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Mikado Modellhubschrauber . GrandRC . CanoMod

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CAD - Engineering - Technical > CAM software
 
 
R.J.
Senior Heliman
Location: SF bay area, CA USA

Is there a not too expensive CAM program you are using for interpreting 3D files from Solidworks? Or is everyone using Mastercam and Surfcam? Thanks.

Regards,
Rick
02-02-2004 Over year old.
 
 
Hockeytown
Veteran
Location: Pontiac, Mi. U.S.A.

That's a tough one......

The problem with CAM tools seems to be that they are all pretty expensive.

There is a product called CAMWorks that runs inside SolidWorks, but it costs about twice as much as SolidWorks.

If you find one, let everyone know.....but it's probably easier to find someone in your area who has a CNC Mill and Mastercam, SurfCam or Gibbs that can do the G code generation and cutting for you.

Thanks,

Darin[color=red]
Hockeytown[/color]
02-02-2004 Over year old.
 
 
JCadwell
Key Veteran
Location: Richland WA/ Morro Bay, CA

Deskam works ok. It is about 300$, but you can demo it for a month. It works fine for 2.5D routing. It's big limitation is 3D import. It accepts STL and DXF files, so you can't do any solid importing, and the STL codepath is about as far from optimized as you can get. It works well for cutting sideframes, as you only need to contour at a given depth.

The user interface for Mastercam looks like it would run on a 386. Odd, for such a powerful program. I like visualmill, but haven't run a full version of it, only played with their demo.

Thanks, John Cadwell
02-02-2004 Over year old.
 
 
copterviews
Key Veteran
Location: Myrtle Beach SC

Therer are a couple Free downloadable plugins for rhino 2.0 and 3.0 that allow you to input NC code, and rhino "draws the tool path", does this help?
Also a surfcam related product called predator editor cnc editor, allows you to visualize the tool paths and edit the code. If it is just G code munipliation than you can do it in word pad.
Hope this helps!
Thanks,
Brett Horton
www.copterviews.com
www.stingrayboats.com
02-02-2004 Over year old.
HOMEPAGE  
 
 
Torkroll
Senior Heliman
Location: Bakersfield Ca

I use Camworks at work, its an add-on for solidworks and runs inside solidworks, there is a 2 axis and a 3 axis, you need the sim and it is expensive.

Its real nice but you could just go out and buy 3 or 4 heli kits instead for the same money
02-02-2004 Over year old.
 
 
TMoore
rrProfessor
Location: Cookeville, TN

Rick,

There are some inexpensive systems out there, relatively speaking. EZ Cam Pro V14 is selling for $6,000.00 and Feature Cam sells for $10,000+, depending on the options you need.

Working with 3D models isn't exactly like trigging out points or picking points off of an ACAD drawing and then fingerdinking the code at the control. To be honest about it, I can't think of too many heli parts that I can't make with a 3 axis machine using inexpensive software or programming by hand. 3D is overkill for most of the parts that we use in a modern heli.

At present I'm using FeatureCam V11, EZ Cam V14 and DP Esprit C, W and 2003 respectively. There aren't too many CNC's that I can't handle. It's all a matter of how much time it takes and how much someone wants to spend for programming. Most of the contract programmers I know bill like a lawyer would. The custom metal working business tends to be expensive just like lawyers and doctors, due to the fact that commercial work pays real money and no one really wants to fiddle with heli parts that don't pay much. Since this is such a small business relatively speaking, CAM software represents a small market for developers and high prices for stuff that really works.

Terry
02-02-2004 Over year old.
 
 
R.J.
Senior Heliman
Location: SF bay area, CA USA

Thanks for your responses. I think I will then just try exporting the drawing from Solidworks as a 2D (.dwg) into a 2D CAM program. Especially since I'll only be working with a 2 axis mill for now.

Regards,
Rick
02-04-2004 Over year old.
 
 
Hockeytown
Veteran
Location: Pontiac, Mi. U.S.A.

Should be good.....

R.J..........

That should work just fine! Just make sure when you make the 2D Drawing in SolidWorks that it is a 1:1 scale, otherwise you'll end up with VERY different parts than you were expecting when exporting to .dwg


Thanks,

Darin[color=red]
Hockeytown[/color]
02-04-2004 Over year old.
 
 
LarryMiranda
Senior Heliman
Location: Sunny Las Vegas

Copterviews, where do you get the plugins for NC code input for
Rhino-3?
02-09-2004 Over year old.
 
 
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A Main Hobbies . Boca Bearings . Modefo's RC Helicopters

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CAD - Engineering - Technical > CAM software
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