hundred dollars isn't an insignificant amount of money)

bot

@Red-Sand-Robot They already removed importing of "professional" cad formats last year or early this year. So, no more STEP, IGES or SLDPRT/ASM for free users.

However, if a hobbyist needs to have a part made (one of the main reasons for needing a STEP export), they could send the fusion file to the company who likely has access to fusion and can convert it/use the file as needed. Though, perhaps that would pose a problem for the vendor using a "hobbyist" file on their commercial licence? Not sure how that would work I will ask around the fusion groups.

@Red-Sand-Robot said in Fusion 360 FFF Slicer: G2/G3 Generation Now in Preview:

[...] Not sure what archived/active means, I don't see the difference between continually 'archiving' and then making a document 'active' unless the process is annoying enough to make it an unwanted step in the modeling workflow.

[...]

If you're doing "distributed design," where each part has its own "design" file, the 10 active design limit would limit you in making an assembly. However, that's easy to workaround because that's not even how Fusion is "meant" to be used. It seems almost like training tool of sorts -- force the hobbyists to learn the Fusion methodology (versus the SolidWorks way of distributed assemblies/designs).

So, other than that, yeah, it will be a juggling act of archiving and re-activating designs to work on. Maybe they'll have a limit to the number of times you can change the state of a design per day or the like.

A Former User

If people felt they couldn't afford it before, its not very likely to change October 1st, regardless of use case; and if it doesn't change ... meh.

droftarts

Well, that's a kick in the teeth. I started with Onshape, but they did the same thing and made the personal/free version virtually unusable. Moved to Fusion 360, but was sceptical that they'd do the same... and they have. Back to OpenSCAD, and, I guess, FreeCAD.

Ian

Phaedrux

In my case paying for Fusion 360 isn't too offensive to me. I've grown to like it a lot and have enough time and effort invested into it that. It's a good piece of software and I don't mind paying for that. I can see how that would be unpopular, but it was free because it was basically an open beta that saw a lot of active development and improvement. Now that it's pretty fully featured it's time to turn the screws and recoup some investment.

droftarts

This is the blog post about the changes: https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/changes-to-fusion-360-for-personal-use/
The comments are... emotional!

Ian

Red Sand Robot

@bot said in Fusion 360 FFF Slicer: G2/G3 Generation Now in Preview:

They already removed importing of "professional" cad formats last year or early this year. So, no more STEP, IGES or SLDPRT/ASM for free users.

Actually, STEP/IGES are still allowed.

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/pricing?_ga=2.5665779.1578081928.1600206184-2086964182.1571363456

Interestingly enough, apparently you can still export to an Inventor part/assembly file, but not import! Very odd.

bot

@Red-Sand-Robot said in Fusion 360 FFF Slicer: G2/G3 Generation Now in Preview:

@bot said in Fusion 360 FFF Slicer: G2/G3 Generation Now in Preview:

They already removed importing of "professional" cad formats last year or early this year. So, no more STEP, IGES or SLDPRT/ASM for free users.

Actually, STEP/IGES are still allowed.

https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/pricing?_ga=2.5665779.1578081928.1600206184-2086964182.1571363456

Interestingly enough, apparently you can still export to an Inventor part/assembly file, but not import! Very odd.

Weird! I could have sworn they removed that, but I guess it was just the SLDPRT/ASM I was thinking of.

That's silly though, that you can't import Iventor files, but can export them, and you can import Step files but not export them! lol. It's like they're waging psychological warfare on free users.

arhi

@jay_s_uk said in Fusion 360 FFF Slicer: G2/G3 Generation Now in Preview:

If you sign up to the EAA https://www.eaa.org/ (for $40 a year or $36 recurring) you can get SOLIDWORKS student.

In my book that's cheating, I can have FULL version of SolidWorks (had until a few years ago) on my computer for free, it's just a state of mind, you do or you don't want to cheat. At some point, I decided I won't do it anymore so.. Currently figuring out how to compile (compiling as we speak) freeCAD on windows so I can have bleeding edge version

arhi

@bearer said in Fusion 360 FFF Slicer: G2/G3 Generation Now in Preview:

@arhi said in Fusion 360 FFF Slicer: G2/G3 Generation Now in Preview:

freeCAD

has cam? https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Path_Workbench ... hold my beer, I'm going in!

no clue if it's any good, have not tried, but I noticed recently that number of workbenches is increasing rapidly and more and more things are available... probbly someone will make a slicer too .. it being open source I guess it's easier to write slicer for freeCAD than to f360... and you can import/export all sort of fancy formats so