Eastwood Verda-cut software compatibility?

[Thunderbolt427]

New to plasma tables and Cnc in general.
So I bought the Eastwood Versa-cut 4x4 - complete setup with controller and plasma cutter. Works great so far with the preloaded shapes built into the controller. They recommend Autodesk Fusion 360 for the custom parts . Trying to figure out if this table will work with PlasmaCam software.

Here is Eastwoods specs: ( For the CAD/CAM we highly recommend Autodesk Fusion 360. It has design, and machine pathing all-in-one. You may also import and existing DXF/DWG/Solidworks or other common CAD files types if you just want to use it for the CAM (the table's computer itself only accepts post processed Gcode .cnc files). They have a free trial period and offer a free subscription for small businesses/start ups.

The post processor for Fusion 360 is the same one as our 55132 Elite table, download it here: https://www.eastwood.com/images/library ... wnload.cps

The only alternative I have tinkered with is SheetCAM. If you want to use that I can supply you a post processor for it. Just reach out to our technical support team and I can have them forward it to you. help@eastwood.com )

Now here is PlasmaCam software description :
Yes. Our DesignEdge software is so powerful, fast and easy to use that hundreds of customers buy it to design for and even program laser, water jet, and other plasma cutting machines. However it can’t directly run these machines the way you’ve seen PlasmaCAM machines run. You’ll still have to use your machine’s software that executes G-Code programs, and you won’t be able to change things on the fly. This, plus the fact that other plasma cutting machines can’t cut as fine of detail with the same speed and accuracy, makes customers often prefer the economics of reselling them—so they can get the full performance and streamlined operation of a PlasmaCAM system.

[weldguy]

You can use the Pcam software to design what you want but from there the process will be to save your design as a dxf file from Pcam then take that to Fusion or Sheetcam for post processing to create the gcode for your Eastwood table.

[Thunderbolt427]

Thank you so much for the response. If it were you would you just concentrate on learning the Fusion 360 and just use that or would you ever even consider the Plasmacam software at 4K just for their software.? I'm a mechanic and welder so CAD/CAM is very foreign to me which is why I was looking at a dedicated plasma software which is suppose to be fairly easy to use
Man , I wish someone made a really basic , simple plasma table only software for people like me. I'd pay a grand for it al day long.

[adbuch]

Thunderbolt - I have been using the Plasmacam Design Edge software for about 8 years now as that is what came with my Plasmacam table. Since you are just starting out - I would not recommend buying the Design Edge software at this time. Fusion 360 is free - and I would concentrate on learning it as you start your cnc plasma cutting journey. I personally use many different software programs - including Design Edge, Inkscape, Fusion 360, CorelDraw, and several others. For you mechanical parts - Fusion 360 will be great. Once you have completed your design, you can either save as dxf and do your cam/post processing with SheetCam (which is how I would probably do it) or do everything using Fusion 360.

It has been my personal experience that Fusion 360 often "hangs up" (ie. slows down) when creating complex cutting paths. This is most likely due to the fact that it is "cloud based" and relies on the Autodesk servers performance (or lack of performance). But for drawing purely mechanical parts - Fusion 360 is great.

If you were to purchase the Design Edge software, then I would recommend just buying one of their GoTorch tables for around $4k which includes the basic Design Edge software.

[urlhttps://www.gotorch.com/index.html][/url]

gotorch software.jpg

Then spend the additional $998 to upgrade to Advanced Design. So basically for an additional $1k you have a nice 2x2 table complete with controller, servo motors, etc. Design Edge will not run your Eastwood table - you can do all of your design with Design Edge and then export as dxf. Then import your dxf to SheetCam for your cam/post processing.

Langmuir has some great Fusion 360 tutorial videos pertaining to cnc plasma cutting.

https://www.langmuirsystems.com/software/fusion

For more artistic pieces - I would recommend Inkscape. It's free, quite powerful, and very easy to use. I often use Inkscape to create/edit artistic pieces, then save as dxf for import to Design Edge for cutting (since I have a Plasmacam table). Otherwise import your dxf file to SheetCam for your cam/post processing.

If you get into manual tracing of artistic parts - then CorelDraw has a very nice B-Spline tool which I much prefer to doing a manual trace with Inkscape. You can purchase CorelDraw at Amazon for just over $100.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08XZ ... =UTF8&th=1

This is a one-time price for perpetual license with no monthly fees.

Let me know if you have any questions specific to any of these programs and I will do my best to answer them,

David

[Thunderbolt427]

Thanks