On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:14:48 +0200, you wrote: >And of course, Freemill at Mecsoft... (maybe already mentioned) > >http://www.mecsoft.com/freemill.shtml > >Unless you are doing work that has specific requirements, aim for CAD >products that generate, and CAM that import .stl files. They are simple >triangle files, versatile, and you can usually increase the resolution >during generation to well beyond the resolution of your milling machine. > >Apparently .stl is frowned on in the 'real world' as a machining source, but >I think it's great. Converting parasolids between packages often requires a >myriad of variables to be set up, and don't be surprised if you find parts >of your assembly 'off the page'.
STL is frowned on because of the high failure rate on reading or interpreting the data. STL files need a closed surface where each triangular edge is part of exactly two triangles, but there is no syntax checking and often poorly drawn objects create unusable STL. IGES is considered the de facto standard digital product manufacturing information exchange format and has been an ANSI standard since 1980. I've yet to receive an IGES file I couldn't work with, unlike STL where one that actually works is the exception, rather than the rule. Steve Blackmore -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Download Intel® Parallel Studio Eval Try the new software tools for yourself. Speed compiling, find bugs proactively, and fine-tune applications for parallel performance. See why Intel Parallel Studio got high marks during beta. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-sw-dev _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
