Does this mean I am officially a Nerd now?

[chiseler]

I’m scared to let the old lady catch me fraternizing with you folk. What will she think of me??? Then again if I could replace her with a robot, who cares!

Just joking, I’m not married! (wonder why)ha ha ha!

I’ve been looking at constructing a mill for artwork including lettering ect. I’ve got the mechanical end down real well. Problem is configuring a computer to supply the stepper motors the code. I am also confused about cad/cam software. I want to turn jpegs and scanned drawings into a finished product. What software will I need in conjunction with the code supplier? I don’t need the latest and greatest but don’t want the bird to fly out and chisel it in the work piece either! I also want to have the software compatible with the controller and motors!

Any help and direction is appreciated, been reading for weeks to the point where I've told myself to just forget it a few times!

[wcarrothers1]

Only suggestion is Mach 3 for control and Vectric software (Vcarve, 3d cut or Aspire) for drawing things up and generating paths.

Geckos and building a controller like camitronics sells is a good way to go.

b.

[mmm]

Originally Posted by chiseler I’m scared to let the old lady catch me fraternizing with you folk. What will she think of me??? Then again if I could replace her with a robot, who cares! Just joking, I’m not married! (wonder why)ha ha ha! I’ve been looking at constructing a mill for artwork including lettering ect. I’ve got the mechanical end down real well. Problem is configuring a computer to supply the stepper motors the code. I am also confused about cad/cam software. I want to turn jpegs and scanned drawings into a finished product. What software will I need in conjunction with the code supplier? I don’t need the latest and greatest but don’t want the bird to fly out and chisel it in the work piece either! I also want to have the software compatible with the controller and motors! Any help and direction is appreciated, been reading for weeks to the point where I've told myself to just forget it a few times!

Congrats, you're a nerd now. I let it slip to the fiancee that I was reading something on cnczone and she just rolled her eyes. She doesn't have much to talk about since she's on The Knot all the time -- a wedding website.

Anyways, a couple of months ago I was in the same situation as you are...no idea what to do for software. Here's a list of the stuff you're going to need.

Design software (CAD) -- if you're going to go straight from JPG or something then you can probably skip this step, but if you want to design your own parts in 3D you're going to need some decent CAD software. Everybody has their own choice in this regard but my favorite has to be Rhinoceros 3D. Thankfully they have a really generous educational license (<$200!) which makes it easy to pick up and give it a shot, as well as a trial version. Anyways, this one just seems to mesh with how I understand the modeling process much better than some of the other software I have tried but get out there and experiment. Other popular choices are SolidWorks and AutoCAD, not sure what else is available but there are plenty of CAD software packages on the market.

Manufacturing software (CAM) -- This is the software that will generate the gcode that your interface software (or whatever it's called) will run. I have heard fabulous stuff about Vectric products like Vcarve and Aspire, and these are designed for taking artwork from JPG format and things like that and generating gcode I believe so they are something to consider. I don't think I have ever heard anything bad about them. For general manufacturing work there are a ton of choices. BobCAD/CAM, MasterCAM, RhinoCAM, MadCAM, Lazycam (free with Mach3 I believe), and who knows how many others. Anyways, you basically have to try out the trial versions of everything until you can find something that you like and that meshes well with your workflow...everyone has a different favorite.

Interface software (no idea what the technical term for this is) -- This is the software that actually drives your motors. You'll have a controller of some sort hooked up to the parallel port on the back of your PC and your interface software will understand how to issue commands to get your motors to move around. One of the most popular is Mach3 which is a confusing software at first but you get used to it pretty quick and it's very capable. They also have a demo version that's limited to 500 lines of gcode that you can try out for as long as you need to get your motors up and moving. Anyways, if you have Linux there is EMC which is free and they have a Live CD that you can try out without changing your operating system on your computer at all. I have heard decent things about it but never used it myself. Mach3 is pretty cheap ($169 or something for a full license) compared to your CAD and CAM software, so it's pretty safe to go with that one, and it's very well documented since so many people are using it. You'll never have too much trouble finding other people that can help you solve your problem. Other than EMC and Mach3 I don't know of any other interface software.

Then you've got your controller itself. I went with a Gecko G540 since I had heard so many good things about the company. It was definitely pricier but I've had to use support a few times already and they were really helpful. Other people use Xylotec or Hobby CNC controllers, I'm sure there are others out there.

Hope this helps

[chiseler]

Please let me know if I'm wrong!!! If I got fully licensed versions of Vcarve and mach3, I would be able to do the following?

A) draw up/design my own parts
B) make 3d images from jpegs
C) add text to the design
D) Generate and run the G code from Mach3 into the controller and motors inorder to produce a part.

If I can do all of the above, I'll be building by spring! Holy heck, they make it tough to figure out! I was worried about what software would get along with the others ect.

Right now, seems, Xylotec is the hot setup, 3motors(296 oz in.),control board and power supply for under $350! Would Vcarve and mach3 really be all I need?

I can't thank you enough for your time and responces already, Thanks!

[dertsap]

for doing jpegs and various artwork the $20 at cnc4free tutorial cant be beat http://cnc4free.org/ , it uses all free software including gmax which is a very powerfull software for design , i use gmax for most of the models i create from jpegs and in my opinion and experience the detail is greater than what the pro software will put out

[neilw20]

Another great bit (no pun intended) of software, so you can test your program without firing up the CNC machinery, and this helps eliminate sill CAM generated problems, is NCPlot
Here's the link:
http://www.ncplot.com/