Newbie- Probably an easy one: CAM programs and NURBS

[Hirudin]

Hi, as the title says I'm a huge newbie to the world of CNC. I've been using Rhino for a few years (bought the student version 1.1, am now using commercial 4.0 upgrade). I'm trying to build myself a CNC router (oh how I wish I could call it a "mill") so that I can get some of my creations out of the ether.

Anyway,
I've tried a few CAM programs, and it seems like either they only support mesh 3D objects, or the paths I create resemble meshes (curved lines get turned into polygons). If the part I'm drawing has a round hole I don't want to be forced to turn it into a 20-sided polygon when I mill/route it!

I hope my description makes sense...

- As a newb it's entirely possible I'm just using these programs wrong... do I just need to work with them some more?

- Am I just going to have to live with turning my objects into meshes?

- Maybe the actual paths are smooth, but to save processing or something they're displayed as polygons. Should I go through the settings again to see if I can turn up the resolution or something?

[ger21]

What CAM programs are you trying?

[Hirudin]

I've tried RhinoCAM (probably my favorite), VisualMill (version 5 I think), Cut2D (probably Cut3D also), OneCNC (would be my favorite, but I assume it's way out of my price range), MadCAM (I think that is what it's called, a Rhino plugin), and probably a couple more.

I'm probably going to try them all again sometime in the near future. I cannot fathom spending more than $1500 on a CAM package and am very reluctant to spend more than about $500.

Oh, I've also tried CamBam (probably my favorite free one), LazyCAM (I don't think I got anywhere with this one), and a couple more OS programs.

I'm a big nerd and try new programs all the time, sometimes I give up on them almost immediately if I cannot figure out what I think should be something easy. For instance it didn't take me long to uninstall BobCAD.

-A couple minutes later-

I hate being the typical newb...
looks like I missed this topic. Even though I looked through something like 4 pages of titles, I guess I didn't read the title of the fourth topic on the first page...
Arcs and Stepping question?

It looks like that topic has the answer to my question.

[etzz]

Take another look at madcam. I have been running it now for a few days and am very happy. My opinion so far is that it may not do "quite" as much as rhinocam, but I havent really found it yet (unless rhinocam does 4th axis continuous contouring, which I think you have to have the VM6 engine for that?). For me its been working great.
Plus, if you have another package already, you can try and get the competitive upgrade pricing. Write info@madcamcnc.com to find out. I dont think you will be sorry if you can get the upgrade (or even without).
Regards,
Eric