CNC software

[Carol Reed]

In my march to CNC ownership again, I want to get familiar with the software. As far as I can tell, software falls into 4 camps; CAD, CAM, Controller, and Integrated CAD/CAM. Design is done in CAD. CAM converts to gcodes. The controller sends it to the machine. Correct me if I am wrong here.

Now, my intention is to do relief type work (3D needed) and cut shapes. The machine likely will be a Joe's hybrid. Wood, plastic, and non-ferrous metals will be the mediums.

For hobbyist stuff (well, stuff will sell, just not in huge amounts), which tutorials would you be looking at if you were in my shoes? Best bang for the buck?

[Rob Wright]

Carol - download the aspire demo from Vectric. There are many free tutorials and a good help file. It is a design software for 3d relief as well as 2.5D cad/cam in one package.

You will enjoy your Joe's!

[Dave Spitzer]

Carol,

I agree, Aspire, expensive but worth it, very good training videos.

And, yes you will enjoy your Joe's. Have fun building.


Dave

[Mick A Martin]

Carol,

I also agree Aspire is the way to go if you have the money, if you don't have the money then I would suggest saving for it rather than buying other software. What soft ware are you going to use to run the CNC - Mach3 or winCNC?, Mach3 is more commonly used.

Mick

[Jerome Stanek]

Aspire is not that expensive if you look at any other 3 d software that will do what Aspire does. The help is very good and the people that make it are top notch.

[Keith Outten]

I agree with Jerome, Aspire is a bargain compared to other products of the same capability.
.

[Clarence Miller]

I use Mach 2 for the controller, and the Gecko G540 for the driver board. I have had great experiences with both in operation and customer service. I use ProgeCAD for my drafting to DXF then to DeskCNC for the g-code generation. CNCprogtools is a very price friendly cad=>g-code as well.

[John McClanahan]

Be sure the software really does what you want. Some software only does 2.5D, not 3D. Nothing wrong with 2.5D, if it does what you want. 3D will cost more $$.

John

[Chris Cates]

Once you buy the plans and get access to the hybrid forums you'll find that most of us are using either Aspire or Vcarvepro with mach to run the machine. Lots of help there.

[Eric Mims]

for 3D relief (think puffed up fleur-de-lis, puffed up nature scenes), your main choices are Artcam Pro($7500-10000), enroute pro (like this best, but expensive too, about $6500), and Aspire($2000). all can do simple 2d stuff. all have modeling capabilities. artcam and enroute have some features that Aspire doesn't, but for most people it wouldn't justify the added expense. Stay away from Type3.

for accurate 3D shapes/modeling I think the best choice in Rhino with Rhinocam ($1500 together). It's a different type of modeling (go to Rhino3d.com to see stuff you can do). Unlike the others, it is a true 3d CAD program. But it is much more difficult to do 'puffed' relief type shapes in Rhino. Keep in mind, if you are simply buying pre-made 3d reliefs online (say in STL format), then you can bring those into Rhino with no problem, as well as the others of course. It's just creating this type of thing is much much harder in Rhino. Whereas designing a boat, guitar, lofted waffled table are much easier in Rhino. Rhino may have longer learning curve, depending on your background. Though I find it much, much faster to make any shape or 2d curves other than puffed reliefs.

horses for courses, as they say

[Carol Reed]

To put further perspective on this, I am not going to be doing this full time. I don't have to make money doing this, but I won't turn down much either! I am retired, fixed income and all. Just looking to have some fun, and maybe make a couple of bucks.

I did spend some time on the Aspire website last night. Thus far I am thinking VCarvePro and PhotoVCarve will do what I am currently envisioning. But there is much research left to do.

Keep it coming. Thanks.

[Jerome Stanek]

If you are not going to be doing 3d designing and just buy your 3d models you could get by nwith Vcarve Pro and Photo Vcarve. James Booth at Vector arts 3d has some nice models and you can use his 3d machineist software.

[Brad Knight]

Anyone have an opinion on software for 4th axis machining?? I know that Aspire does the wrapping, but you can't run an actual 3d model. I'm thinking along the lines of a chess set - Aspire would be awesome for everything except the Knight- what software would be the best for the Knight?

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

MeshCAM can do indexed 4 axis.
DeskProto would probably cut it faster, but costs 5 times more.

[Eric Mims]

rhinocam can do true 4 axis (not sure how much that module costs). not sure about artcam and enroute. of course, mastercam and the big boy packages can do that stuff too.