Opensource CNC

[mvaughn]

Originally posted by vacpress
I woud really like to provide an alternative to sending $40 to some crank!

lol

[vacpress]

as far as cad goes, i love solidworks. its like legos.. im sure other solids modelers are also good. ive used pro e a bit.. go for SW personal learning edition.

Its FREE. It is for private learnign use, and i think it will output the right iges or stl files.

if you do the tutorials you will be able to get around within 4 or 8 hours of working.. i did tutorials while i built my first designs.. when i ran into a problem, id do a tutorial that helped, either from web or included.

good luck

www.solidworks.com

[mvaughn]

Is the solidworks learning edition available for download or do you have to request a CD?


I'm not sure what to look for on their site.

[teilhardo]

Yes, good question mvaughn. I was wondering the same thing. Do you have to attend their class?

[gregmary]

vacpress,

I use Pro-e to develop my solid models. You stated that you have use it. It is very powerful and relatively easy to use. Once I have a solid model, how do I create a G-code file to send to a cnc machine. I want to use TurboCNC. Do I need another program or does NC-post do it?

Also another open source 3-axis controller that you all might want to check out is at:


Open Source CNC Controller Specification

Take care,

Greg