CAD and CAM Software
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Designing your product
Inkscape
In the 3D-world I prefer the simple OpenSCAD and in 2D it's the also fairly simple Inkscape which is free and awesome, too! ;)
- Basic usage is pretty easy, just try it. If in doubt, there's plenty of manuals and tutorials online
- Inkscape add CNC tabs
Creating GCODE
Overview
| Tool | Still maintained | Ease of use | Functionality | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JSCut.org | no | ***** | ***-- | Missing/broken tabs operation, otherwise great, especially for newbies! |
| LaserWeb4 | yes | ***** | ***** | Similar zu JSCut, can do tabs (add them as path to/as svg and then to the tabs of the operation), AppImage/Binary for the popular systems. |
| PyCAM | no | ? | ? | Still needs python 2.7 and seems to abandoned since 2019. |
| Blender CAM | ? | ? | ? | NOT TESTED YET! https://blendercam.com/ |
| gcad3d | ? | ? | ? | NOT TESTED YET! https://www.gcad3d.org/ |
| krabzcam | ? | ? | ? | NOT TESTED YET! https://www.gcad3d.org/ |
Other Software (yet to test)
bCNC
https://github.com/vlachoudis/bCNC
Not tested yet.
grbl gru
Not tested yet.
FreeCAD
See also
Do:
- Make sure you played with Inkscape-SVGs and jsCut enough to understand the basics, otherwise handling (the much more complex FreeCAD) will be very frustrating…
- Launch FreeCAD
- Make sure you have already created proper solids (see above)!
- Make sure units are ok:
Preferences → General → Unit System → Metric small parts & CNC
- Create Job:
- Choose solid:
- Set
Output to grbl
- Create tools as needed:
Path → Toolbit Library Editor
- Remove default tool
- Choose Tool, set # to 1
- Set H/V speed
- TBD TBD TBD
Converting STL to solids in FreeCAD
See also: https://forum.freecad.org/viewtopic.php?t=14136
- Open the STL file
- Select object
Part → Create shape from mesh
- Select new object
Part → Converte to solid
Sending GCode
What works fine for me:
- cncjs
- UGS (on my old T60 w/o visualization, might be an issue with the old machine)
- not tested yet: LaserWeb
- Links
- TBD