I am very new to this, I have everything setup and have my final sled cut.
Now to cut my own stuff…
I have a simple file that I want to cut out for testing and I am having a hard time getting the step downs into the G-Code.
I started with Easel, have all the tooling paths and steps configured. But Easel doesn’t spit out the Gcode for me, just a svg.
So I load the svg into Inkscape, use the extension to create the Gcode, but no steps are there.
Do I need to make a Gcode file for each depth?
Is there a tutorial out there for gcode creation using the free tools that I have not been able to find?
I want to be able to specify my paths and step downs for multiple components. For example, I want to fully cut out one component all depths, before moving to the next one.
Tab creation would be nice too.
Hopefully I just missed a simple step. Thanks in advance for your help.
PS. Do you all work in mm or inches? is one easier in general in terms of programming?
When you have your design done in Easel, click the Machine menu on top, then select advanced. You should see this menu where you can generate g code for other machines.
There are simpler tools than FreeCAD, but I use FreeCAD because I want the unlimited and versatile free open source CAD/CAM tool that exports directly to grbl and maslowCNC with lots of improvements continuously coming in.
I don’t know about all cam programs but MakerCam will finish all depths of each shape if you select each shape separately. If you group them together it will do the first pass on each then the second and so on. It takes forever because of the time it spends on the z axis movement. Also makercam generates G-Code. CAM stand for computer assisted manufacturing. I only say this because I recently found out myself. The manufacturing (I am believing) is what makes the G-Code generation possible. CAD only stands for computer-assisted design. I don’t know if this means that it won’t assistant manufacturing per se. Answers and corrections welcome!
Check this out out. My steps for designing until cutting are as follows-
Learned Fusion 360- Youtube is your friend here and its free
After your design i safe all components as a new drawing as a DXF file( so, front piece, reaer, and so on)
I then open it up in inscape, add all DXF file into file save as plain.SVG( dont save as inscape SVG)
Then open it up with the link.
you can use Makercam also, ive struggled with it recently as it would take 40min to create paths
