Does anyone know where I can get a custom car designed to cut out?
Similar to these.
Thanks in advance!
Post the car image that you’re thinking of.
I’m sure there’s a few people on here that would take a shot at it.
Find a vector image of it. It’s not difficult to modify in Illustrator to make it cuttable, then export as a DXF. That’s my workflow. The design tools in Fusion are a joke. Unbelievably clunky and slow. I’m sure there are sites where you can get bids from artists to get what you want done relatively cheaply.
When used incorrectly Fusion360 can definitely feel like this.
@BootLegFabrication I would not be discouraged from using Fusion360. It is hands down the best design tool currently available. The catch is you will actually have to invest time into doing tutorial and simple projects to build up your skills. A lot people get ahead of them selves and work on a semi complex sign project with a dirty SVG or DXF and jump right in. 20 hours later they failed to design a cutable project, are insanely frustrated and learnt nothing.
Fusion360 is all about the manufacturing workflow, which is not intuitive to typical human thought.
Start with this video
Then do all these videos
(if you hit the YouTube button in the embedded player it with open the whole playlist in YouTube)
Invest the time with these videos to build a foundation and your experience with fusion360 will be a better one.
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This took me about 45 to find a image. draw over the canvas on F360. Develop CAM.
this file is ready to cut .
Some of you may recognize this as the best truck ever made,
Some of you may know it as the best vehicle ever made.
Its the 1979.5-1981 Toyota Pickup 4x4
There is a couple touch ups I could do
I should get a YouTube account so I can make longer walkthrough videos
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You should get an Etsy account so you can sell SVGs! I get a lot of SVGs from there and your artwork would sell.
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You have me thinking now. 
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If you use Illustrator you’ll know how bad 360 is. And slow. Additionally, in my former work life as a video editor I learned (at basic levels) some true 3D programs like Electric Image and Cinema 4D. Again, their tools and interface are vastly superior with shortcut commands that allow you to move swiftly and intuitively. 360 is among the worst design tools I’ve ever used. Very cludgy and unintuitive and I have experience with enough other programs to make an educated statement.
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SHOWOFF!!!..tooting your own horn!!!
but I will say you are goo with it…nice work…
is my jealousy exposed?
Thank you @toolboy
I’ll take it as the highest of compliments!
Welcome back ! it has been little bland without you.
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That’s because 360 is not intended to be a graphic design tool, as such the capabilities in that realm are inferior. But as a CAD/CAM tool in which it is intended, it is top notch. I just wish it was stand alone and not cloud based. Some of us are stuck with crappy internet service.
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Looking over this thread I have concluded that @TinWhisperer hasn’t been vehicle shopping in 25-30 years. 
TinWhisperer I want to thank you for your help. Last night I solved a problem with a file I have been working on by following some advice you gave in some previous threads.
I really am amazed by how helpful several of you are on this forum. If @langmuirsystems isn’t paying you they should be! 
Thanks to ALL including those asking questions!
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I’m sure all the people who help are getting really deep discounts on LS products… 
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Didn’t you get the email about our free XR? It said something about a 2/30/2050 estimated delivery date but I’m thinking that might be a typo 
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@jamesdhatch Your 2/30/2050 comment made me laugh out loud right her at my desk!
Truly both of you deserve it!
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How very condescending of you. Thanks.
While it’s powerful, 360 is not efficient. Especially for plasma, which is a 2D process. All of the 3D abilities of 360 are wasted on design for a 2D CNC. If you want efficiency, creativity AND accuracy, a program designed for 2D, based on vectors, able to translate multitudes of formats, auto trace, with enormous public resources available for learning is a better way to go. That’s why I think Illustrator is a far better way to design. AND, 360 struggles with fairly small numbers of DXF pieces in a layout. My computer sometimes takes minutes to update simple part moves for something like a BBQ design. Same computer is near instantaneous with complex and HUGE multilayered photoshop (bitmap) files and of course because vectors are so small, Illustrator is never slowed. Plus 360 crashes. A lot. So while it might be the only tool available (forget Sheetcam), it’s not as good as it should be.
Another example of terrible design: why the hell do I have to be connected to my CNC just to import and orient files for a cut in Firecontrol? I get it’s ‘controlling’ a piece of hardware. No emulator? I would think lots of people might want to set up the process in their office first, you know. At a desk. Ultimately the whole part of the process that starts with the “Manufacture” portion in 360 should be incorporated into Firecontrol. I look at the software tools being used in this field and I just think, why do people not see how terrible it all is? Why did the industry just settle? We used to have to think like engineers in the design world too. Back in 1995…
While I agree with much of what you posted as a former F360 user, I disagree with this statement. F360 has very useful sheet metal functionality that allows me to design a fuel tank in 3D and then have it unfolded so I can bend it in a brake. F360 takes care of the necessary calculations using the material’s K factor so the metal stretching is accounted for.
When they started all the messing around with their licensing models and deciding what a hobby user “should require” for me, I kept it just for sheet metal bending projects until I found Design Spark Mechanical has a very similar feature. That’s when I stopped using F360.
For 2D projects I use either Corel Draw (been using that since the '90s) or Inkscape. I taught CNC using Inkscape because I knew all the students could have a copy to work with at home.
I try to never use DXF as it’s generally implemented in a lowest-common-denominator method that does not include true curve handling. SVG is a much better and as universally supported format for modern computers.
But for most hobbyists or folks using the Crossfire for signs and such, Fusion has an enormous and daunting learning curve. A 2D design app would generally be a better idea. Simple 3D work can be done using 2D programs as well but I find that many people have an issue in being able to project the 2D folds & such into what it will look like in 3 dimensions so a 3D program may be more suitable.
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