4 axis machining software

[alboy]

If you use aspire then you already have software that will use a 4 axis machine. Aspire will let you wrap/unwrap and can handle turned work and figurines, plenty of examples on youtube.

[komatias]

Deskproto is a reasonably priced package. Been trialling it for some time for 4 axis stuff. It is good for most applications if a bit simple for my needs. Hobby licences cost around €250 which is pretty good considering.

[AndrewMawson]

I notice from their web site that Deskproto that they have a delayed millennium bug which is potentially going to cause issues:

Delayed Millennium Bug
A serious error has been discovered in both DeskProto V6.0 and V6.1
Due to a bug in the protection software the program can not be started in 2016 or later !
This applies to programs with a Build date (see the About box) before November 2015.
Download your bugfix release at the Buildhistory page.

[AndrewMawson]

OK I gave up with Fusion 360. Good package, obviously excellent price (free) but also obviously not written by machinists - getting things working on my hardware was a nightmare.

I've bought CAMBAM and cannot praise it enough. Fairly basic, but very adequate drawing package but you can import models if you wish. But for my 4th axis they have a 'wrapper' plug in rather like CNCwrapper. It wasn't perfect (too many digits after the decimal point for my Heidenhain controller). I sent a message to the author and within 24 hours he had amended the plug in embedding controls to allow choice of not only the number of digits after the decimal point in the 'wrapped G code' but also allowing suppression of comments, which my controller had objected to. When it came to fine tuning my post processor, again lots of help from the CAMBAM forum resulting rapidly in a working solution.

Yes I'm a happy bunny :)

[njhussey]

OK I gave up with Fusion 360. Good package, obviously excellent price (free) but also obviously not written by machinists - getting things working on my hardware was a nightmare.

I've bought CAMBAM and cannot praise it enough. Fairly basic, but very adequate drawing package but you can import models if you wish. But for my 4th axis they have a 'wrapper' plug in rather like CNCwrapper. It wasn't perfect (too many digits after the decimal point for my Heidenhain controller). I sent a message to the author and within 24 hours he had amended the plug in embedding controls to allow choice of not only the number of digits after the decimal point in the 'wrapped G code' but also allowing suppression of comments, which my controller had objected to. When it came to fine tuning my post processor, again lots of help from the CAMBAM forum resulting rapidly in a working solution.

Yes I'm a happy bunny :)

Glad you've cracked it Andrew!! I'm interested in this as I'd like to add a 4th axis to my router and I have CAMBAM (amongst others) so am happy to see that there is a plugin....definitely going to look at this when the time comes to add the 4th axis...