Software Advice Needed

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  1. #1
    Member mpoore's Avatar
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    Default Software Advice Needed

    I am in the final stages of a round column mill cnc conversion. My background with cnc is limited to 3d printing using Blender for CAD and running the design through a slicer to produce g-code. The big difference I see with using a mill versus a 3d printer is that many times I will use the mill to do a simple process like face milling 1/4" off the top of a work piece. Is there any free software designed to produce g-code for simple operations like this where going through the whole CAD-CAM process takes more time than its worth?

    Mach3 will run the mill. I see they offer Mill Wizard for $75, which appears to fill this need. Having never used Mach3, I don't know that I need anything else for simple repetitive operations. Maybe there is a way to get Mach3 to do the task in a semi-manual mode. What do others do when they have to do something simple?

    MP

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  2. #2
    Member he1957's Avatar
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    Default Re: Software Advice Needed

    For what sounds quite straight-forward, just some hand coding with a parametric style to adjust dimensions might be easy enough. Mach-x can do this.

    Otherwise have a look at:

    1. SimplyCam from MR-Soft Nc Software Tools - not free nor expensive but the demo version can produce about 100 lines of code and is otherwise fully functional (except saving drawings)

    2. Some of the Linux based CNC software - may be overly complicated for what you want.

    Cheers,

    Last edited by he1957; 10-14-2019 at 03:54 PM. Reason: Expand reply


  3. #3
    Member awerby's Avatar
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    Default Re: Software Advice Needed

    Mill Wizard is a fairly primitive rastering CAM program; I don't think it does anything that Freemill won't. If you have very simple projects, you can execute them by typing commands into the MDI (Manual Data Input) panel one line at a time.

    [FONT=Verdana]Andrew Werby[/FONT]
    [URL="http://www.computersculpture.com/"]Website[/URL]


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    Community Moderator Jim Dawson's Avatar
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    Default Re: Software Advice Needed

    For quick facing jobs, I just use the jog keys.

    Jim Dawson
    Sandy, Oregon, USA


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    Default Re: Software Advice Needed

    Quote Originally Posted by he1957 View Post
    2. Some of the Linux based CNC software - may be overly complicated for what you want.
    Simple-gcode-generators, no drawing needed.
    https://github.com/linuxcnc/simple-gcode-generators
    They should able to run stand-alone in Windows (I haven't tested them in Windows personally)

    Anyone who says "It only goes together one way" has no imagination.


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