Hi Mike,
I will definitely consider MadCAM as I prograss with this whole project. Right now I have assess to RhinoCAM and Visual Mill 5, and I already do all my design work in Rhino3D. So I will probably try RhinoCAM first then give MadCAM a try. I'm a violin maker and, even though I have been carving these things by hand for years, as I get older my endurance is just not what it was 20 years ago. Hence the move to automation. In my case, once I get the g-code for an instrument that works well, I can stick with that same file for years. I assume in your case the stock (or grip) would change for each individual.
Would you consider someday putting together a tutorial on how you go about designing a stock in Rhino from scratch? Considering how fond I am of Rhino I always like to encourage people to write down their method for putting a model together.
I'm not sure that there is a great advantage to upgrading to Rhino 4 when it comes out. My understanding is that most of the changes effect it's 2D functionality more than any thing else, which would be great for making blueprints, but there aren't a whole lot of changes to it's 3D functionality.
I did look at the MadCAM site and it dose look very powerful and easy to use.
Steven  |