We all know our time is valuable, so maybe this will help others taking a look at the cad/cam market.
So I have spent the last week learning fusion 360. It's free for startups (earning less then 100K per year) or education, so you loose nothing for having a go. I spent years on featurecam, but dabbled with many other cam packages on evaluations, many of which went quickly in the bin.
Fusion however, is very interesting, mainly because they are listening to their users on the forum! Rather than remaining silent on their forums (really completely inactive and don't give a shit, or making excuses, fusion seem to be really into their users.)
Very interesting.
So here's what I found.
The CAD aspect, I don't like... not as much as Spaceclaim anyway. Yes, I think I'm probably massively biased but spaceclaim is just awesome... anyway...
Fusions CAD isn't bad, in fact I think it's much nicer then solidworks, however doing simple operation like extruding geometries that aren't standard is very difficult. Such as extruding text off a wall of a cylinder.
-I've seen videos of workflows and sit there shaking my head. I think with time it will improve, and have already implemented "Sculpting" but I worry that it wont travel in the right direction and will be another scenario of 50 billion toolbars all doing random shit that spaceclaim does with a single click. The advantage is Fusion are listening to their users on the forums! For now its not too hard to find a work around, and the "Cloud" idea hasn't hassled me at all, you can still save a part directly to your drive, so not being connected to the cloud isn't a massive issue.
The best way to describe it it's a bit of an "Inbetween" of Solidworks and Spaceclaim in CAD Workflow. I have used it to create and machine my first test part, and the geometry is precise, so no complaints, but I can imagine doing a complex shape would be a nightmare, but i'm yet to be challenged with one yet... I may try a small wing shape with compound curves and see how I go.
Importing CAD models you've done on other systems is easy, and work just fine. I've tried IGES/Parasolid etc with no problems.
So anyway...
CAM.
This, is very different. I really enjoy the CAM aspect of Fusion. It's nice, clean, and easy to navigate.
The geometry selection is easy and fairly intuitive considering I haven't use HSM works ever. I've used Featurecam almost exclusively but played with almost every other cam package in existence. One thing I noticed that it does well.
The good.
-Tabs - omg finally TABS! Click and place, fantastic!
-Navigation and visuals. - They look great, toolpaths are really easy to see and nicely coloured.
-Setting tops and bottoms of workpiece, entry/ leads etc are all really nice n easy.
-Geometry selection - Very nice! Easy to pick n choose.
-Tool paths are nice, adaptive (HSM) clearing and pocketing work very, very well.
What it sucks at -
-The tool manager, its god damn terrible. Can't make form tools yet. making your own crib is like threading an M8 bolt into your pee hole.
-Feeds and speeds (atleast for me) - don't know about others) are all set at 1000mm/min, changing RPM doesn't effect tool load or feed. Looks like you need to manually set it. (Featurecam you just tell the material, if you change RPM or speed it will change the other to maintain SFM or chip load. It also has in built specifications for each material... Next point)
-No material selection - I think this is partly to do with the point above, it doesn't know what your cutting.
-No 4/5 axis yet. Its coming.
-Can't engrave, now this is retarded, you can't even project a single line font onto it. They know its an issue and are working on it.
-Posts- I have no idea wtf I'm looking at if I need to edit the post, Featurecams post editor was excellent, fusion I have no idea what i'm seeing so I'll have to come back to it. - It seems it wants to put in an M6 call after every operation even if the same tool is in use... grrr.
All in all, considering its free its damn amazing. Is it the best thing out there, hell no, but it will get you going, and is totally useful.
I went back and read development threads and people at fusion seem to be making advancements very quickly. If you were considering trying it, do it.
If you have money to burn you'll never regret spaceclaim, but it doesn't have in built CAM. One day i'm sure it will, but it seems to be heading the way of assisting with ANSYS and other CFD/FEA suits. Who knows, but Fusion is definitely worth the small time investment.
SJ.
So I have spent the last week learning fusion 360. It's free for startups (earning less then 100K per year) or education, so you loose nothing for having a go. I spent years on featurecam, but dabbled with many other cam packages on evaluations, many of which went quickly in the bin.
Fusion however, is very interesting, mainly because they are listening to their users on the forum! Rather than remaining silent on their forums (really completely inactive and don't give a shit, or making excuses, fusion seem to be really into their users.)
Very interesting.
So here's what I found.
The CAD aspect, I don't like... not as much as Spaceclaim anyway. Yes, I think I'm probably massively biased but spaceclaim is just awesome... anyway...
Fusions CAD isn't bad, in fact I think it's much nicer then solidworks, however doing simple operation like extruding geometries that aren't standard is very difficult. Such as extruding text off a wall of a cylinder.
-I've seen videos of workflows and sit there shaking my head. I think with time it will improve, and have already implemented "Sculpting" but I worry that it wont travel in the right direction and will be another scenario of 50 billion toolbars all doing random shit that spaceclaim does with a single click. The advantage is Fusion are listening to their users on the forums! For now its not too hard to find a work around, and the "Cloud" idea hasn't hassled me at all, you can still save a part directly to your drive, so not being connected to the cloud isn't a massive issue.
The best way to describe it it's a bit of an "Inbetween" of Solidworks and Spaceclaim in CAD Workflow. I have used it to create and machine my first test part, and the geometry is precise, so no complaints, but I can imagine doing a complex shape would be a nightmare, but i'm yet to be challenged with one yet... I may try a small wing shape with compound curves and see how I go.
Importing CAD models you've done on other systems is easy, and work just fine. I've tried IGES/Parasolid etc with no problems.
So anyway...
CAM.
This, is very different. I really enjoy the CAM aspect of Fusion. It's nice, clean, and easy to navigate.
The geometry selection is easy and fairly intuitive considering I haven't use HSM works ever. I've used Featurecam almost exclusively but played with almost every other cam package in existence. One thing I noticed that it does well.
The good.
-Tabs - omg finally TABS! Click and place, fantastic!
-Navigation and visuals. - They look great, toolpaths are really easy to see and nicely coloured.
-Setting tops and bottoms of workpiece, entry/ leads etc are all really nice n easy.
-Geometry selection - Very nice! Easy to pick n choose.
-Tool paths are nice, adaptive (HSM) clearing and pocketing work very, very well.
What it sucks at -
-The tool manager, its god damn terrible. Can't make form tools yet. making your own crib is like threading an M8 bolt into your pee hole.
-Feeds and speeds (atleast for me) - don't know about others) are all set at 1000mm/min, changing RPM doesn't effect tool load or feed. Looks like you need to manually set it. (Featurecam you just tell the material, if you change RPM or speed it will change the other to maintain SFM or chip load. It also has in built specifications for each material... Next point)
-No material selection - I think this is partly to do with the point above, it doesn't know what your cutting.
-No 4/5 axis yet. Its coming.
-Can't engrave, now this is retarded, you can't even project a single line font onto it. They know its an issue and are working on it.
-Posts- I have no idea wtf I'm looking at if I need to edit the post, Featurecams post editor was excellent, fusion I have no idea what i'm seeing so I'll have to come back to it. - It seems it wants to put in an M6 call after every operation even if the same tool is in use... grrr.
All in all, considering its free its damn amazing. Is it the best thing out there, hell no, but it will get you going, and is totally useful.
I went back and read development threads and people at fusion seem to be making advancements very quickly. If you were considering trying it, do it.
If you have money to burn you'll never regret spaceclaim, but it doesn't have in built CAM. One day i'm sure it will, but it seems to be heading the way of assisting with ANSYS and other CFD/FEA suits. Who knows, but Fusion is definitely worth the small time investment.
SJ.
