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AKnate

Icehole
Joined
Mar 5, 2022
Member Number
4908
Messages
1,264
What do you use to send them a programming for a part to get made?

Trying to figure if it's worth buying a plasma table or just using them.

Tried Fusion 360, but it wants $85 a month to save in the dfx? (Whatever it is) files.
Plus it took way too damn long to make a part that I can draw on paper in under 20 seconds.
 
I use CorelDraw. It can export as .dxf.

You can get older versions on ebay or wherever.
 
Dunno how big you're talking, but have you seen the ArcDroid? It's got a "trace" function, where you draw over your napkin scratchings.

irate4x4.com

Arcdroid plasma

FUCK YES !!!!! Engineered, designed and made in America by a team of experts in the CNC industry. It's not made in America. It's built at a factory in China according to the inventor. Designed in Canada Ok, I was going by what bunk said. I guess Canada is North America, so he got...
irate4x4.com irate4x4.com
 
They have some simple templates on their website you might be able to use and modify as well, this link should take you there.

Laser Cutting Templates Archive

Free laser cutting templates that you can use and customize to fit your project’s needs.
sendcutsend.com sendcutsend.com
 
I don't know what options you're looking at for Fusion 360, I pay $400/yr for it, and if you're a hobbyist it should be free. And if it's too hard to draw something in Fusion then you're probably SOL in general since CAD requires using the computer :flipoff2: I'm pretty sure there's a handful of free CADs out there like SketchUp and random shit I see YouTubers using.

Buying a plasma table won't solve any of your issues, just bring the issues right in front of you for more money. With that said, a $1000 Langmuir table was the best shop purchase I've ever done. You can make better looking parts, and a hell of a lot faster. And worst case you trade time fucking with a part for sitting at the computer relaxing for a moment while you draw it up, and best case you save hours of time and end up with a far superior and more accurate part.
 
snivilous said:
I don't know what options you're looking at for Fusion 360, I pay $400/yr for it, and if you're a hobbyist it should be free. And if it's too hard to draw something in Fusion then you're probably SOL in general since CAD requires using the computer :flipoff2: I'm pretty sure there's a handful of free CADs out there like SketchUp and random shit I see YouTubers using.

Buying a plasma table won't solve any of your issues, just bring the issues right in front of you for more money. With that said, a $1000 Langmuir table was the best shop purchase I've ever done. You can make better looking parts, and a hell of a lot faster. And worst case you trade time fucking with a part for sitting at the computer relaxing for a moment while you draw it up, and best case you save hours of time and end up with a far superior and more accurate part.
Click to expand...
It's "free" but it only allows 10 files to ever be saved and can't convert it to dfx.

I was just toying with a few shapes to see if it's worth the fuss over cutting by hand.

A guy has a barely used Langmire Crossfire with Razor 45 for $3500 that i was half eyeballing. It's about 5k new with the shipping.

The little table now is around $2500, with THC. I had a post on the $1000 one a while back, or maybe was in the other forum.
 
AKnate said:
What do you use to send them a programming for a part to get made?

Trying to figure if it's worth buying a plasma table or just using them.

Tried Fusion 360, but it wants $85 a month to save in the dfx? (Whatever it is) files.
Plus it took way too damn long to make a part that I can draw on paper in under 20 seconds.
Click to expand...

It's free. You're probably doing it wrong.

Extra points to anyone who can identify what this is for.

sendcutsend.com

How To Export a DXF from Fusion 360

Watch the video or follow along with the transcript to learn SendCutSend's best tips for how to export a DXF in Fusion 360.
sendcutsend.com sendcutsend.com

1726087957583.png



1726087987409.png


1726088106852.png


1726088160481.png


1726088207085.png
 
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We’re using q-cad.. it sucks at first.. after that it’s just dumb.. but it works and I’m fairly sure the base model is free.
 
www.freecad.org

FreeCAD: Your own 3D parametric modeler

FreeCAD, the open source 3D parametric modeler
www.freecad.org www.freecad.org

I've been using it for about 2 years now. It's good for free, but has some warts. That should be changing real soon.

The Release Candidate 0.22 has been out for about 2 weeks in beta (they're calling it 1.0 for some reason, enough changes to warrant it I guess) and a fully polished version should be out in a month or so. Supposed to handle assemblies natively, no need for 3rd party work benches. I'm excited about defining geometry when you create a shape, not having to select a separate tool to define something you drew. Offsets without eleventy steps is going to be great too.

The biggest improvement though, they've fixed the topological naming problem, if you assign a geometry to an existing face, then decide later to edit the shape of that original face, you will often lose the constraints and plane of anything built off of that face, which basically destroys the drawing. To get around that you'd build from datum planes/lines/points, which just adds more steps and makes you do more math that the software should be doing for you.

I'm very much looking forward to FreeCAD basically being a legitimate replacement for the big names from Dassault and Autodesk, I think this next release is really going to shake things up. FreeCAD is 100% free and open source, it's been good enough to get by for years, but it's got enough idiosyncrasies and quirks that it never was a real option for a production CAD environment. That's about to change.
 
AKnate said:
Not free on the one I have.

Says $680 a year or $85 a month.
Click to expand...
Googling "free CAD" returns about a thousand options: 7 Best Free CAD Software in 2024 (Beginner-Friendly) - 3DSourced

There's nothing special about Fusion, in a lot of ways it sucks ass. The only reason I have it is to program CAM paths, which if you're just trying to get a DXF you don't need any of the other features Fusion has, hell you don't even need 3D capability.
 
Sceep said:
sooo.. use the free version? :idea: JFC man. :shaking:

Loading…

www.autodesk.com

1726089281418.png
Click to expand...
The one i got is.
snivilous said:
Googling "free CAD" returns about a thousand options: 7 Best Free CAD Software in 2024 (Beginner-Friendly) - 3DSourced

There's nothing special about Fusion, in a lot of ways it sucks ass. The only reason I have it is to program CAM paths, which if you're just trying to get a DXF you don't need any of the other features Fusion has, hell you don't even need 3D capability.
Click to expand...

2D. Plasma table isn't cutting in 3d.
 
gotcha.

Gotta homie thats a teacher or a kid in school that you can use thier .edu email adress?

the educators version is still neutered a bit but not that bad IIRC.

Loading…

www.autodesk.com



You can also get cloud based solidworks cheap AF if you know someone who is a EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association} member.

3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers | EAA

www.eaa.org
 
Sceep said:
gotcha.

Gotta homie thats a teacher or a kid in school that you can use thier .edu email adress?

the educators version is still neutered a bit but not that bad IIRC.

Loading…

www.autodesk.com



You can also get cloud based solidworks cheap AF if you know someone who is a EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association} member.

3DEXPERIENCE SOLIDWORKS for Makers | EAA

www.eaa.org
Click to expand...

It's not as simple as a .edu email anymore. My work email is .edu, Fusion 360 still required me to upload a copy of my employee ID. That worked for a year. Renewal time came around, they wanted a copy of my employee ID again, and denied my educational license.
 
Lee said:
It's not as simple as a .edu email anymore. My work email is .edu, Fusion 360 still required me to upload a copy of my employee ID. That worked for a year. Renewal time came around, they wanted a copy of my employee ID again, and denied my educational license.
Click to expand...
Dicks!:mad3:
 
I use onshape. It's free, but everything you create is public. If you want to keep your files private you have to pay up.

I don't create anything worth protecting.

Edit: fucking spell check screws up more than it fixes
 
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Fusion gutted free features a few years ago because small shops were abusing the free version. They screwed over the hobbyists that made Fusion popular in the process. Got rid of FEA, more than one page in a drawing, exporting drawings as PDFs, importing SOLIDWORKS files, and a bunch of other stuff. It was a fight just to get them to allow exporting as .step.

You can have more than 10 documents, you just need to set the unused ones to read only. The 10 limit is just for editable documents.

Your best bet would be to export as .step and find some software that can create a .dxf from a .step.

Or check if Xometry or Send Cut Send can use a .step.
 
subybaja said:
Dunno how big you're talking, but have you seen the ArcDroid? It's got a "trace" function, where you draw over your napkin scratchings.

irate4x4.com

Arcdroid plasma

FUCK YES !!!!! Engineered, designed and made in America by a team of experts in the CNC industry. It's not made in America. It's built at a factory in China according to the inventor. Designed in Canada Ok, I was going by what bunk said. I guess Canada is North America, so he got...
irate4x4.com irate4x4.com
Click to expand...
Draw on paper
Take photo
Import to cad
Give photo dimensions.
Easiest way to cheat.
 
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