On 18 September 2015 at 05:49, John Dammeyer <jo...@autoartisans.com> wrote: > So what are people using for the 3D parametric drawing to G-Code CAM > generation to the LinuxCNC control?
Realistically speaking I don't think that there is a toolchain for Linux that is comparable to what you can find on Windows. I use AutoDesk Inventor and HSM Express and it's very good. But it should be at the price. (I get a free license as a perk of my day-job). I actually run this on my Mac in a VM and his probably remains the most practical way to get decent CAD/CAM running on a Linux box. If you have really deep pockets then https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens_NX runs on Linux. I haven't used FreeCAD for a while, but I think that is the closest to complete of the Free Open Source options. I think that there are Linux-compatible commercial options, but haven't tried them. There are slightly more CAM options than CAD options. MeshCAM ($250) is Windows/Mac but runs under Wine. CamBam isn't quite as slick as MeshCAM, but then it's cheaper (£93) and there is a Linux-specific version: http://www.cambam.info/ref/ref.linux PyCAM (FOSS) would be OK if it wasn't so terrifyingly slow. As in, a path that takes HSM Express 4 seconds will be an overnight run for PyCAM. But see the other email that suggests a fix for this. -- atp If you can't fix it, you don't own it. http://www.ifixit.com/Manifesto ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
