Anyone using MeshCam?

[groomden]

I've been looking at this software:
www.grzsoftware.com

Anyone have luck with this on a homebrew machine? What are its advantages/disadvantages. I will be building the www.solsylva.com cnc router. I hope to design parts for model boats in AutoCad and then use MeshCam to produce the toolpaths and stuff -- is this a good combination?

I'd also like to produce random fun 3d images in wood/plastic as well.

Thanks for any info/advice.

[buscht]

I use Meshcam daily. I sculpt or carve prototypes by hand, then digitize them to get a 3D STL file and use Meshcam to create the cutting files.

It works well, but the files are huge and it takes alot of milling time to cut a part this way.

For the money, its a great value.

[davidmb]

I've only just finished my system (nearly - just limits left to do), I have used meshcam with Alibre XPress (free version ) and it seems to work ok, I'm planning to make patterns for metal casting, there is an example in my photo gallery of a 3d test model and the resultant machined part. I was more than happy with the results.

[ckirchen]

I've been using MeshCAM for almost a year now and I am very pleased with it. It doesn't have the same features as high-end CAM software (nor does it ever claim to), but it can still do some great things.

Recently, I built two plastic injection molds. The cores and cavities for both were cut with MeshCAM. The pictures are from one of them.

Chris Kirchen

[ger21]

What are its advantages/disadvantages. I hope to design parts for model boats in AutoCad and then use MeshCam to produce the toolpaths and stuff -- is this a good combination?

If your using AutoCAD for your modeling, you have a couple options, depending how you do your modeling. If you model with solids, export an .stl and load that into MeshCAM. Be sure to set the FACETRES variable in AutoCAD to 10 before exporting for highest resolution. If you like to model with meshes (tabsurf, rulesurf, edgesurf...), then you can save as a .dxf and load that into MeshCAM. But you MUST explode the meshes first, because MeshCAM will only import 3D faces.


Either method works very well, although .stl's load into MeshCAM much faster than .dxf's.