CNC Machining Process Steps
Table of Contents
1 CAD Modelling.......................................................................................2
1.1 Open SolidWorks.............................................................................2
1.2 Create a new part...........................................................................2
1.3 Example: Create a license plate.....................................................4
1.3.1 Draw your part as a 2D sketch.................................................4
2 CAM Modelling....................................................................................15
2.1 Open Autodesk Fusion..................................................................15
3 Importing Sketch from PDF.................................................................35
3.1 Save single page from PDF...........................................................35
3.2 Convert the PDF to a drawing format...........................................36
3.3 Importing into Autodesk Fusion....................................................38
1 CAD Modelling
The first step in running the CNC machine, is to create parts in CAD.
1.1 Open SolidWorks
1.2 Create a new part
Save the part, and ensure the “Save as type” is “STEP AP214” format. This
is to ensure the CAM software can open the CAD model
Click on the “Sketch tab” and then “Sketch” to start your drawing. You
must select the correct plane of your drawing
1.3 Example: Create a license plate
1.3.1Draw your part as a 2D sketch
After selecting the “Top Plane” for the sketch, use the “Rectangle” tool to
create the initial shape, disregarding the sizes for now
Select the “Smart Dimension” tool and select the line until it turns orange
to add dimensions
Add your dimensions in the pop-up window. Enter 50mm and press
“Enter” on the keyboard or the Green Tick mark in the pop-up window. Do
the same for the vertical dimension. We are using dimensions of 50mm by
30mm
Click on “Exit Sketch”
Now that the sketch it completed, we will need to add the thickness of the
part to create a 3D model. Go to the “Features tab”
Select “Extruded Boss/Base” to add thickness. Click on the sketch lines.
Change to thickness on the left to 21.5mm. If it does not detect the full
shape, ensure the lines are featuring in the “Selected Contours” section
on the bottom left.
Click on the green tick when done
Now we will add letters to engrave. Start with a new sketch and select the
top part of the cube
Optionally, to add an edge on the outside, select “Offset Entities”. Select
each of the 4 lines in the model. You can change the offset amount on the
left, 4mm in this case. Click the green tick mark when done
To sink in this rectangle to create an edge, select the “Extruded Cut” tool.
Select the lines you would like to cut and enter the cut depth. Click the
green tick mark when done.
To add text to engrave, create a new sketch. Click on the lowered portion
of the cutout
Then we must create a reference line for the text to follow. We must make
this dynamic to center the text. Click on the “Line” tool and create a line
that will be adjust our text’s vertical positioning (click at each of the red
circles below, then press escape. This will create the 2 lines we need. We
can change the dimensions afterwards by just selecting each line.
Next we add the text. Select the “Text” tool. Under the “Curves” section,
ensure we select the horizontal line create previously. Under the “Text”
section, enter your desirec text – we entered the letter “D”. Just below
that, select the middle justification button to center align it. For the text
size, untick the “Use document font” box, then click on “Font”. A new pop-
up box appears. Here you can enter the text height – we used 14mm, and
click “OK”.
Click on the green tick mark when done
Now we can adjust our vertical alignment by changing the length of the
vertical reference line created previously. Click on it to change the vertical
positioning of the text – we used 4mm
For both lines, make sure you tick “For construction” in the Options
section.
Construction lines appear as dotted lines
Now that the text is entered, we can add thickness to it to ensure we
remove material around it. Click on “exit sketch” as before, go to
“features” tab, select “Excluded Boss/Base” and select the text.
Enter 3mm on the left to make align it with the top height of the block.
Click the green tick mark when done
The CAD model is now completed.
2 CAM Modelling
The CAM model will use the CAD model above to create the g-code that
the CNC machine will understand.
2.1 Open Autodesk Fusion
Click on “File”, the “Open”
Click on “Open from my computer” and select the CAD file you created in
SolidWorks
The CAD model is now imported into Autodesk Fusion. Now we must
ensure the orientation is correct
Click on “Move / Copy” at the top. Select the model. Now we must decide
which axis to rotate around.
We can see our Top side need to be rotated 90 degrees around the x-axis.
Enter 90 degrees in the “X Angle” to flip it. Click OK when completed.
Save the file at the top. Once done, click on “Design”, then click on
“Manufacture”. This will take us to the setup for the g-code
Click on the “Setup” dropdown, and select “New Setup”
Click on “Stock” to enter the details of the material that will be fitted to
the CNC machine
On the Mode, select “Fixed size box”
Enter the stock width, depth, and height. Make sure the “round to nearest
integer” is 0.5mm.
Now click on the “Setup” tab
Under the Work Coordinate System (WCS), go to Orientation and select “Z
axis/plane & X axis”
Under the Z Axis you just selected, you will see “Edge”. Do the same for
the X Axis.
This is what it should look like. Notice that the Z and Y axes are showing
the wrong direction
Click on “Flip Z Axis” on the right
Under the Origin section, select “Stock box point”. This is to ensure that
when we zero the CNC starting coordinates, it knows where to start.
A new option will appear, “Stock Point”. Select this, and click on the stock
starting point on the left. Click OK once done. The stock is now created
and the coordinate system is defined.
Now we will create the routing. Click on the “2D” dropdown and select “2D
Pocket”
A popup window appears. Click on “Select” in the tool section.
On the new window, click on “Library” under the local section. Select the
3.2mm bit in the middle, and click on “Select” at the bottom of the screen
Click on the Geometry tab. Click on “Select” next to pocket selections.
Then click in the model part that needs to be cut out.
Select the Heights tab and ensure the clearance, retract, feed, and top
heights are all from the “Stock top” and at their default offsets.
Make sure the bottom height is the maximum depth you’d like to cut. For
basic engraving, this can be the 3mm depth we have in this example.
Select the “Selection” option and click on the bottom face as shown below.
This ensures it won’t cut deeper than the face we selected.
Click on the Passes tab. Tick the “Multiple Depths” box to enable it. Make
sure the maximum roughing step is not greater than 0.4mm.
Ensure “Stock to Leave” is unticked. Click OK once done.
Now we will create the path to cut out the model. Click on 2D, then 2D
Contour
Click on the Geometry tab, and select the bottom edge of the model since
we want to cut out our model.
Tick the “Tabs” block and enter the height, width, and number of tabs that
should keep the model connected to the stock to avoid it coming loose
while cutting it out
On the Heights tab, ensure again that all are set from stock top with their
default offsets. For the bottom height, choose “Selection” and click on the
bottom edge of the model since we want to cut all the way through.
On the Passes tab, tick the “Multiple Depths” box and make sure the
maximum roughing step is set to 0.4mm
The tool paths are now generated
Make sure to simulate the paths to ensure there are no errors and that it is
working as expected. To do this, click on Setup on the left, then under the
Actions dropdown, click Simulate
The top right will show if there are any errors under verification complete.
In the middle bottom is a play button – click that to start the simulation.
The Circle on the line just below the play button is the simulation speed –
going further right increases simulation speed, left decreases the speed.
On the right is a Simulate box, click on “Statistics” and look under
“Machine time” to see how long it will take. You can reduce the machine
time by increasing the maximum roughing step above.
Now we can generate the G-Code for the CNC machine. Click on the
Actions dropdown and select Post Processing
Make sure the Post is Grbl / grbl. Enter a suitable name under
Name/number and you can change the Name at the bottom NCProgram3
if you’d like.
On the Operations tab make sure all Setups are selected. Click Post when
done
Go to this path to find the G-code file: C:\Users\lizda\OneDrive\
Documentos\Fusion 360\NC Programs
Open the License Plate Test file at the top. If there is a mention of “Manual
tool change”, remove it and save this file. You can now upload this to the
USB stick. Make sure the SD card is inserted into the USB stick.
Remove the SD card from the USB stick and insert into the CNC Machine.
See video to operate CNC.
3 Importing Sketch from PDF
3.1 Save single page from PDF
Select the print button on the right and remember the page number in the
middle
Make sure it indicates “Microsoft Print to PDF” and that the correct page
you want to save is indicated below e.g. page 4 in this case. The page you
selected is showing on the right in the preview. Select Print at the bottom
left.
Enter a file name and save the file
3.2 Convert the PDF to a drawing format
Open Google Chrome and click on this document converter link
Click on “Choose Files” and select the file you just saved
Click on the top dropdown and select SVG. Click “Convert”
Once it shows “Finished”, click on download
3.3 Importing into Autodesk Fusion
Open Autodesk Fusion
Click on “Insert” and select “Insert SVG”
Click on Insert from Computer
Go to Downloads, select the SVG file, and click on Open
Select the Sketch plane, this will usually be the top plane. Click OK
Click on Finish Sketch
Select the additional parts of the sketch you would like to remove and
press delete on your keyboard
Now you have the single sketch in the canvas
Save the file
Click on Extrude to add thickness to the sketch to create the 3D model.
Select the inside of the sketch. Enter the thickness and click OK
Now you have a 3D model. Follow the CAM setup for the CNC g-code
generation
