Fusion360 to FreeCAD for CNC and CAD / CAM to LinuxCNC with the Path workbench

I show you why I changed from Fusion360 to FreeCAD and how the changeover went.
I describe the difficulties and differences between the two programs and show the process of designing and milling an brass electrode to erode tantalum counterweights for my Stirling engine.
As always I am very happy for your comments and suggestions as I want to learn to work better and make videos you like.
I am always experimenting a lot and only if you give me feedback I know whats good and what does not works so good.
Thanks for your interest and I would be happy to read from You!
Thanks for the background music:
Song: Jim Yosef - Eclipse [NCS Release]Music provided by NoCopyrightSoundsFree Download/Stream: ncs.io/eclispeWatch: • Jim Yosef - Eclipse | ...

[@chinleybrewer]

Great to see you using FreeCAD. I've used it for years with my Denford Triac milling machine (also via LinuxCNC) and I really like it. Now subscribed.

[@PowerElectronic]

You are doing the right thing. Thank you for helping others not to become dependent on privative software.

[@myengines2443]

Thanks!

[@davidapp3730]

Nice to see positive comments on Free Cad. I use it and am having a hard time getting a handle on it due to my lack of Cad experience. I am getting better slowly.

[@gryzman]

nice, I am too confused about origins and things in FreeCAD, so maybe a video where you go through how you solved things - would be good!

[@myengines2443]

Hi, if I find time I will try, thanks.

[@MJohnRupert]

Thanks for the post.

[@myengines2443]

Thank you for your nice comment!

[@oidkqw]

It's nice to see you back at the Stirling engine! I'd be interested to see a video on the heat exchangers, and on the thermodynamic cycles. I see you did some FEM CAE for those, that'd be really interesting to hear about, especially if you did it in FreeCAD.

[@myengines2443]

When the new drive works satisfying I will focus on the heat exchangers and report about them in detail. This includes the calculation with the similarity methods of Dr. Allan Organ and the final production with my pulse EDM. I made the FEA with Ansys and will show this too if you are interested.

[@oidkqw]

@@myengines2443 Definitely! I have seen glimpses of a PV diagram in your videos, and it would be awesome if those measurements validated the FEA, especially if there is a CFD simulation of the cycle. A very high bar, I realize! But it would bring the engineering full circle (cycle) :)

[@SW-qr8qe]

Thanks!

[@myengines2443]

You're welcome

[@Skyliptor]

Great video. You can also try version 0.22, it's in development, they added a lot of features there, especially in the Sketcher workbench. There is also FreeCAD Link Branch

[@myengines2443]

When they make it a stable version I will try, thanks.

[@mikasivula654]

For the path, I'll just hide the original model and show the path model, then it's ok. I've just had my mill into working condition so I've got only little experience with path. I made the switch from f360 to FreeCAD when the first limitations came and only thing that I miss is a good assembly constraints -now I'm going with in-place design with multiple level containers for moving parts in groups..

[@myengines2443]

That sounds nice, thanks for your comment and tip!

[@HenrikSyvertsen]

Check out ondsel’s lates build, Ondsel ES for the upcoming integrated assembler

[@myengines2443]

@@HenrikSyvertsen That really looks nice, Freecad 1.0 would also sound amazing, thx for your comment...

[@AG-sy4wt]

how are you supposed to clean up the part there is extra material on the sides.. the profile will do the exterior but the actual face even with extra material allowance doesnt quite clean my edges

[@myengines2443]

I don't think I understand exactly what you mean. Sometimes you have to add a finishing cycle or adjust the cutter radius. Can you explain in more detail what you mean exactly?

[@fd15k]

FreeCAD is full of bugs and is overloaded with features to the point of them making things more difficult. It's certainly a software worth considering in the absence of a commercial CAD/CAM package, but don't get too excited.

[@wayne851]

FreeCAD still has the Topology naming problem (kzbin.info/www/bejne/h4TWh3mrbpdsoNE) I hope its not that important for you work

[@myengines2443]

Yes, I know about this fundamental problem, you always have to have it in mind when designing...