I am ready to start building my cnc machine, I have experiance with mastercam and would really like to use this. I am unsure of how to interface this with the machine though. Anyone have any sugestions on controllers that would work with mastercam? I have been looking at the controller boards at hobbycnc.com, and I really like their prices :), but I don't know if I can get their boards to work with MasterCam, from their website, it looks like you have to use DeskCNC or DesKam (the board I was looking at is at http://www.hobbycnc.com/driverboards/4aupc/4aupc.htm). Any help is appreciated.

What you're calling controllers are usually called motor drives or drivers. The controller is the software that actually runs the drives. MasterCAM will just output g-code for the controller. The most common controllers used here are Mach2 http://www.artofcnc.ca and TurboCNC http://www.dakeng.com

I have a hobby cnc controller and I use mastercam to program on it. It will work just fine, but you'll still have to modify your post processor some.

Thanks for the suggestions on Mach2, I have downloaded the trial version and have been playing around with it, but I can't seem to get it to load an NCI file from MasterCam. turkgeltz, you mentioned that I would have to modify your post processor, can you elaborate on that? What changes do we need to make to get this working (we are using MasterCam Mill7, do we need to upgrade to the latest, I saw that they are up to 9 now).

Thanks in advance for your help with this.

is the NCI file the g-code?

I believe the NCI file is the g-code, but seems to be in a different format than the example file that comes with mach2.

The different Post processors write the g-code to fit a particular machine. You either need to find one that writes Mach2 compatible g-code, or write your own.

I believe the NCI file is the g-code, but seems to be in a different format than the example file that comes with mach2.

NCI is not g-code and does not run controllers. It is an intermediate file that Mastercam's post processor uses to convert toolpath data you created in Mastercam into the gcodes your controller reads, usually called NCF, or just NC.

IOW, Mastercam will not run the CNC's controller, it will only provide the gcode your controller's software reads to run the machine, (tell it what axis to move in what direction at what speed to what position, i.e. G01 X10. Y5. F50.).

You can write gcode manually if you don't have CAM software like Mastercam, but you still have to have software to run that data on the controller.

Hope this helps.