What's after AutoCAD.dwg?

[stukatim]

Ok, let's say I have my 3D drawing in AutoCAD, if I understand right I need a CAM program to convert it to use CNC?

Background:
I use AutoCAD at work...Free and I'm good at it
I want a CNC foam wire cutter (4 axis)
I need to help my buddy learn to use his CNC mill and he has Rhino and Millworks and needs help (I should be able to learn these).
I've had a lot of training in programming language.

Will AutoCAD do what Rhino does?
And will Mill works be the final step to get the machine to understand what to cut?

Thanks in advance, Tim

Oh, please feel free to 'spill your guts', 'get chatty', 'over-share', 'long winded' or whatever, I don't know anything. But once I get the process I can learn it from there.

[Al_The_Man]

AutoCad, and I believe Millworks are CAD programs, you need a CAM 'Computer Aided Machining' program that take the CAD drawing and enter tool paths, tool offsets feed rates etc.
Then you need a Post Processor, (usually part of the CAM Pgm) to convert to the G,M,S,T -code s that your machine will recognize, you then need to download to your machine memory.
Al.

[stukatim]

ok, we're going to go over to a guys house in the next couple of days that will show us his setup. He's pretty knowledgeable.

What do you think of AutoCAD. Granted it's required for my job and other mechanical trades in construction (although we are moving towards 3D) I don't mind getting another program if it's not going to work.

First off I want to get my CNC foam cutter up and going so let's focus on that.

[stukatim]

I'll try to find out what CAM programs we have to use then, maybe I misunderstood.

[Al_The_Man]

If you already use Autocad and are already conversant with it, most CAM packages accept DXF files etc.
Al.

[ger21]

The important thing is what will create the code for the foam cutter, and what type of CAD file does it require? It may accept a 3D model, or it may just require a 2D drawing.

[stukatim]

Most of it will need 3D like tapered aircraft wings with hollow cores...

[ger21]

That's not what I asked. What will you use to create the code to run the machine? That will dictate what you need to do in AutoCAD.

[stukatim]

As a newbie I have no idea what you mean...sorry.

I am looking for a CAM program that will be able to take the DXF or DWG and convert it to G code for 3D or 2D if that's what you're asking.
I would also like to make sure it will control 3 or 4 axis although I am concerned with 4 axis for now.

[radcliffe]

Most foam cutting programs use definition (.dat) files. You only need a 2D drawing or dxf file of the root and tip of wing to converted.

http://gm.cnc.free.fr/en/index.html
This is great program written by the French for cutting foam. Its takes, cor, dat and dxf files to generate and cut the foam.

http://www.foamwork.net/index.html
Here is another foam cutting program that uses the dat files. They also have a program call cadworks that import auto cad dwg or dxf files and convert them dat files.

http://www.stealthplaneworks.com/FoamCutter.aspx
Here is a program that the owner wrote for his company, but has posted as shareware and if you like it he wouldn't mind a contribution. Still this program uses the (.dat) files.

On all the listed links above look at their tutorial videos.

Hope this helps
Harold