CAD/CAM

Andy, thanx I'll give this a go.

Rick and Todd, Thank you for your input.
Vectric is out of my reach $$$ wise for now, but something to concider if this works out.
Again, thank you,

emcPT, I will look at ArtCam directly. Thank you for your help too.

Allen

Andy,

That link and down load was a snap, thanx again.

Allen

I find CamBam prety good on my router, free up to 1,000 lines running on Linux With Mono, about $150.00. Good friendly helpfull forumn like Linux CNC!!

To: The Forum,

I wanted to share the decision I made for the benefit of anyone who might look at this posting.

Pycam will be the program that I start my experience out with.
However, as I understand it this program is somewhat limiting, so to deal with the challenges I expect to have in the future I will be purchasing Weber Systems “Synergy” CAD/CAM, webersys.com/.
This program will handle up to nine axis and has a good track record.
It's built on the Linux platform and they encourage the use of Linuxcnc.
It has great learning tools and a real person for support issues.

Thanks to everyone for your help.

Happy motion control experiences to all!

Hi All

I am new to CNC - haven't even got my own machine yet but am repairing a Sherline 2000. That got me hooked.

As to the CAD software there is 3D BRL-CAD that runs on everything (no, not Android) and gets good reviews. Opensource supported by the US army.

Dassault is making available their 2D "Draftsight" available for free. These are the guys who sell CATIA. www.3ds.com/products/draftsight/download-draftsight/ runs on Linux, Mac and Windows

Autodesk has free 2D still available and you can sign up to test their beta cloud version labs.autodesk.com/technologies/fusion/ an older 3D? beta version of Inventor Fusion for OSX and Windows can still be downloaded

Siemens offers a 2D CAD for free at www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/pro...ty/solidedge/free2d/ Windows only

If someone could tell me why I would need / want 3D CAD if most of what I will be doing is machining components for a CNC gantry mill I would appreciate it.

Manfred