Morning All

[baccus61]

You have to look at what you are going to do with CNC and what area you need to branch into. A lot of people and businesses only need 2 1/2D where the tool drops to a certain depth you've programmed for that particular job and then the tool follows the path you created in X,Y coordinates. There are a lot of fairly cheap, and free, programs out there that can do 2 1/2D. Turbo Cad would suit your needs for this type of designing but it's STL implementation for 3D work is pretty slow when designing. STL is probably one of the most widely used formats in CAD programming for 3D work but now with the advent of solid modelling a lot of CAM programs work straight out of the solid modelling programs to generate the tool paths. These would be way out of your price tag if you are just starting out. Think $5000 plus for the Cad and Cam packages.

I used to use TurboCad V15 but now use CorelDraw X4 because it is way better for the laser cutting programs I have and the drawing is also a lot easier to get used to. I haven't paid for the other upgrades of TurboCad as it was just costing me too much every time a new version came out and the 3D functionality of it is pretty darn hard to use. I have used Rhinoceros a couple of times and it's a great little program and has a very good following and if I had the money I would buy that in a second. You can download a copy and use it for 25 saves which is the best trial for a software product out there. It's pretty easy to use and very capable. If your computer stuffs up and you have to reformat then you can run it again, as I have about 5 times.
Aspire is another program that I would like to have which can do 2 1/2D as well as full 3D and is a rival of the premier 3D program ArtCamPro and is in the range of the home user. For the price there probably isn't a better program out there that I know of but I haven't looked around for a while so there are probably another 2 dozen out there I don't know of that are equally capable.

My CAM software is DeskProto V5 from Lex Lennings in Holland and that is a great little and versatile program too. This converts the drawing into G-Code for it to be used in the machine controller program. It can do flat, rotary, double sided, and N sided where you set the number of sides it can cut. It's fast and the code is very good and clean and you can set up code snippets at the start of the G-Code as well as at the end of it to suit your work style or machining environment. Lex had a sale on about 1 year ago and sold the full version for about $800 off the full price as long as it was only used for home use. I snapped up a copy with haste.

Then comes Mach3 or EMC for the machine controller. I haven't used EMC but it is popular with the Linux people and I think it is free.
Mach3 is cheap at about $150 and is very versatile and open ended. People are continually upgrading it with add-ons and more functionality.
One of the best and also one of the worst things about Mach3 is it is so configurable. You can change almost anything in the program yourself (with a lot of study) and use it to control just about anything you can think of. I haven't got the time to do any programming so I just use the basic set up and a couple of plug-ins..

I hope some other people here let you know what they use and as I have said before I haven seen what's out there for ages. The CAD package is probably where you will have the most choice and the most head scratching over as there are so many out there.
Here, below, is one site with a few to choose from. You would probably only need the lite versions to start with and work your way up to a full package when you work out which direction you can go.

http://www.cad.com.au/

If your taste runs towards wood work and 3D designs then have a look here. http://www.for3d.ru and scroll down to the Chief's office. Absolutely stunning work and it's all for sale at a price.
In my view it's THE premier 3D file site on the web and it's here I get most of my 3D files from. I just can't draw 3D stuff any better and in comparison I create stick figures. I think they use a combination of ArtCamPro and 3D StudioMax to do their drawings.

Just some of the programs I have listed here will set you back a pretty penny.
Some of the other people here will let you know of the free stuff you can get. I'm pretty sure there is a lot of it out there with differing levels of ease of use.

Some links to sites with content.

http://3dmodelclub.com/cmsj15/#.T1XlNPHxqn0

http://www.3drilievi.it/Forum/index.php/index

And here is a site with some G-Code explanations.

http://machmotion.com/cnc-info/g-code.html

This will keep you going for a while.

Remember that little kid grin you had on your face when you were watching that CNC mill at work? Be prepared to have on on your face for a lot longer when you finally get one of your own machines up and running.
The sky is your limit ( or probably your cheque book)

Rich.

[MAW]

Hi Rich
Many thanks for the very informative reply and taking time out to help me , I have included a copy of a screen shot that a design chap put together for me a while ago.. He drew it up for me as a favour during his lunch time last year , I passed him a stack of photography books and helping him out with a camera... I have a STL file for it and can open it with a copy of freemill.. The part needs some re work but I cant see that as a problem back to the design chaps, which should not cost too much as I have the file already.
This is the type of thing I would like to make , it will be made from Acetal along with about another 7 or 8 jobs I am working on , I was made redundant in the middle of last year so the parts are for some equipment I am working on. I have had some of the parts out for quote from some of the engineering companies I used in the past but the prices that come back are a little frightening .. To be honest they are small batch work that’s probably more of a pain to make.. which I fully understand ... I have made up a test part by hand “ knife and forking it “ has my friend Ray would have said . Would this be classed as 3d or 2 ½ d

Many Thanks for everyone’s help so far

Mark

[JAZZCNC]

Mark check your PM's but depending which side of barnsley I only live 8 miles away maybe less.!!

So come have a cuppa, bring your acetal and we'll knock them off in no time. They are 2D/2.5D by the way.