Why CNC?

[Tom]

can somebody explain to me why?

For me it's the same, the pleasure and freedom of being able to design something that doesn't necessarily have many straight lines in it. It's a bonus that you can make 2 or 3 in a similar time as it takes to make one (make one, sell one, give one away). My machine has only been running a couple of weeks, and isn't truly finished, but I'm loving CNC so far - if you can imagine it, you can make it!

So perhaps you can answer another question which follows on from that, namely "Which CAD?" AutoCAD is a good commercial product but hopelessly over-priced for hobby use. Whis is the most popular CAD/CAM amongst the users of this forum? Is there such a thing as a concensus?

My workflow at the moment is ProgeCAD Smart -> Cambam plus (still in my 40 trial startups) -> EMC2. This is fine for 2D and 2.5D cutting. The programs import and export via DXF.
ProgeCAD Smart is basically the same as autocad, and free for non-commercial use. http://www.progesoft.com/en/smart-2009

Later I'm going to get more into 3D forms (I have a very specific project to make a wedding present for some good friends), and have started to learn Blender (a pretty steep curve). Again export via DXF, but I haven't tested Cambam like this yet...

I don't know about a consensus though! :)

In summary, if you need to find some critical views on CNC, you probably need to try a different forum!!

[saxonhawthorn]

[quote=Tom;9740]
if you can imagine it, you can make it!

Tom, that has to be the quote of the week. :)

It was seeing all the hardware bits on eBay that set me wondering what the attraction was? But as you and others have pointed out, it's clearly the ease of CAD design that most attracts people to CNC, and I can understand that.

I think tomorrow (and probably quite a lot of tomorrows) will now be spent reviewing CAD packages. Then once I have found one I'm happy with I'll start thinking about bolting steppers on to my lathe.

Ian

[ptjw7uk]

Hi Saxonhawthorn,
Have a look at this one (free) http://doublecad.com/Download/tabid/1128/Default.aspx at bottom of page the free one.
I just remembered I had loaded it and have just tried it, looks OK but like any of the others will take time to look around, spent 10 minutes trying to find the ortho button.

Peter

[jonm]

hi
have you heard of the cnc toolkit,a plugin for gmax which is a free version off 3ds max , can make toolpaths from objects made in gmax, and generate g code all for freehttp://www.cnc-toolkit.com/
a manual for cnc toolkit can be downloaded here http://www.cnc4free.org/

[saxonhawthorn]

My word! You gents are all extremely helpful. The http://www.cnc4free.org/ link is a very useful one Jon, and seems to have the right philosophy for me now that we have to live on my meagre pension, namely: "If it costs money, we don't do it."

But looking at some of the lovely things people have made, I must say I am beginning to get the CNC bug :)

Ian.

[saxonhawthorn]

Thanks for the link Peter. I have downloaded DoubleCad, but I hope the product itself was not written by the person who wrote the download form. It demanded from me a company name I haven't got; then even worse, demanded that I tell them the most-used CAD packages in my non-existent company, offering me a list to choose from, most of which I had never heard of and none of which I have ever used, without even thinking of giving me a "none of the above" exit from the input loop.

This is an appalling way to write any code. I spent 25 years writing software for a living, and one thing I learnt from that is that more than half your code space (and programming time) is taken up by exception and error handling; i.e. when the real world (or the end user) doesn't do what you think it's going to do. I shall look with interest at DoubleCAD, but I hope it's error handling is better than that on their web site!

In the bath this morning (which is where I do my most productive design work) an approach to the expensive software problem occurred to me which I need to experiment with. It may be of interest to others here, and if so I'll post details when I've tried it. Won't be until after Christmas though; too much needs to be done in the workshop first.

Ian