Gcam/gnu Cam

[fenn]

Someone mentioned the "GNU Computer Aided Manufacturing" webpage today on #emc so I went to check it out, hoping that I might finally find something to turn 3d models into toolpaths.. It's at http://gcam.js.cx/

Well the page looks nice; I think they have a good start on something. Unfortunately the webpage is totally devoid of any links! There's no contact info, files to download, or entry in the whois registry that might direct me to the author. In fact the only link to this page seems to be from a wikipedia article. This is not a very open-source development model! However I think the author just made the webpage incorrectly - so, if anyone knows who the author of GCAM is, please lend them a hint for me.

thanks,
-fenn

[fjesko]

Looks like 1.0.0 is scheduled out August 01, 2006. Links are still dead however. Could be interesting for penguin lovers.

[fenn]

well, i talked to the author on IRC and he seemed to say that he was kinda busy right now and didn't want to be bothered until he was ready to release it (in august)

[klick0]

Is the author a member on here? Does anyone know?

The project looks very interesting, I've written my own programs for 3d toolpath generation of dxf models, also 2.5d type things, but would much rather use something that someone actually put some time into.

[unterhaus]

5269 lines of c code is barely a good start. Looks good though. Hope it works out.

[mikkojay]

Hey that looks pretty cool.
There is a download folder here: http://gcam.js.cx/download/
but it appears to be empty at the moment.
Hopefully this does not turn into another "False Prophet", i.e. "yeah, its open source, but you can't have the source" project.
It seems like a lot of people set out on a mission to do something admirable for their fellow man and go about coding an open source masterpiece- halfway into it they say to themselves, "man this is turning into something I bet people would pay for..." then the open source philosophy turns into a 30 day free trial!
I don't knock it- people put a lot of hard work into their code, and time is money after all. Just my 2 cents. We'll see what this one turns into.
As a programmer myself, I oftentimes just like to look at other people's source to learn from or just to answer "how in the heck did they do that?"
Thanks, Mike

[lleroy]

There is a download folder here: http://gcam.js.cx/files/
but it doesn't look like it contains a lot...

[simon78++]

Now it does contain a tarball. However, no docs, or contact info, nor does it compile here.

[klick0]

I got it to compile a few weeks ago, when the above link was posted. It's alpha if anything, if the developer had enough time to spend on it then it might go somewhere, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. Unless he's got a new version that he's holding out on us.

[trayor]

Check the site, as there's files to run now. I've got it running on XP. Haven't really had a chance to play with it yet.

[tandu]

Hello, the first version of GCAM is just released!
http://gcam.js.cx/index.php

I'll install and test gcam asap ...