What about CMM arm? (off topic)

Hi Everyone,

I apologize for this being off topic... EMC is the only time I have seen linux mentioned in the same searches I have been doing on CMM arms. My company manufactures rotationally molded plastic goods and we're about to branch out into injection molded parts. I come up with the concept and then hire specialists and other businesses to do the technical work.

On out last 3 rotor-molded projects, I paid the tool maker to build the models. The first two were old-world sandcast off of oversized models. For the last one, we worked with the toolmaker to build the model and then had it scanned. Now I want to bring the model making in-house and buy a manual CMM arm to "scan" the model.

Can anyone recommend linux-based software tools to work with CMM arms? We have quotes from FARO and Romer and I'm inclined to go with the Romer. My plan is to get the info from the model into digital form with the CMM arm then hire someone to transform it into the format my toolmaker wants. Toolmaker then makes the drawing larger to handle shrink and takes that to his CNCs to cut the molds.

Also, any recommendations for linux tools for other CAD and/or CAM work in general? I pretty much despise windows, so it is begrudgingly that I get new XP licenses or buy Windows based software.

Thanks for your opinions!
Chris