Sketchup vs Fusion 360

[tablesawtom]

Doug,

I am happy that you are excited about learning how to machine metal. It open up a whole different world of possibilities.

 I like to use feather boards to hold work against the table saw fence. I had a General 350 saw and didn't have a problem with the spreader nuts that fit in the miter slot. But I guess the slots on my saw Stop are smoother or something I have trouble keeping them from sliding in the slot. I saved some drop off from a job at work and I am planning on making tee nuts to fit in my miter slot this week after I clock out. Stuff like that you can't buy. 

I think you will find that a lot of what you know about woodworking will make the transition easier. 

I think you will find that CNC opens endless possibilities, so keep an open mind. Studies have proven that after the age of 26 the ability to learn diminishes with each passing year. So one will have to put in extra work,  And when your mind says what if I do this  and it open up a whole new world,  then at least you will know you are still alive. 

And to John, I am a hearing learner but I have to use my hands to finish the project. Watching a video is great but if I am shown what key to use I have to use my fingers on the key at least 7 times. But a video just keeps on going so it is to much from me to take in at this stage of my life. Someone said something about a split screen. it is worth looking in to.

I have really enjoyed sharing with both of you.

Tom

[jteneyck]

I couldn't agree more, Tom, I learn best with a real live person talking, and better yet, demonstrating how to do something.  You would think that would make video learning preferable over written text but just as you said, the video presenter doesn't stop at key points, they just keep going on to the next equally important thing while I'm still thinking about what was just said.  It doesn't take long until I'm lost. 

Surprisingly, I'm actually finding Vectric's tutorials (for V-Carve) to be very well done and at a pace I can follow, so either the material is much easier for me to grasp compared to Fusion 360 or Vectric has an approach that works better for me.  I can tell you that more people use one of Vectric's products for CNC work than any other brand so it's clear they are doing something right.  People wouldn't use it if they couldn't learn it.  I don't know how large your CNC will be but you can buy Cut2D for $149 and it will do any 2.5D work up to 24 x 24".  Cut2DPro will get you unlimited size and costs $450.  I would have been perfectly happy with Cut2D Pro for my furniture work, but the allure of being able to do 3D carvings as well as add a 4th axis at some point swung me to VCarvePro.  It's not cheap at $700, but the sting was a little less when OneFinity offered it for $630 as a bundle with the CNC machine.  

You can draw in any of the Vectric products.  There's no need to use SketchUp, Fusion 360, etc.  For simple 2.5D work, which covers most cabinet and many furniture part we make, it works well and is easy to learn.  You create nothing more than a plan view drawing with the shape and dados, rabbetts, dowel or through holes, etc.  The downside is you are doing one independent part at a time, so you don't see how the parts will fit together.  That's OK if you already have made a hand sketch to figure out how the parts fit together, the dimensions needed, etc.  However, the power of SketchUp, Fusion 360, and other 3D CAD software is in being able to develop a model of the entire piece of furniture, tool, whatever, with all of the individual components that make it up and how they fit together, along with all of the joinery, screw holes, etc., depending upon how far you want to take it.  From Fusion 360 you can then machine those parts directly on the CNC with no intermediary software required.  With SketchUp I'll first have to import the individual components into VCarve to create the toolpaths. Each approach will work you just have to decide which works best for you in terms of learning and $'s.  Perseverance usually wins and I'm sure you'll find an approach that works for you.   

John

[Rob Young]

I use Fusion360 nearly daily. Not in the "let's make some fancy rendering of a thing" way but in a more pedestrian "I need to 3d print or have fabricated some brackets and case". So just basic rendering, I don't go nuts and do photo realistic rendering.

I've used the stress-strain modeling features a few times but not seriously.

I don't have any issues doing the basics with F360 and because the machine shop I work with uses Inventor, the files transfer easily.

I've also had good luck generating STLs for 3d printing as well as doing some straight forward CAM for my Shapeoko CNC. Just wood and composites, no metals. I also generate files for cutting with my Shaper Origin. 

I used Sketchup many years ago, when it was still 100% free but I've since given up on it.  

I have no serious complaints about F360. No problems running it cloud based, etc. I read people having all kinds of problems getting things to work but so far no issues even with (to me) relatively complicated assemblies showing every washer, nut and bolt (you can import from McMaster-Carr) even rendering threads and animating how an assembly goes together.

And maybe it is just me but I don't find it difficult to use. The way various features work seem reasonably intuitive. My only problem sometimes is FINDING the dang feature because they do like to fiddle with the user interface.

[Tapper]

Doug,

I am happy that you are excited about learning how to machine metal. It open up a whole different world of possibilities.

 I like to use feather boards to hold work against the table saw fence. I had a General 350 saw and didn't have a problem with the spreader nuts that fit in the miter slot. But I guess the slots on my saw Stop are smoother or something I have trouble keeping them from sliding in the slot. I saved some drop off from a job at work and I am planning on making tee nuts to fit in my miter slot this week after I clock out. Stuff like that you can't buy. 

I think you will find that a lot of what you know about woodworking will make the transition easier. 

I think you will find that CNC opens endless possibilities, so keep an open mind. Studies have proven that after the age of 26 the ability to learn diminishes with each passing year. So one will have to put in extra work,  And when your mind says what if I do this  and it open up a whole new world,  then at least you will know you are still alive. 

And to John, I am a hearing learner but I have to use my hands to finish the project. Watching a video is great but if I am shown what key to use I have to use my fingers on the key at least 7 times. But a video just keeps on going so it is to much from me to take in at this stage of my life. Someone said something about a split screen. it is worth looking in to.

I have really enjoyed sharing with both of you.

Tom

Hi Tom,

Yes, it's nice to be able to "dig in" to these various subjects on this forum and pick the brains of those who have the knowledge, and find out a little bit about the person as it unfolds. This forum along with OWWM.org generally have members who have lots of knowledge about a myriad of topics and are willing to share and help - great forums IMO!

Your featherboard project sounds perfect for a small home machine shop. I have a list of those from past projects and am looking forward to making some metal chips. I know CNC's are all the rage right now. I'll see how this metalworking and CAD thing works out and if I have any interest in doing that later. Right now it's one step at a time. Looks like the first ones with CAD, whether Sketchup or Fusion 360 will be pretty high!

Doug

[Tapper]

Thought this article might be interesting to some of you.

Doug

[Wild Turkey]

I've used the free version of Sketchup for a couple of years while we were building my shop and our house and it worked pretty well.  I've had HS and college drafting and it came in handy using Sketchup.

BUT seems there's new ownership and they've castrated the free version and upped the price for the hobbiest version ($150/year??) so I'm looking elsewhere.  I had an old version of the free that worked well but then somehow I got linked to the site and it downloaded a program that only opens the limited version and pops up a message about buying it.

So be careful with Sketchup.  I really liked it but now it's too limited for me to use to draw projects.

[Tapper]

I've used the free version of Sketchup for a couple of years while we were building my shop and our house and it worked pretty well.  I've had HS and college drafting and it came in handy using Sketchup.

BUT seems there's new ownership and they've castrated the free version and upped the price for the hobbiest version ($150/year??) so I'm looking elsewhere.  I had an old version of the free that worked well but then somehow I got linked to the site and it downloaded a program that only opens the limited version and pops up a message about buying it.

So be careful with Sketchup.  I really liked it but now it's too limited for me to use to draw projects.

Thanks - didn't know that there wasn't a free version of Sketchup any longer. Looks like Fusion 360 still has a free version.

Doug

[DaveR1]

BUT seems there's new ownership and they've castrated the free version and upped the price for the hobbiest version ($150/year??) 

It's really annoying when people pass on incorrect information. I guess that's the way it is everywhere, though.

[jteneyck]

Doug, there has always been a free version of SketchUp, and there still is:  SketchUp  and Plans and Pricing

John

[Tapper]

Doug, there has always been a free version of SketchUp, and there still is:  SketchUp  and Plans and Pricing

John

Thanks John.

Doug