Fusion 360 Text Engraving Simplified (11 Minutes start to finish)

Using Fusion 360 to engrave text using an MPCNC CNC milling machine.
I struggled for a long time before all the pieces came together and hopefully this simple video helps others productive faster than I was.
This video is just over 11 minutes and includes all design and milling in real time. That's how long it takes to design in Fusion, send to your milling machine and actually manufacture it.
The MPCNC I made uses an SKR Pro V1.2 controller with TMC2209 stepper drivers. NEMA 17 steppers (84 oz-in) with a RepRap Discount full graphic display and a 52MM spindle. It runs marlin 2.0.7.2 firmware.
The Fusion 360 Post Processor for the MPCNC is available from github.com/guffy1234/mpcnc_po...
I made very few changes to the MPCNC post processor settings. I enabled Z probe. I set the Z probe plate thickness. I think that was all.

[@johnagorman]

perfect! exactly what i needed to know. plus the "Save as default" was a great bonus. thanks!

[@tjones99]

Thanks. Makes it worth it to hear that.

[@gerrishp22]

Thank you for producing this helpful video. I bought a CNC engraver for my son and this got us going with creating our own designs.

[@tjones99]

Glad it helped. I know I struggled for a while. Welcome to the fascinating and useful world of CNC!

[@mikeherald6014]

awesome!!! Thank you for making this, been using Fusion for years for 3D printing and i'm about to start engraving and cutting, big help

[@ellerycoffman]

Great video. For new users like me, I would also point out that depth of the engraving is determined by the lines outlining the border of the text. Also, a 2D milling trace command with an axial offset can be useful to do engraving for non-enclosed objects (e.g. lines, etc...).

[@tjones99]

Good tips!

[@VAM_Physics_and_Engineering]

this video was super helpful! thanks you for making it.

[@tjones99]

Thanks for the feedback. My struggles told me something simple was needed.

[@morturn]

Super helpful video, Thank you. I managed to use this on my LowRider that I have just built. I have to do a few tweaks to the Fusion 360 Post Processor and tools library etc but it’s a start.

[@tjones99]

Glad it helped. I think I should have gone low rider... I always want BIGGER!!!

[@dmcwoodworx2968]

THANKS, IF only other tutorials were as easy to understand. I'd be an Expert by now.

[@tjones99]

Thanks. Glad it helped. I know I struggled.

[@ChainsawDNA]

Excellent tutorial!

[@tjones99]

Thanks.

[@omsingharjit]

Which post processor for arduino based cnc?

[@phil7791]

This is a great tutorial. I really like Inkscape however for the 2d text design. Is it possible to just make the stock in Fusion and then import an SVG onto the face of it?

[@tjones99]

I have not imported from Inkscape yet but I see no reason why that wouldn't work.

[@traceyflanders]

Thanks for sharing😃

[@tjones99]

Thanks for watching!

[@nestorcarlos4902]

Awesome thank you

[@tjones99]

Thanks for the feedback! Makes the effort worthwhile.

[@morturn]

This is one of the better, if not best CNC Fusion 360 instructional videos I have seen to date, thank you. When I tried this, It did take a full depth cut so am thinking can I program it to take a series of cuts instead? Are you able to tell me how to I enabled the Z probe too please?

[@tjones99]

Been a while but pretty sure I just added the z probe GCODE into my machine definition for the MPCNC in fusion360. My recollection is that I created a couple of different machine definitions. One I did a home for X Y and Z and the other I just did a home on Z so I could manually set where I wanted x and y to start. I can look at my definition if you want and see.

[@MioFoSho]

Thanks!

[@tjones99]

Welcome. It’s a popular video so I suspect I was not alone.

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

I thought I might be able to save you a step and make edits easier. You don't need to explode the text. When you explode the text, it really isn't text anymore. If you don't explode it, you can go back and change the size, font, etc. about the text. Exploding the text just makes a bit more work for you should you want to make any edits.

[@tjones99]

I don't believe that is the case for engraving. For example for a letter O you need the two paths for it to engrave in between them. As a letter (unexploded text) you cannot select that path to engrave. Unless something has chanegd...

[@MechanicalAdvantage]

Give it a shot and you will see that Fusion will have no problem coming up with the inner and outer borders of text that isn't exploded using the engrave function (it works with Trace as well). Thanks for the reply and for making the video.

[@RozetRides]

@2:47 you are wrong. I followed your instructions exactly and it gave me the error “could not retrieve the profiles of the selected text. I paid for fusion so there should be nothing from holding me back.

[@tjones99]

What font did you use for the text?

[@RozetRides]

@@tjones99 paint something or another. It’s a cursive looking text.

[@tjones99]

@@RozetRides then try the font I used in my video and see if you get the same error Don’t have to carve it. Just see if fusion likes it. Fusion may not know how to turn the font you have chosen into a path.