Slicer for Fusion 360 topics

[gmelantoni]

Update Aug 17, 2020:

Here is the last stable release of Slicer: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/fusion-360/downloads/caas/downloads/content/slicer-for-fusion...

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Moving support for Slicer for Fusion 360 into the forums. The app will be in maintenance for the time being. Since we believe it still provides a lot of value, we want to keep it available until we find the opportunity to either update it or move its core functions into Fusion 360 itself.

These are the current know issues:

•  On some Windows 10 machines, Slicer crashes. Try updating your graphic card drivers. If you have onboard graphics, they may just not be powerful enough for supporting Slicer's graphic system.
• After deprecation of TLS1.0, Slicer can't sign in. You can still do all the work offline and save locally.
• You can't find Win or Mac version. There's a button on the store that leads to the other version you are looking for, The active state is not very clear.
• Slicer fails to show any slices. The material may be too thin or there are too many slices. Slicer was initially thought for plywood, acrylic and cardboard in low to medium complexity models.
• Panelization's numbers are wrong. This is a bug, unfortunately. In models of low or medium complexity, you can use the 3d model on screen to guide the right connections.

[michael55SE4]

Does Slicer work with on the Mac with the latest Fusion360 and macOS Catalina?   I see the bundle installed, but can't find the functionality anywhere.

/Users/czei/Library/Containers/com.autodesk.mas.fusion360/Data/Library/Application Support/Autodesk/ApplicationPlugins/Slicer for Fusion 360.bundle/

[gmelantoni]

There is a problem that we won't be able to solve in which Slicer doesn't communicate with Fusion 360, but you can export a mesh (STL or OBJ) from Fusion 360, and then open Slicer as standalone and import the mesh.

[JeromeBriot]

@michael55SE4, the add-in is under the MAKE menu of the TOOLS panel. But as @gmelantoni said, it will not work inside of Fusion 360. You have to run Slicer separately.

[michael55SE4]

I'm glad it's working for you, but it's not showing up on my menu as you can see in the attached screenshot. That's why I posted for help.

Also, how does one run it separately?   The download appears to be a plugin, not a standalone program.  Unless there's some other place it's supposed to be downloaded from?

[michael55SE4]

How does one "open Slicer standalone" ?    It appears to be a macOS bundle of files with no executable.  

[gmelantoni]

When you install Slicer, you should also get a direct access from outside of Fusion 360.

If you had that option and clicked on it, you will see a sign in error in Slicer that will log out Fusion 360.

I really recommend to open Slicer from your desktop.

[michael55SE4]

That would be great, but the only option in the macOS installer for the latest Slicer is "Change Install Location", and that only lets you select between disks, not an actual folder.  

Thanks!  Unfortunately nothing in the Read Me or Introduction pages say anything about running it standalone.  

I did find a python file in the bundle, and tried running that through the python interpreter, but that looks to just be a shell.

[gmelantoni]

If you are on MacOS, just type Slicer on Spotlight and you should get it there. You should also find it on the Applications folder on Finder.

[michael55SE4]

That was it, thanks!

[michael55SE4]

I'm trying Slicer for the first time, and after playing around with LuBan was really expecting more from Slicer in terms of layout.   The pieces I'm designing would have many hundreds of parts, and its not reasonable to spend a week rotating pieces to fit on a stock CNC when that's something that is easily automated.

LuBan does do the layout optimization for cutting, but unfortunately appears to be written by an amateur programmer and is also full of bugs.   The critical missing piece is the ability to remove sections, as I'm trying to put in custom patterns, and with LuBan, its their way or the highway.

So I tried Slicer, but without the layout piece, there's no way to manufacture the design so its back to the drawing back 😞  

[michael55SE4]

Wow, that's a crazy amount of work!   That's pretty much scared me off from trying to base any products on Slicer at this point.  Its a nice demo, but it would cost of fortune in design time to manufacture even something simple.  

[gmelantoni]

With Fusion 360 being able to take care of nesting, this was not an area where Slicer needed to focus on, given that the connection to the machines is not happening on the app. Since we have a broad portfolio, we focused on the piece that Slicer had to solve, which was define the techniques for slicing the model according to different needs.

[Anonymous]

There appears to be a bug in the "Slot Offset" feature. It doesn't work. Inputting any number above 0 will decrease the sizes of the slots in the slices instead of increasing them, making it impossible to fit the slices together. Inputting a negative number has no effect (or it's the same as entering 0). So the best fit you can possibly hope to achieve is a fit where the slot is exactly the same size as the material thickness, which oftentimes makes for a very tight fit, especially if 3D printed. The workaround is to lie to the program by telling it your material thickness is thicker than it actually is. And I don't like lying.

[Anonymous]

Any update on the status of this app? It looks like it's currently unavailable in the app store. 

[PropChad]

It's not going to get any updates. If you go to the following link, jodom4 posted a temporary place to download the app to use as standalone, DO NOT try to use it with Fusion 360.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-support/slicer-for-fusion-360/m-p/9690376#M97322

[kevin.c.galloway]

Is there a 64-bit download?  I have Windows 10. 

Also, is there an alternative software that can do roughly the same thing that is being supported?  Thank you!

[cmcampbellNDCUJ]

I'm trying to generate stacked slices from a obj. file and keep getting an error message "Number of sheet generated is 0..." I have tried changing my manufacturing settings and the scale of the model. No luck. All other construction techniques seem to be working and produces sheets. Stacked slices have worked previously with similar objects, scales and manufacturing settings. The final product will be laser cut in plywood from the outputted dxf files.

If slicer is no longer an option I'd be interested in knowing other ways to achieve the same ends. Although I can slice the obj. mesh in Fusion 360 I haven't been able to figure out how to generate a dxf files from the cut profile. Meshmixer does not seem to offer a precise way to slice the obj. mesh at regular intervals and I also don't know if it can generated dxf files from the cut profile. 

Very sad to see that slicer is no longer being developed and supported. It offered a lot of value and there seems to be nothing else like it on the market. If there is, please point me in the right direction.

[hfcandrew]

Meshmixer can. Just need to turn on 'snap step'. Then it will display the values.

[cmcampbellNDCUJ]

Thanks @hfcandrew  This is helpful. I can get more precise slices but don't see a way to export them as a dxf/svg or other type of file for laser cutting. I'm new to meshmixer so perhaps I'm missing something. The svg export doesn't seem to give me what I want.

If I can export 2d files is there any way to do a large number of slices at a specified distance? Slicer was really the right tool for the job. I'm cutting a 300mm object every 3mm so that's 100 cuts. Slicer would do the cuts all at once to at a specified distance, lay them out according to my sheet size and automatically number the profiles for easy assembly. 

Mesh mixer is a great for working with the obj files and preparing things for 3D printing, but doesn't seem to be geared for generating 2d files for laser cutting. Or maybe I haven't dug deep enough.

[hfcandrew]

Ya for a project this big it gets a little repetitive.

Personally I spent waaaaaay too much time fine tuning how to do this in Meshmixer. And I made a custom program in python to automate the slicing process, and also automates a labeled printout screenshot in Meshmixer, all using the mmAPI.

Anyways after you slice go then 'Edit>Seperate shells' to create a new object for each slice.

Meshmixer also has auto-nesting (Analysis>layout/packing), just change your printer bed in MM to your stock size.

Also I export the whole layout as an ASCII-STL and cut that perimeter directly, I don't use dxf/svg.

I'd recommend you figure out a proper way, and if you don't get anywhere, then sure, I'll lead you down the rabbit hole of MM.