Free to use CAM software

[Christine88]

Hello everyone

I just purchased a Makeblock XY drawing plotter and I need a CAM software to create simple 2D G-Code from 2D cad drawings so I can draw them out on the plotter. I have Rhino 4.0 for creating CAD drawings but I don't want to buy Rhinocam after already paying $900 Rhino. Can anyone recomend a decent free to use CAM software that I could import a 2D drawing into and then generate G-Code?

Christine

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[dune1982]

Sadly I do not know a free to use software, but FILOU NC is capable of importing 2D dxf files and it starts at about 170$

[Christine88]

I have Mastercam at work that I use everyday but can't take it home. Guess I'll have to sneak in my plotter programming at work.

[ger21]

g simple
ace converter

[aarggh]

Christine, EstlCAM software developed by Christian Knull might interest you, it's pretty well featured and relatively easy tio use:

Estlcam.de 2D / 3D CAM Software und CNC Steuerung...

And for such a good package it's very affordable in my opinion, plus there is always support from the guy who created it.

cheers, Ian

[aarggh]

I forgot to add, EstlCAM is $50, which is pretty excellent I think, although it's not free, it's about as cheap as a package this good could possibly be.

cheers, Ian

[SteveWill]

I use Cambam free it is their 2007 Version. go to their download page and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

http://www.cambam.co.uk/downloads/CamBam-beta0.8.2.msi

[Ajancnc]

Here you can find and download CAM software for free. Ajan CNC Machines Software

[jimbo7]

Mechsoft has a free 3-axis CAM program
Free CAD/CAM Software Package from MecSoft Corporation

[cad2g]

Hi to All!
I use Estlcam to create the G-code for my machine controller. I also use my Shapes Plus program to create the DXF file to import to Estlcam.
I recently seen a YouTube video from Estlcam, showing a vacuum pad. I thought would give it a try and design it in Shapes Plus.
This Estlcam Vacuum Pad video

This the video of my try.

Estlcam is free to use except it will pause sometimes.
Shape Plus is still being developed.
Cheers
Bob Adams

[louieatienza]

You can't save your file as HPGL, which is readable by most all plotter drivers?

[Service SCM BR]

Hi, what extension the estocam output? Xxl?

[cad2g]

Estlcam outputs G-code for DXF,STL, and SVG.

[1Jumper10]

EstlCam!

[reddtekk]

I've been getting acclimated with HeeksCAM. I have purchased the software (You might need a loan...about $13 US.) but you can run it free with easily surmountable limitations to make sure that it works with your machine. I believe that you can use it in Linux free but I'd recommend throwing Dan a donation if you like it as I'm sure he's got a lot of time in it. heeks.net

Anyhow, it works nearly flawlessly with DXFs. You will find that there are fewer bugs when working in MM. Also you can tune it to your needs if you're somewhat savvy. I'm not a genius and figured out how to make it cooperate with the non-standard programming requirements of my Dynapath control. Specifically, I needed an absolute I,J rather than incremental. One word of caution is that if I and/or J are zero absolute it acts funny, so I moved my model away from the origin and all the troubles were gone. I was able to modify the emc2b.py and iso-read.py (renamed before saving) then added a new machine to machines.xml to accomplish this. I've still got to figure out how to make it put G and M codes on their own lines but I've just been editing that part manually in NCTerm before sending it to the machine. Documentation is a little lean but you can look through the python files to make it do just about anything you want. If you're not familiar with Python, search for "learn python the hard way" as there are some very good lessons there.