While at the DC Regional, one of our schools teachers struck up a conversation with a near-by team in the pits. The conversation centered around CAD / CNC work and that team told him there was a mechanism to create g-code directly from Autodesk Inventor Pro 2012. Since we’ve been seeking an upgrade to our CNC software he returned and told us, “y’all don’t need that package…just figure out how to do it in Inventor”. Unfortunately, he couldn’t explain how they did it, or, remember the name of the other team… go figure…
I am totally unaware of how to do that and any advice / suggestions / tutorials would be appreciated.
Also, we’d really like to find out the best route to change raster graphics to vector graphics for CNC purposes. We have a mechanism, but it involves about 4 “free” software packages…not a pretty procedure.
No, you can not directly get G-code from Inventor 2012, u need add on cam converter software. Solidworks has an add on module as well. As far as vector/ raster graphics, you generally have to convert it manually. Unless you have Mastercam art which supports some art graphics.
There is currently no built-in CAM or G-code capability within Autodesk Inventor. I really wish Autodesk would come out with a CAM product sometime soon.
We have purchased OneCNC for our CAM needs, but have not started using it yet. The features, user-interface, and especially the educational pricing made it the most attractive option among all the CAM packages we evaluated.
If you’d like an integrated package, SolidWorks with the HSMWorks plugin is quite attractive. I believe HSMXpress is available for free and gives you 2 1/2D capability and most functions you’d need for basic parts.
I tried Inkscape…it did not seem straight forward, but I’ll have at it again.
We use MasterCAM X5 (soon to be X6) and it works pretty well, but obviously it’s commercial…If Autodesk did something…it might be made available to students like the rest of their software.
We are trying to talk school admin into getting MasterCAM ART…but they’re dragging their heels…and the same school teacher said…“I talked to folks here and there are lots of ways to do that conversion”…“you need to look harder before we spend money”…
I’ll also look into the Solidworks stuff…but I’ve got a significant investment of “head pounding against the wall” in Inventor…don’t want to lose that / start over with new package…
As always, thanks folks for the timely responses…
Doc
If you come up with something, I for one would certainly be interested. We teach PLTW at our schools and we currently don’t have a good way for our students to go from Inventor to G-Code. But we haven’t spent a lot of time looking into it.
The machining instructor is looking into Solidworks because most companies around us use that software…
I told myself I wouldn’t do this…but it seems that I do need to get a copy of Solidworks so that I can open and edit some robotic arm plans I’ve been downloading. I have been using Autodesk Inventor Pro up till now, but for some reason, most of the hobbyist sites post plans in Solidworks format. Sometimes Inventor picks them right up…sometimes not…or it distorts the scale in a strange way. So a couple of questions…
Is there a way to get a copy of SolidWorks through FIRST like there is with Inventor?
Can Solidworks open .ai files? I have not been able to find a way to do it in Inventor Pro.
Does anyone have a link to the SolidWorks Plug in to generate g-code.
Can Inventor Pro open .ai files?
On a happy note…I finally wore the school folks down and they are ordering MasterCAM art…should be emailed in a day or so. I’m going to have that Welsh Dragon logo on my robot soon after that!!
We filled out this survey (it took about 10 minutes) and they sent us a few discs and enough licenses for the number of people we said we have on our team. It took about a week or so to get the discs.
If .ai is Adobe Illustrator, I sincerely doubt Mastercam, Solidworks, or Inventor can open it. But I don’t know for certain about any of those.
There is software for both solidworks (solidcam) and inventor (inventorcam) that runs within the respected programs and helps you to generate g-code. However, even with these programs it will still take effort to generate the toolpaths and set the work offset etc. This software is not written by Autodesk and it costs several hundred dollars for each license. Here’s price quote that I got from them.
$300 – SolidCAM/InventorCAM Base EDU
$400 - SolidCAM/InventorCAM Base EDU + HSM - (HSM gives the user more advanced functionality for machining true 3D organic surfaced models like injection mold parts)
$500 - SolidCAM/InventorCAM Base EDU + HSM + Simultaneous 5 Axes
Our team currently uses Inventor and Mastercam and it works just fine for us. That being said, we have considered trying out inventorcam because the toolpaths are linked to sketches and will automatically change with them. Mastercam Art does have the raster to vector ability as well. I hope this helps.
Thanks. Up till now we have gone the Inventor Pro --> MasterCAM route. Works fine when we’re doing the designing and machining. But we’re setting up for summer projects and are following others plans. Seems the hobbyist scene uses every conceivable format but IP…and a few I think they made up.
We have maxed our “how about some help” from the school budget and can’t afford any packages after they did get us MasterCAM art.
Guess we’ll just get the rulers and mics out, print the plans in some format and just IP2012 them ourselves. Nothing’s ever easy but it might prove good experience for the freshman.
You can then Download HSMXpress here www.hsmxpress.com to toolpath the part.
There are some great youtube videos to show you how to use HSMXpress here
As far as importing an ai. An Ai is a vector image most software that produces and AI will also produce a DXF.
To covert the file from a AI to a DXF you could open it Adobe or Corel Draw and save it as a Dxf. This DXF can then be imported by either SolidWorks or inventor.
One of the easiest to learn CAM packages is called GibbsCam. Our team has a sponsor that uses this software to CNC mill all the parts they make for us. The package will import all types of CAD files and is very simple to use.
One of my next projects is to introduce some of the CAD team to learning how to unfold sheetmetal and to program using a CAM package.
I think GibbsCam would make a great software sponsor. The higher powers of First should give them a call and make a pitch.