Education CAM pricing?

[rlrhett]

I am a hobbyist looking to build a CNC router table (Joe2006, LionClaw 50, etc.). Luckily I qualify for most educational pricing. I notice I can get some really great prices on CAD software. Alibre, TurboCAD Pro, Rhino, etc. However, I have not been able to find anyone that has educational pricing for CAM except Turbo CAD. They sell their TurboCADCAM package quite inexpensively ($350 or so) to students.

What would people recommend? I have used the Alibre package for 2.5 and 3d modeling, and liked it. I've used others as well, and am sure I could overcome the leaning curve on most mainstream CAD packages. I mostly work in wood, but using fairly sophisticated and precise shapes and dimensions. For example, I would use the machine to produce a radiused guitar fretboard. The fret board is trapezoidal with one arched surface. The surface has a 12ft radius at one end and a 16ft radius at the other (compound radius arch). It also has very precise fret slots. I may also carve a violin top, which has all kinds of compound curving surfaces that need to be precise and measured (not just artistic). Therefore I feel I need a real CAD program, not just a sign making or artistic program, despite being a hobbyist.

What would be the best combination that would take advantage of my educational discount, give me the ability to mill sophisticated surfaces with precision, etc. And, yes, I know there is no one best answer and everybody will have an opinion !! Just looking for guidance from people who have already been down this path.

Cheers.

[rippersoft]

First off, you might want to read through the Musical Instrument Design and Construction forum:

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/musical_instrument_design_construction/

Alot of people are building instruments and probably can give you a good answer to your question.

If you can design your product in 2D, 2.5D, or 3D, then you might want to consider CamBam as a product to gen up Gcode from your drawings. I have seen a 3DS file loaded into the product.

Thread: CAMBAM - 10Bulls crazy CAD/CAM software project
Website: http://www.brusselsprout.org/CAMBAM/

CamBam runs in .NET and requires .Net 2 to be installed on your computer to run the software. It is free and works pretty good. Good support

There is also NCPlot. It is $75 and is very good for generating Gcode and working with your drawings.

Website: http://www.ncplot.com/ Go to NCPlot V2 Beta link and download. Product runs good and has good support.

[Robert Schutz]

If you own a CNC machine, madCAM (works inside Rhino) has a "No Charge Competitive Upgrade". Check out the madCAM forum here on CNCzone for details.

Robert

[rlrhett]

Free is definitely a great price

Rhino's educational price is half the cost of TurboCADCAM. If I can add MadCAM for free, that seems to be the best package.

Thanks!

[MonoNeuron]

I have TurboCad V11.5 and have tried Rhino in all it's releases up to V3 and find Rhino infinitely more usable and has a large tutorial base also which all goes to make the program more friendly. I find TurboCad still has some issues with the snaps and sometimes I can't tell when they are on or off and you have to click on them 3 times sometimes to enable them. (or maybe it's just me ) 3D in turbo cad is MUCH harder than Rhino and Rhino just seems that much more intuitive. You also get 25 saves with the evaluation version which is a fantastic way of showing the program to potential customers as you can come back to it anytime and take off where you left off instead of having a month limit and, if you're like me and very busy, is a godsend. Great Prog and great people.
Rhino is the way to go.
The Neuron

[CNCRim]

$ how much you willing to spend on CAM?

[rlrhett]

$ how much you willing to spend on CAM?

Well, TurboCADCAM costs about $350 for students, so I'm looking to spend no more than that for both CAD and CAM. I downloaded Rhino and have been playing around with that. I am really impressed. If Mad CAM plugin is really free, then that seems to be the best combo. Rhino sells academic pricing at about $190.

It will probably take me a few months to gather the money and time to build a machine, but I think Rhino/MadCAM/Mach3 seems to be the way to go with the software.

Thanks,

[rodneydeeeee]

Dolphin CAD/CAM is in that price range. For educational use, we offer it for around $195.00. Let me know if you have any questions.

[Robert Schutz]

Bear in mind madCAM only works inside Rhino.

Robert