General Cam software

[JustinO]

What are people here using for general 2-1/2 D CAM? Have any leads?

Most of what I do takes either hand coding, or specialized G-code generating wizards (like GT), but I often am asked to make a PCB, a mounting plate, or pop connector holes in an enclosure. Drill some holes, mill some pockets, etc....

It absolutely has to be way less expensive than my machines and tooling (a few nice Sherlines). No carts before horses or tails wagging dogs.

Art, you must hear stuff!

Thanks,
--Justin

[ArtF]

Justin:

  I use alibre for some things, they had a $100 special a couple years back...
and I use vectric for other things. Vectric is my favorite because its easy.
Ill be adding a generalized CAM next year just to make things faster to edit
on gears, such as perhaps pocketing spokes rather than profiling them. And
Ill be experimenting with raster and spiral engraving routines for bevels and celtic knots and such.

Cam is a pretty hard thing to guage, each has their favorite and once you learn
one your generally loathe to switch simply because its hard to learn yet another interface.
I dont intend to delve deeply into CAM or CAD< but I hope to add some functionality for quick
pockets or engravings while your cutting out gears and clock faces and such..

Heres a photo of my development screen in the new 2.5-3d cam module for the fall..

Art


Art


Art

[SkyMoBot]

I use SheetCam.&nbsp; It's pretty inexpensive I use it for all my general non-3d work.&nbsp; I learned CAM using it and had lots of "problems" of which 99.99 turned out to be me, but Les was always understanding and patient.

I give it my 100% thumbs up and will continue to use it until Art builds in more general purpose functionality and Gearotic becomes all I need to make me happy.

[Mooselake]

The new version of HeeksCAD/HeeksCAM is around $20, and the previous version is free, if you want to try the sorta open source route. &nbsp;I had good luck with the prior versions under Linux.

There's also a free older version of cambam that you could check out.

I've had good luck with pcb-gcode and Eagle, for the very small amount of pcb work I did.

Kirk

[Timothy Moulton]

I will second Sheetcam, it is incredibly fast and easy to use. It has limited capabilities, but they are well selected and well worth the price.

[Krissy]

I use cut2d by vectric. It cost 150.does and does basic 2.5 d stuff fast and is easy. I have not tried the others mentioned. Guess you should try out stuff first and see what you like best. Or just buy them all

K!

[John T]

I use Aspire which is definitely not cheap at $2000.&nbsp; I didn't by the full meal deal at first but have been with Aspire for at least 5 years and over that time have added and upgraded, but as I check the price now its at $2000.

The strongest point in favour of Aspire is the tutorials - there must be 50 or so.
The weakest point is that won't do a centreline trace.

I agree with Art once you work with one you really don't want to change.

John

[Stephen Fornelius]

I'm using BobCAD/CAM for my 2.5D.&nbsp; I sometimes import the DFX from Gearotic to BobCAD if I want to run a simulation or to get more options for milling.

I'm not recommending it because of the very poor tutorials.&nbsp; The tech support is good, but it doubles the cost if you want tech support.&nbsp;

I'm looking at FreeCAD now and comparing it to my copy of Alibre (which I think it pretty nifty if you learn to use it well).&nbsp; Both of these are parametric, so its apples and apples comparison.&nbsp;