You don’t NEED 3D CAD for Plasma cutting. It’s substantially a 2D operation X&Y with Z thrown in only to control the Torch height. So… ANY CAD program that you’re comfortable with, as long as it can produce SVG or DXF output files, can be used if you use SheetCam TNG as your CAM tool. This is what I use even though I do use Fusion for 3D CAD, including my Plasma Cut projects. I also use Inkscape, and a variety of other CAD tools for design.
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I use the stencil font , that works best for me .
It been awhile but lets run through this scenario on the live stream . 1:15pm mst
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Nice job!
It is good for us to see that stuff with the finishing overlap killing the contour selection, happening to a seasoned veteran. Not happy to see but just nice to know that there are quirky things that happen to others.
There are interesting interpretations by that Fusion 360 CAM operation with dimensions. When I put in a lead-in radius of 0.03 it is way larger than 0.03 in reality.
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Good point. I try to begin every sketch by selecting the XY axis and selecting the top view. This was confusing at first after seeing conflicting information on YouTube. Since everything for the plasma is 2-D, I don’t know if the quadrant selected is mission critical, but I understand how it could get turned to cause a problem.
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That’s a very useful graphic. Is there a way to globally change lines from construction to sketch lines? I tried selecting the entire project and selecting/de-selecting the construction line box.
only within whichever sketch you are currently working on. All Blue sketch line can be toggled back and forth with "X"hot key or from the icon in the sketch palette. If you have multiple sketches I do know of a way of doing them all at once.
Thank you for the video!! That was a great presentation. It cleared up some of my questions and, I think solved the mystery of the missing letters. Do you have other videos posted? I would be interested in reviewing those. I will need to re-watch this one and pay close attention to the keystrokes for the processes I am completely unfamiliar with. I appreciate you taking the time to do this!
(I’m also glad to see I’m not the only one who experiences quirks in the app)
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I have Inkscape and SheetCam. I was able to enjoy some early success in cutting by utilizing Fireshare and some cut-ready files. I used Sheetcam and they cut like a pro. It seemed from the YouTube videos, and comments in the forum that Fusion was the software of choice. I was and am determined to learn it enough to be comfortable with it. It is a formidable opponent, but I am determined to be victorious over it!
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I know! I think you will see that we are all in “this” together. I often say the reason I try to help out is because thru solving some of these issues we all gain more knowledge, skill and confidence.
Fusion 360 is one gigantic modeling program. For plasma cutting, we are only utilizing less than 1% of the program’s potential. As you gain more skills you will enjoy the 3D potential whether you think you need it or not. It is a real kick in the pants.
Now SheetCAM does many things without even needing to think about it. There is some setup that is necessary and getting used to the menus. But once you get past that, it does a fantastic job with CAMing you drawing into G-code. I don’t know how to use it but so I’ve been told. 
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There’s a few in my YouTube channel. If you click my avatar and go to videos. I also post on Twitch at the same time I’m posting to YouTube. Some of my older twitch videos have disappeared and weren’t saved to YouTube if you find one that’s missing from the Forum here just asking me to repost it I have most of them on the hard drive still.
No doubt, one of the reasons I like doing live streams so you can see the workflow, warts and all. I seem to have quirks manifest during the live streams more so.
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i’m sure it is very powerful. I just hope I have some hair left after learning the part I need to know. I just watched the video TinWhisperer posted and felt empowered.
I did a quick sketch, added my text, followed the process and it looked great…until I got to the cut lines. It didn’t cut half of each letter. It cut some of all of the letters, (but I had selected stencil font), it ignored half of every letter. I’m going to give it a rest for now. It’s too frustrating!
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Thanks! After I asked, I found the link and subscribed to your YT channel. I made a simple rectangle with my name after watching the video. I used stencil font. It extruded great, looked perfect. I went through the manufacture process and everything seemed good until the cut paths. All of the letters were included in the cuts, but only half of each letter was cut if it had a bridge in it. That is frustrating. I don’t have an explination as to why it would do that. I will try later with another font.
You are welcome.
If you get to a point where you’re having issues like that save it and export and post an f3d and we should be able to retrace the steps and find out where the error lies.
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Thanks. Will do.
Name plate with error.f3d (481.1 KB)
Here is a sample that I created today. It looks good, except the tail of the “C” is not included in the cut path. Can you please let me know what causes this?
I’ll fire up the live stream and go through it in a few minutes 8:10am mst
likely something long in the linking tab of the 2d profile menu
here is the file from the video
Name plate with error tin mod v0.f3d (461.8 KB)
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Ok. I changed the lead-in to 0 .1 and re-ran it. It did include the tail in the cut. I am still tryinjg to comprehend the variables of cut paths. There is a lot of information from YouTubers that is confusing. My kerf width is set per my user manual (Hypertherm 45XP) at .0.054 (14 guage mild steel is what I am cutting). The angle 60 degrees is defalt. Many videos recommend changing to 90 degrees. Some show selecting inside or outside cuts, direction of cuts, etc. It seems that every user has a different set of parameters the they tinker with. I’d prefer to find a workable setup and leave it alone.
And this is templates come in handy.
Once you have your 2D Profile menu the way you want it for a particular scenario you can “save as template” and " Create from template"
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Thanks, That’s good to know. I watched the video you created, and I appreciate the critique and corrections.
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