Drawing or projecting 3d toolpath on STL

[kakashisensei]

Hello,

Is there a cam software that allows me to plot a toolpath on the surface of an STL object. Or perhaps project the toolpath onto the STL object?

We have 3d printed molds with a layer of thermalform plastic on top. I'm looking for a way to use a 5 axis mill to trim a plastic off following a cam drawn cut line on the surface of the stl of that mold.

I appreciate any help I can get on this. Thank you very much!

-Jeff

[awerby]

DeskProto can do that in 3-axis mode. You bring in your STL file using the "load geometry" command, and then "add 2D geometry" for the cut line. All the cutting will be from the top, though. You can download a demo copy of DeskProto that will work for free for a month from DeskProto offers rapid prototyping using an affordable cnc milling machine: DeskProto is 3D cam software for model making.

If you need to cut it from the side as well, that's more difficult, and will likely take some pretty expensive software, unless "CNC toolkit" The CNC Toolkit - Creative Toolpath Control can handle it.

Andrew Werby
ComputerSculpture.com — Home Page for Discount Hardware & Software

[69owb]

I know that both SolidCAM and InventorCAM can do things like this with STL files. They actually have pretty good STL capabilities. I use InventorCAM myself and really like the package. One of the things when I was looking around was I sent them my model and had them do a demo of my part to see how well it worked. You should check them out.