milling time (not to be confused with hammer time)

[barefoot0]

I have been getting into more complex designs and I have been looking fo software that will tell me how long my g-code will take to run.

Currently I converting my dxf files to g-code using deskam (for some reason deskcnc won't run on my computer). I then run them on my mill with an old pentium 130 computer out in the garage running turbocnc. This is great for the most part but often I have no idea how long my g-code will take to run and it hard to optimize the code without a program that can calculate milling time quickly.

[HuFlungDung]

If you "graduate" to something like OneCNC some day, it will tell you how long the toolpath takes to cut. Sounds like you might be in that market if you are starting to ask this question

[barefoot0]

It looks realy nifty but they don't say how much it costs. I currently a college student and while I do take my mill very seriously I do not real have a whole lot of my money to throw at it.

I am suprised no one has made a freeware program to calculate milling time.

[BigDaddyG]

barefoot,
I use cncsimulator (www.cncsimulator.com), it is very easy to use once you get thru the set-ups for your machine and best of all ITS FREE! I make my programs, cut and paste the code into cncsimulator and it runs the part.

Not a bad program at all. Sure beats laying out the bucks for another program. Give it a try and you just might save yourself some money. Good luck hope this helps.
Regards,
Glen

[lpz]

I just completed putting togeather my 4 axis table top milling maching. Does anyone know where I can get a simple g-code project that I can use to test out the machine.
L