CAM software?

[saturnnights]

Here we go again - I'm about to ask one of the most-hated questions

Please tell me which CAM package to buy...

JUST KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!

But seriously, I do need some pointers here. Here's the scenario: You have Rhino and you've just created a design - it's nothing more than a half of a sphere cut into a 1"x1"x1" piece of something-or-other...
But it needs to have four holes drilled at the corners - all the way through the material, while the half-sphere goes only part-way through. Okay, you have Mach 3 to run your mill. You've got demos for some software too: Meshcam is fine, but won't drill the holes. SheetCam won't cut the curving sides of the sphere, but could drill the holes. Deskproto Lite is similar to Meshcam.
What can you use to mill the half-sphere and then drill the holes all the way through? Ideally, you'd like the half-sphere cut in a circular fashion for cleanness, but if this drives the price of the CAM software in the stratosphere, you could survive without that.
Which CAM apps can you recommend that I try?

Thanks!
Mark

[saturnnights]

Well, so much for BobCAD-CAM Hobby Pro. I just went and registered for the demo and installed it and it's completely non-functional as a demo. It only runs for 30 days and won't do anything except pretend that it's running. My simple test item, based on my description of a half-sphere and four drill holes generated over 16,000 lines of gcode, but only the good Lord knows if this app really works because you can't save that code and you can't really do much of anything but stare at it. At least the other CAM people give you 30 days of REAL demo.

What next? Hmmmm....

Mark

[HuFlungDung]

You could cut and paste a program together from Sheetcam and Meshcam.

It is quite simple to write a program to drill some holes. Good practise for getting used to writing gcode properly.

A hemisphere is also not extremely difficult to program. Lots of good learning there. Basically, you can cut the hemisphere by issuing a series of G03 codes to make the cutter travel around a 360 degree circle. All you need the cad for is to create the offset for the hemispheric arc, break it (interpolate it) into short segments so that you can get a list of endpoints to serve as start points for each G03 command.

If you want it to be more easily done, then you'll have to resign yourself to forking over some cash. Sorry there is no real free way to do what you want easily.

I think cut and paste from the two inexpensive programs might get you a fair ways into what it is all about.

[ger21]

Like Hu says, cut and past, or spend the cash.

If you're machine has home switches, and everything is set up properly, you **should** be able to run them seperately. One program for the holes, and another for the surface.

[cimlinc]

I have a couple of 2nd User systems available capable of 2 - 5 axis machining, interested anyone

Vic

[saturnnights]

Originally Posted by HuFlungDung You could cut and paste a program together from Sheetcam and Meshcam. It is quite simple to write a program to drill some holes. Good practise for getting used to writing gcode properly. <snip> I think cut and paste from the two inexpensive programs might get you a fair ways into what it is all about.

I was thinking about this last night - I was wondering if I could combine the output of a couple of CAM apps? Like, suppose I used SheetCam to write gcode to drill the holes and MeshCam to mill the face/hemisphere portion. Then I've got two separate pieces of gcode. Then could I use a simple text editor to assemble them into one long gcode?

I'm fairly good with doing cut-and-paste for HTML, so I understand problems that a command issued way, way back can cause, but if this is doable, then I may try it.

On another note, I have a demo of RamsPro that I just got my demo key to try this morning. I haven't really looked at it yet, but it seems to be around a grand for the version that does what I think I need... Better than two-grand...

[ger21]

If you're going to spend a grand, look at RhinoCAM basic. www.rhinocam.com

[DareBee]

Would it not be easier to output your 2 code strings as text and then edit with notepad or similar program?
I wouldn't do it in HTML

[saturnnights]

Originally Posted by DareBee Would it not be easier to output your 2 code strings as text and then edit with notepad or similar program? I wouldn't do it in HTML

Oops - I was typing "stream of consciousness" - I would actually do this in notepad too!
I was just thinking that I had a lot of experience editing code (I meant to indicated "like HTML") and that gcode may not be much worse