what is CamBam?

[CNCadmin]

OK, I was asked to start this forums so now what is it?

[turmite]

Paul, CamBam is a cam program written by a very nice man from the UK. It is in development and from what I can tell it is a pretty good program now and is continuing development. It's free at the moment and I have no idea if that will change or not.

Mike

[dtman2]

You can find cambam at http://www.brusselsprout.org/CAMBAM/

It might not quite have the versatility of Mastercam but it is pretty easy to use if you just want to do some 2d profile cutting based on a dxf or something. Plus it is free.

[10bulls]

Originally Posted by CNCadmin OK, I was asked to start this forums so now what is it?

Ah 'twas I who asked you to start this thread Paul, thank you ever so much! (and sorry for taking so long to discover it!)

CamBam is a CAM program I have been working on for a while now in my spare time. It does most of the things I want my CNC machine to do and has aquired quite a few user requests for new features over it's development.

It seems to be popular with new builders who have spent all their money on ball screws and stepper drivers and want to get their machine to do some engraving or knock up a sign or peace offering for the wife for spending all that time and money on ball screws.

It is equally finding favour with serious machinists who I fear I am totally out of my depth with but accept their encouragement with much gratitude.
There are quite a few options to poke around with, so if you know your way around g-code and your machine you can get it to make your machine do horrendous things!

My new american friend Zongo has reported success getting it to play with a sturdy yet antisocial TRAK mill. I have heard it will work with Flashcut and CamBam was designed to work with primarily the mighty Mach3. I've recently added an option to output line only code (no G02,G03) which should be pretty bomb proof (thanks again Zongo!).

Currently CamBam has the following features...

. Import of 2D dxf files and .3ds and raw surfaces
. Draw internally with polyline objects, text, point lists etc
. Smooth TTF to polyline conversion
. Export drawings to dxf format
. generate machining operations from these objects which include:
* Inside and outside profiliing with stepovers
* Pockets, from simple shapes to more complex regions like Text
* Engraving. This is a generic toolpath follow operation and can be 2D or follow a 3D polyline.
* Drilling - normal,peck,dwell,spiral milling and custom gcode scripts
* 3D surfacing ... not there yet but getting there...
But wait! There's more...

. Scripting engine to generate or even animate drawing objects in VBScript or Javascript.
. Extendible using user written .NET dll plugins, including
* bitmap to heightmap plugin (with source code)
* rudimentary point cloud reader

CamBam is very much in beta though! There are some rough edges to sort out yet so please bear that in mind and verify any code it produces. CamBam is under development so now is a great time to get in with any suggestions and requests.

The main cambam page is here...
http://www.brusselsprout.org/CAMBAM/

There is also a fledgling forum for it here...
http://www.forum.cambam.org/

And a bunch of old posts and history in this zone thread...
CAMBAM - 10Bulls crazy CAD/CAM software project

I am planning to bring out a commercial CamBam release soon and will be devoting much more of my time shortly to that end. I will post an announcement soon regarding prices etc. I am aiming at a price and philosophy similar to Mach3 but I'm still sorting out the details.

I will always provide a useable free version.

The main drive in writing CamBam has been the steady stream of user feedback reporting more and more strange and wonderful things being made with CamBam. Thank you to all those brave pioneers and especially the indestructible MrBean!

Enjoy!

(and if you don't, let me know and I'll try and fix it!)

Andy Payne (10bulls)

[rodneydeeeee]

Very well said and I look forward too seing the software. Seems pretty nice for the price!!

[10bulls]

Originally Posted by rodneydeeeee Very well said and I look forward too seing the software. Seems pretty nice for the price!!

Thanks Rodney!
I am very grateful for the support and encouaragement I've recieved from the professionals in the CNC community.
I suspect there's a lot of us who do it for the love of watching large machinery follow patterns of our own devising and seeing parts magically appear from anonymous stock. The challenge is to keep the family fed at the same time!

[MIKE JEFFERS]

been using it with turbocnc runs well only 2.5d stuff but works well
and dont seem to do any thing scary
recomended

mike

[arie kabaalstra]

someone on a dutch CNC Forum (www.cnczone.nl) pointed me to CamBam.

as a toolmaker i've been working with "Heidi" ( Heidenhain TNC 410 CNC control) on a Bridegport VMC 800.

over the years, i've become very efficient with "Heidi" becaus of her powerful functions,
i was looking for a PC-based replacement for "Heidi" for my home-CNC, and CamBam's just what the doctor ordered.. just as powerful as Heidi. and with more intelligent toolpath generating.

[MIKE JEFFERS]

got a hermle c800v with a 430 control myself and 2 interacts 151 b's
have a look at dolphin partmaster as well nice cheap cad cam
mikee

[epineh]

Hey Andy when you say 3d surfaces not there yet, how close are you ?

I am interested in making fishing lure's, and have been wondering how I am going to make the g-code easily for these, I will be making them in halves and glueing, so I can cut these with 3 axis's no prob, just need the code...

Nice work so far, I just dl and installed tonight and within about 5 mins I had created gcode for the "thing" I quickly drew up (quick 6 random sided shape), this will be great for making brackets etc, I intend to put it to more use

I am quite happy to use my machine as a guinea pig of sorts for the 3d stuff, I can always stand back a few paces just to make sure.

I am in the process of a few mods to the machine then will start testing.

Russell.

[EL34]

I don't have a machine yet so I am just imprting dxf files into cambam and then doing simulations with cnc simulator.

I love Cambam so far.
Hope the boys writing the software continue to add new features to Cambam.

People should go check it out, it's a nice friendly and free piece of cam software.

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