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counterweight for r1 series

Discussion in 'Mods and Upgrades' started by Sean Carson, Mar 30, 2017.

  1. Sean Carson

    Sean Carson Member

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    Sad update. My printer is down again. I broke a thermistor while trying to take apart a leaky heat block. I can't do anything for a while.
     
  2. Ryan TeGantvoort

    Ryan TeGantvoort Active Member

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    Not everyone uses Fusion360 @WheresWaldo lol! Thanks for the STEP file, importing into SolidWorks now. Well that didn't go very well, tons of issues with the import. It would appear every feature you used was imported as a separate body, odd. I'll just reverse engineer it. Or maybe I'll just print the STL. Figured I may as well jump on the bandwagon and give this a try!
     
  3. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    @Ryan TeGantvoort
    I just asked for the STEP file I didn't create it, Besides not everyone is a 1%er that can afford SolidWorks :D

    Your import sound like a SolidWorks issue, but I cant be sure because I forgot all about this thread and never imported the model.
     
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  4. Ryan TeGantvoort

    Ryan TeGantvoort Active Member

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    Well I personally can't afford SolidWorks but my company can! ;) Wouldn't have it any other way either! For home use, I have been looking at OnShape, since it's fairly similar to SolidWorks, or might try out Fusion360.

    Definitely not a SolidWorks issue (at least I don't think) as I import STEP/IGES files all the time for multiple different sites. Why reinvent the wheel haha? I do know SolidWorks will not accept a native Fusion360 file (f3d I believe it is) which is probably part of the issue.

    But it's not a big deal since it's a very simple model. It will probably import just fine into Fusion360 since the STEP was created using Fusion360. But when I imported I received 10 Solid Bodies, which each looked like a separate feature, instead of 1!
     
  5. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    I use Fusion 360 because it is basically free for any hobbyist. Had I known @Sean Carson created it in Fusion in advance I would have just asked for the .f3d file or to be added to the cloud based save of that file. Fusion 360 saves all you models on Autodesk servers and you specifically have to export for a local copy if you need it.
     
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  6. Ryan TeGantvoort

    Ryan TeGantvoort Active Member

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    This is pretty cool. SolidWorks doesn't have anything quite like that. They just included in MySolidWorks ways to link a DropBox or OneDrive account but nothing like you are describing. I guess they have 3dcontentcentral.

    I may look into Fusion360 for my home use. Have you used SolidWorks before @WheresWaldo ? If so is it fairly similar or a whole new learning curve. I have used Autodesk in the past (previous jobs and throughout school) but taught myself SolidWorks when I started at my current company.
     
  7. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Not the same but concepts are similar, If you can teach yourself Solidworks you can certainly learn Fusion 360. I went from knowing how to draw up plans in AutoCAD to using Fusion 360 and getting pretty good results within a few days Fusion 360 was only the second 3D modeling program I ever used. Now nearly 18 months later I am still learning stuff to make my workflow easier.

    I have no direct experience with Solidworks other than watching a few demos.
     
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  8. Sean Carson

    Sean Carson Member

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    I'm learning more 3d software for my major. Autocad and fusion I like, and I'm told I would like inventor too. I absolutely hate vectorworks, though.

    There are 2 things I dislike about fusion. First, the cloud is front and center, which is good in many ways, but you are at the mercy of your internet connection speed. Second, working with text in fusion is a disaster.
     
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  9. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    @Sean Carson There are just too many issues with text manipulation that you just have to work around, I find myself using a lot of the make new bodies function then creating a new sketch 90° perpendicular to the text, figuring out how much I want to keep of the bodies (for either joining or cutting), using the intersection command to extrude across the text, then doing my join or cut. It is the only way to get text to follow a path height wise, like a logo on an irregular surface. It is the most cumbersome method I have ever used. And every once in a while the constant updates to Fusion 360 can break something that always worked in the past. Plus every update puts the Fusion 360 icon back on the Windows desktop.

    The cloud part, although I am generally not in favor of cloud only applications, has saved my ass on a couple of occasions, and it was great when I migrated to a better PC since all I had to do was install Fusion 360, log in and all my models where there. If there is a way to get rid of those stupid SAMPLE projects I would be happy.
     
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  10. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Spoke too soon, today's update just added text justification, It is about time!
     
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  11. Ryan TeGantvoort

    Ryan TeGantvoort Active Member

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    SolidWorks handles text very well in the aspect of formatting to fit your needs, but still issues. Most of the stuff I build at work involves some sort of text, since I do a lot of sheet metal and signage work with a little machining as well. The only main issue is you need a wicked computer to handle it, shit to handle SolidWorks in general. :) If you don't have a decent computer, SolidWorks will crash almost instantly when you try to Extrude-Cut a fair amount of text or a large DXF (many lines) imported. I have experienced this multiple times, with large detailed signs.

    I have found a fairly simple work around which I have been implementing lately, basically I design the entire sign (or sometimes just the text) in Illustrator then drop the exported DXF in SolidWorks. I decided to go this route because I have a pretty solid handle on Adobe products as well. This way I can get approval for the sign before even opening SolidWorks besides to get the cost estimate.
     
  12. Sean Carson

    Sean Carson Member

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    I read something online and can almost understand how it works. Type something in Inkscape. Export as a regular svg. Sketch the svg to a surface in fusion. Extrude the surface.

    It's such a pain in the ass. Especially because the last time I tried this, I had to use Inkscape in windows since the mac version of Inkscape didn't work.

    If I want to access fusion, I either leave it on my dock (Mac user here) or I can find it in spotlight(command space, type whatever you want to do) but the first thing that pops up in spotlight is the uninstaller. This is the only program that does that.
     
  13. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    If I am doing custom logo or some other non-functional in Fusion text work, I generally do it in Adobe illustrator then export as an SVG, the SVG becomes a sketch in Fusion 360 which can be embellished if needed. Then it is a simple matter to extrude the sketch. But let's say I need engraved text on a cylinder and I need to be normalized for direct single angle viewing Here is what I have to do:
    1. Create a plane parallel to where I need text to be viewed from
    2. Create the text and extrude as new bodies making sure to extend past the entire model body, Fusion will default to cut
    3. Create a new sketch with the outline of the cylinder and an offset by the depth of the engraving.
    4. Deselect the original body and extrude through the text using Intersect
    5. Now I have bodies of letters that follow the curve and extend inward by the amount I want to engrave
    6. Reselect the original model body and combine it with all the text bodies using Cut as the parameter
    7. Now I have engraved text that follows the curve but appears as regular text if looking straight onto the center

    That is no way to manipulate text, and if I need to put text on a lofted surface there is even more work that needs to be done. There is no way that I have figured out that will place text on a curved surface so that every letter is regular in size and not elongated as you move around the curve.

    @Sean Carson have you reported that issue on Autodesk's forum, they seem to be very responsive. When they broke combining imported models in an update a few months ago it was fixed as soon as a few of us reported it on their forums.

    @Ryan TeGantvoort I started out with Fusion 360 on a Core i7 2600 (not even a K model so no overclock) in a cheap Lenovo B530 desktop, with a cheap video card. Other than some complex models taking a long time to display, it rarely crashed. Rendering was impossibly long so I had to do more cloud rendering (this lets Autodesk servers do the rendering for you) but it is limited. Now I run on a Core i7-6700K overclocked and rendering is still not fast but way better. Soon I will have my Ryzen workstation and be able to throw 8C/16T into rendering and see what that will do. But overall the application does run rather smoothly, once you figure out the quirks.
     
    #53 WheresWaldo, Apr 20, 2017
    Last edited: Apr 20, 2017
  14. Ryan TeGantvoort

    Ryan TeGantvoort Active Member

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    Gotcha now I understand what you were getting at with the text! SolidWorks actually added that feature a few major releases ago. Like the image attached? It's really simple too, basically create your sketch on any plan, select "Wrap" feature and select the surface. Then you can determine if you want to Extrude-Cut or Extrude-Boss the text.

    @WheresWaldo A powerful Graphics Card (not a gaming card because that will definitely not help - but I'm sure you already knew that :D) will tremendously help with rendering. I do not do any rendering because my current computer, which was one of my first builds about 2-3 years ago, just flat out cannot handle it. Plus there is really no need for detailed renderings for my projects. I will be updating this computer again here shortly. It was already a little weak to begin with for SolidWorks, an i7 3770K, only 16GB memory, and using processor graphics (which is a huge no-no) since we were on a budget at the time. But my next build will be a monster, as I will have time on my side!
     

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  15. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    A fast GPU might help but Fusion 360 uses CPU for rendering and is CPU bound with all cores and all threads running at 100% when doing rendering.
     
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  16. Sean Carson

    Sean Carson Member

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    There are options to shift some of the work to the GPU in the mac version if I remember right.

    Fusion runs on surprisingly shitty hardware. I've had it working for simple things on a Microsoft surface 3. Not the pro. This had 2 gigs of ram and an atom processor.

    I would hate to use that for a work machine, but it is doable.
     
  17. JoshYourITGuy

    JoshYourITGuy Active Member

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    IIRC @Mike Kelly milled something similar out of metal and it threaded onto the X axis idler pulley bolt.
    Seemed to help him with the leveling.

    I had a similar issue with one of my RoBo's before I upgraded the rods, it would false trip the auto-leveling and would tend to smash the prints on the right side of the bed and not stick on the left, even though I leveled the entire bed and rods.

    I will be printing one of these penny holders for my clone still using the threaded rods
     
  18. Robert55

    Robert55 Member

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    Sean Carson, how did you handle the probing on each side?? I recently had to do some stepper driver work, so I went with the independent steppers for Z. Was it firmware or G-Code?? Thanks.
     
  19. Sean Carson

    Sean Carson Member

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    I'm sorry I didn't see this. It was a setting in firmware. Auto calibration was really more of an auto compensation. If one rod was twisted a bit off, it brought both to what it thinks is zero, then adds to one of the rods to actually hit zero as part of the homing process. It worked really well.

    Sadly, I undid that modification as I'm changing to firmware that doesn't support it.
     
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  20. Robert55

    Robert55 Member

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    You wouldn't happen to remember where that setting was, do you?? I'm very interested in enabling it. Thanks.
     

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