need help on which software

[chrispare]

i am a total new guy here so bare with me,
I am building a cnc router but dont know what software to use(preferably FREE)
so whats your suggestions?
oh i am going to go with the hobby cnc driver and steppers kit
thanks in advance
chris

[cdndave]

Welcome fellow Canuk!

What part of the country are you from?

You have a few free options; for controlling, you have EMC2 (http://www.linuxcnc.org) and for designing you may want to start at http://www.cnc4free.org.

Hope that get's you started, I'm other more experienced users will chime in as well.

I too am using HobbyCNC's kit for my first build

CdnDave

[chrispare]

thanks for the reply.
im near hamilton (where are you?)

[Hirudin]

There are three main types of software for CNC-ing: CAD*, CAM*, and Control. Sorry, I can't really help too much in the "free department".

CAD software is what you design your parts in. There are a few free CAD programs out there. A couple notable ones are Sketchup and BRL CAD. I personally use Rhino which is fairly inexpensive (or very inexpensive if you're a student).

CAM software takes your 3D (or 2D) drawings and lets you create toolpaths that the machine will follow. The toolpaths are output as NC files that contain "G-Code". This is an area where free programs are few, far between, and not very powerful. CAM BAM is one that I think used to be free (maybe it still is?). Another one is HeeksCAD. If you're looking to buy CAM software the Vectric website is a very good place to start looking. There are many CAM software packages that are many thousands of dollars.

The control software takes the NC/g-code and translates it into movement signals for the machine to follow. Thankfully this choice is pretty easy. I wouldn't be surprised if 90% of the people here use one of the following control programs: EMC or Mach 3. EMC is the only one of these that is completely free, but the trial version of Mach 3 will work with up to 500 lines of code.
Mach3
Big Pro: Windows based
Big Con: is $160 (IIRC)
EMC
Big Pro: free
Big Con: Linux based
If you're already a Linux user definitely give EMC a try.

* Actually, CAD and CAM programs aren't technically necessary as G-code can also be written manually. You could use a drawing on paper to write up some G-code. It looks like it is pretty easy but I could see how it would get very tedious very quickly though. On the plus side hand-written G-code can be more efficient than CAM generated G-code.

CNC Zone has huge sub-forums for each of these three types of software. If you can try reading up in there (it's a daunting task I know)...
CAD
CAM
Control

[cdndave]

thanks for the reply.
im near hamilton (where are you?)

I'm just outside Montreal

D

[der_fisherman]

Try downloading Blender 3D, its open source and free. Let us know what you think about it.
link:-
http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/
regards

[FandZ]

Hey Chris, I'm sorta in the same boat as you except with more experience. The easiest route for you to take would be

Cad: Google sketchup with a DXF plugin ( not truly a cad program)
http://sketchup.google.com/download/

It's extremely user friendly, It's free, a great support group, and plenty of free online tutorials on youtube. You could be drawing detailed mock ups within a few hours. The biggest drawback is it doesn't do circles. If you draw a circle it'll actually be about 20 or more edges when you zoom in. But you can add more edges until you get to a point where when you load it into your cam program it'll actually do perfect circles because the edges will be machined out because the diameter of the tooling is wider than all the corners. Does that make since?

If you want a true cad program the only 2 I'd suggest are solid works and rhino. I know more about solid works but I think Rhino is better. Eventually, I plan to move away from Google sketchup and solid works to rhino. The only bad thing about Rhino is there are not enough support groups and free tutorials for it.


Cam: Cut 3d.
http://www.vectric.com/WebSite/Vectr.../c3d_index.htm

It's very easy to use. No tutorials or lessons really needed. The price isn't bad at 299. The biggest drawback is it lacks advanced options. I haven't found a free version of cam software that I would use and I'm looking hard. Right now I have about 15 different cam programs installed. Some demo's and some free. I'm looking seriously at Powermill.

Other than mastercam, I'm finding support groups for cam software to be very lacking. Cam companies make more money on the cam classes than the do the software, so it's designed to be complicated to use. They want you to take the $5000 class to use the 1500 product. That is why cut 3d is so good. You can use it same hour you download/install it.



Machine software. Mach3 a huge support group and a proven product. I've seen it as low as $145


I hope that helps.

[pminmo]

Free control software, EMC2 (linux) is the best of the bunch, but turbocnc and cncpro, both DOS do the job. CAMBAM is a pretty intuitive CAM program, stickfont is a good text to g-code converter. img2dxf converts image outlines to dxf files for maniplulation, SolidEdge2D is a great free 2D CAD program.

[FandZ]

Free control software, EMC2 (linux) is the best of the bunch, but turbocnc and cncpro, both DOS do the job. CAMBAM is a pretty intuitive CAM program, stickfont is a good text to g-code converter. img2dxf converts image outlines to dxf files for maniplulation, SolidEdge2D is a great free 2D CAD program.

After reading you post I decided to take a second look at cambam and it is easy. The free one only can do 2.5d though. I think there is a plugin that will work with STL files that will do 3d in cambam free but the result pictures I saw didn't look too encouraging. But I am taking a serious look at cambam plus. At $150, that is a good deal.

[FandZ]

I thought I'd post another Cam program to try. Meshcam. It's very simple. I'm still exploring it but it seems just as easy as cut3d just the steps are not as well laid out. There is a sale on it for 175 till June 20th. There is a big drawback. It doen't come with a tool path viewer. They want you to buy one separate, bringing the price to 325 while it is on sale. Cut 3d wins at 295 if you include the tool path viewer. I'm trying to find somethign free to verify my gcode with it.

BTW, you can generate Gcode for 30 days with the trial in meshcam. I've already loaded some in mach3.