Originally Posted by macdarren  This question turned up in my own search.
I am previewing both Cut3d and MeshCam
So far both programs seem to have points in their favor and against.
What I have seen is MeshCam has some nice finishing options but is not very intuitive to use. While Cut3D seems to be very easy to use and has some nice roughing features.
My concerns about which to buy go something like this....I was planning on MeshCam before I found Cut3d. My trials of MeshCam have been less than great as the program seems to have a few bugs that cause the display to just go away and it has no real manual. It does get points for 4 axis support...good online support forum. Cut3d I found much easier to use, it seems to generate paths that don't break my tools which MeshCam did on several occasions. It doesn't have weird screen dropouts and has a crude but decent simulator built in, though the new CutView from the MeshCam people is a little more accurate showing imperfections better. Cut3D doesn't seem to support 4 axis as well and so far the post processor for my Mach drive mill seems weird. And the Demo version won't save G-Code I can test except for that from their sample projects...some the demo of MC does allow at least for a limited time.
So does anyone have real experience with recent versions of both programs and can list some of the good and bad points of each? I need to buy one or the other soon and can't decide.....right now if Cut3d did better 4th axis support I would buy that but if MC didn't hang up or get weird on me I like it's finishing modes and it's code seems more satisfying to Mach3 plus I could get the nice CutViewer App with it for the same money as Cut3D.
Thanks
Darren |
Hi Darren,
I'm in the same exact situation you were in here. Which software did you end up with, and how do you like it?
I was planning on going with CamBam for 2.5D and either Meshcam or Cut3D for 3D milling. I like Cut3D better for it's intuitive layout but Meshcam has the 4th axis support which is a huge plus. If Cut3D had a 4th axis index feature this would be a no brainer for me.