Which one is better and why. I will be doing 4th axis rotary work so please take this into consideration. I will be drawing in Rhino 3.0


Thanks for the help
Frank

RhinoCAM basically IS Visual Mill, it just runs inside Rhino I believe.

I believe you can download Demos of both.
http://www.mecsoft.com/Mec/Downloads/downloads.shtml

Hi Ger21

Yes I have done this, for some reason I can't get the Rhinocam plug in to load, its looking for the Dongle. My Rhino 3.0 will be here tomorrow so maybe it will load with a full copy. The other thing is I am new to this and don't want to spend the money and be dissapointed later. I plan on doing a lot of 4th axis rotary work and had heard there are some issues there.

I guess I am looking for someone who is using either of them and knows there way around them. There issues if any and week and strong points.

Thanks
For the reply

Frank

Like I said, they should be functionally identical (or close). The only difference is that one is completely inside Rhino, the other (VM) is standalone. You can probably get RhinoCAM for less money, too.

Got it thanks. I guess then my question should be is there something better for around the same price that will work with Rhino 3.0.

Frank

Hi. You run RhinoCAM or VisualMill Basic with the same dongle. That means you can purchase RhinoCAM and run it inside Rhino or simply run VisualMill Basic as a standalone application.

One of the few things that *are* different between the two products is file format. Files saved in RhinoCAM cannot be loaded in VM - though they're working to enhance this in the future. Since I want to keep compatibility with the rest of the VM community, I run VM standalone.

In my personal and humble opinion, VM has quite a bit of power and won't disappoint you. Yes, like everything else, you will come to a point where you see issue you wish they fixed or worked differently. But so far I have been able to work around any limitation I've come across.

Plus: Tech Support is superb. I recently saw someone post a problem with the code on a Friday and get a fix by Sunday - pretty impressive. Minus: Documentation. Their online samples and videos fly by features that only experienced users can catch. This is in sharp contrasts to, for example, what Art from Mach2/3 has done. Mecsoft needs to sit someone down and make video samples like Art did.

Overall, VM is a great product and works seamlessly with Rhino.

JR

Hi JR

that was very helpful thanks. Yes I am running Mach3 also and the video's would really help beginner's. I hope there are listening.

BTW Do you use any 4th axis stuff?

Thanks
Frank

Frank I do 4th axis work, I use Mach2 and Rhino. I don't however use Visualmill. I started to buy it last year and had a user do an gcode for me. He had all sorts of problems gett gcode good enough for me to run. Now I don't want to place blame on him or VM because I don't really know the problem. He did tell me that some of VM's 4th axis stuff need some bug work.

I then found a young man here on the zone that takes my Rhino models and retouches them if necessary and does my gcode on Mastercam.

I am a one man shop and never seem to have enough time to get everything done. Since I have started farming out my gcode I don't have to worry about that part. Attached is an example of one of the parts that this guy tweaked the model and wrote the code for.

Mike

Hi Mike

thanks for the reply. The stock look's very nice, what's it for?

Yes as far as the forth axis goes, that's what I am affraid of spending the dow and not knowing if it's me or the software. I have access to Mastercam 9, my friends Dad has a full blown CNC shop. I was looking for something easyer to learn on, and don't want to be too much of a bother at the shop.

Frank

Deskproto might have a few more features than RhinoCAM basic + the 4th axis add-on for about $800 less. 30 day demo available. http://www.deskproto.com

Thanks Gerry

I will take a look

Frank

In respose to the above posts, just to add: RhinoCAM and VM Basic are the same price. RhinoCAM Pro and VM5 Full are the same price. But they want an extra $300 to let you run both ways on the same dongle. RhinoCAM and RhinoCAM pro files have the toolpaths stored in the .3dm Rhino file. However, In RhinoCAM Pro, at least, (I don't have RhinoCAM basic) you can export your file as a Visual Mill file and open it in Visual Mill. You can also import VM files into RhinoCAM Pro.

There are a both advantages and disadvantages to running RhinoCAM as one application (instead of Rhino+Visual Mill). I don't have time to go into all that now, but if people are interested, I have more time to elaborate later. I am a long time Rhino user but short time VM user. I'm surprised at the amount of activity on the VM forum here, seems to be almost more than on the native VM support forum... --ch

In respose to the above posts, just to add: RhinoCAM and VM Basic are the same price. RhinoCAM Pro and VM5 Full are the same price. But they want an extra $300 to let you run both ways on the same dongle. RhinoCAM and RhinoCAM pro files have the toolpaths stored in the .3dm Rhino file. However, In RhinoCAM Pro, at least, (I don't have RhinoCAM basic) you can export your file as a Visual Mill file and open it in Visual Mill. You can also import VM files into RhinoCAM Pro.

There are a both advantages and disadvantages to running RhinoCAM as one application (instead of Rhino+Visual Mill). I don't have time to go into all that now, but if people are interested, I have more time to elaborate later. I am a long time Rhino user but short time VM user. I'm surprised at the amount of activity on the VM forum here, seems to be almost more than on the native VM support forum... --ch

Thank you for the information it was very helpful. Yes If you would care too, I would like to hear more about it.

Thanks very much
Frank

OK, this will be somewhat of a long post. Advance disclaimer: As I stated before, I am a longtime Rhino user but have not been using VM that long, so if you find any inaccuracies in my statements about VM, please correct me. I'm looking at integrating RhinoCAM into my work process. I have used and continue to use other CAM software because that's what I know the best for now...

One thing to clarify also about the cost: RhinoCAM does not include Rhino. You have to buy that separately, but you can get it cheaper if you buy it bundled with VM or RhinoCAM. VM will run without Rhino, RhinoCAM will not (as it is a plug-in inside Rhino). So, if all you need is CAM, VM will be cheaper. If you need modeling, Rhino + RhinoCAM or Visual Mill + Rhino should be the same price.

So: what are the advantages of running RhinoCAM?
You have only one program up and running. You have only one file for your part.
You can create geometry and immediately use it to program toolpaths on, rather than going through a transfer via IGES or other... VM stand-alone geometry creation tools are limited.
You have (at least partially) the Rhino interface, which is nice.
RhinoCAM dynamically adapts the meshing of the part to the parameters you enter in the toolpath program, if you program finer, the part is meshed finer. In VM the mesh is fixed on import or you have to mesh externally, this is a big disadvantage IMO.
Otherwise, the two programs' functionality w/respect to types of operations possible and the quality therof is identical (it's the same program).

Disadvantages of RhinoCAM and possible advantages of VM stand-alone:
RhinoCAM is new and the integration into Rhino isn't 100% yet - there are some bugs. But Mecsoft is working hard on eliminating them, and I'm sure that it will soon be much more seamless. You would expect this from any new program.
Right now some of the data in the RhinoCAM file is double, as there are both VM and Rhino versions of the same data stored there - hence bigger file sizes.
Using separate modeing and CAM programs allow you to switch back and forth, while CAM is calculating, you can go back and model in the other. Can't do this in an integrated file, but you can perhaps open a second instance of the same file.

Observation: It would be nice if VM becomes more Rhino-like in it's interface, I'm hoping that the association with Rhino will help this along. Right now RhinoCAM still has far too much VM-type interface quirks to suit my taste, you can see that it's still VM running inside of Rhino rather than a completely integrated system.

That's all for now... --ch

Thank you for taking the time to post, it was very useful. I had Mecsoft give me a live online demo yesterday in cluding 4th axis operations, it was very informative.

Thanks to everyone
Frank