I wish there was an entry-level CAM solution for Rhino3D

Having recently got our hands on a 3DTEK HeavyMill I heartily agree. F360 is way top-heavy…
(oh, ignore me, I haven’t read the thread…)

Fusion even opens 3dm files directly.
You just need to upload them which sometimes can be somewhat slow.

Welp, having read the thread, I think an open-source entry-level solution is inevitable (bring it on), but in the meantime it looks like I’m stuck with F360. I’m a low-earner, but need the functionality, so I see no option.
Not a huge fan of Autodesk since they took away our lovely TSplines…

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Unfortunately that is where all software is headed, the perpetual license is quickly becoming extinct.
It not just the big software companies. The smaller guys making plugins are going that route as well.

I know many people are fighting this tooth and nail, at some point we will all be forced to comply or lose the software.

For the companies indicating that you will be able to keep the perpertual license should you already own one, well, that is a load of crap. Its only good for as long as the OS (or host application) supports it. Macintosh users in particular are finding this out as their OS upgrades tend to break software more frequently than Windows.

What I am looking for is at least a 3-axis, export the g-code thing. For me, I don’t think it’s imperative that the CAD software directly controls the CNC. Personally, I don’t mind having a dedicated box to chomp through the code and drive the machine around. I use LinuxCNC for running G-code. I even tried to layout a new Graphical user interface for them, which may or may not ever get made.

Still, I need something for generating tool paths. The 5-Axis solution in this thread looks interesting. I will look to see if it can do–err 2.5D. Sorry, Euclid.

(I don’t rent software.

It doesn’t make sense to me for someone to take the bother to lean something they have on borrowed time.

With subscription software, with no version breakpoint, there’s no reason to make it well-crafted and without bugs, as we see on in the wild. The low bar is so low, that most of us a beta testers.

The Web Browser was the very first program I saw–that had a throbber to prove it hadn’t crashed–yet.

There was a related article on Slashdot. You may notice that I also posted a link to a free but not open editing suite, as an alternative to Adobe Premier. They have a more featured version, and not for rent.

https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/11/09/064248/are-forced-subscriptions-driving-3d-users-to-open-source-tools )

Hi Siemen! Are you still working at BarkBeetle? Thank you for a such a great def, its inspired me to create my own for my special uses. For now im working on def for profiling operations and looking forward to your def. At that moment i have one small improvement and suggestion.

  1. Sorting geometry by control points (gif)

  1. Collision of two nearly based geometry (gif)

Collision
I hope that im not missing something, just tryin to help with development. Cheers!

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Hi @sahasg552! Maybe it was just a typo but BarkBeetle is not a company but yes we’re still working on it, though lately we haven’t been making any progress as we’ve been focusing on other things. I believe the latest version even has a big bug in pocketing which needs to be solved and for some reason I couldn’t revert my commit, which was a bit frustrating.

Yes, that makes perfect sense! I’ll add it to issues on Github!

Isn’t that currently already the case? Seems to be like that here when I just test it. Unless I’m testing on a verison which is not the one which is currently on Github.

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

Ma bad, english lang is not my native, sorry =) Yes, i mean “working on BarkBeetle”.
Wish you good luck, im big fan of your works!

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Could i ask you a question in this topic, or there’s some other place where you prefer to discuss?
Why dont you use circular interpolation instead of linear in g-code? Its more easy to read and edit if required.


For example, 7 hundred lines instead of just 15 (from my def). It’s not so complicated to implement for experienced user of grasshopper (i am not, so it’s little bit lagy =)).

or probably even a noob Python/VB/C# programmer.

In case you have a github account, it would be best to post questions there, so anybody not following this forum or topic can see the discussion there.

Good question though! I feel like I’ve asked the same to Jens before as well but I don’t really remember the answer so maybe I didn’t. I’ve implemented this together with relative coordinates for a client as well that needed the shortest length of code possible. I think it was just easier to implement it like this and we never had the need to edit the code afterwards, which is why we maybe never reconsidered it. Not sure, I’d need to have a proper look at that part of the definition again to see if there’s another reason.

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Years ago, I used DeskProto as a low-cost, friendly way to get an introduction to CAM. It’s still a good option.
Details are in the CAM section of the Resources page.

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And they are preparing a Mac and Linux version of DeskProto, in private beta right now.

I discovered MeshCAM through the CNCcookbook blog, and I’m very pleasantly surprised as to how simple it is for beginners.

They really have stripped down CNC toolpath creation to an idiot simple state. All you need is the dimensions of your stock and the tools you want to use.

Really my only criticism is they don’t have more CNC mills to choose from.

http://www.grzsoftware.com/

Hi, Siemen. I’ve downloaded BarkBeetle and am trying to figure out how to use it. If be honest it is not very easy. Have a question, is it possible to generate G-code for a 2axis laser cut? thanks

Hi @galiafvelikiy ,
I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not very easy to figure out how to use it without any guidance and it has its limitations. If you’re laser cutter runs on a gcode file it should be possible to generate g-code. Not sure what would be the easiest though, try to strip what is currently there in bark beetle or starting from scratch and implementing only the stuff you need.

Years ago, I messed around with DeskProto and found it easy to use and very affordable.
I see they still exist.
It might be worth a look.

@ Galiafvelikiy

DeskProto is easy to use, I used it quite a bit about 20 years ago, and although I was using it for 3D machining at the time, I suspect it would be easy to use for 2D cutting as well.

If there is no post processor (machine definition) for the specific laser in DeskProto’s machine list, it will be necessary to create one, Which CNC machine to select in DeskProto
A post processor is required for any machining software, not just DeskProto.
Since its a 2D laser, it might be easy to create a post processor based on an existing post processor as you would not have to consider M codes for things like tool changers, coolant, etc.

Guys, thanks a lot to all who reply, it gives me some confidence that I can accomplish these with your help. :blush: Let me explain the problem in more detail. I’ve tried to use Bamboo Plugin (BAMBOO | Food4Rhino) and it helps me to do the work, also it is very easy to get ISO format which I feed to my machine (https://www.sisma.com/en/products/mcl-laser-cutting-system/). The problem is I want to automate more routine work as possible. Because Bamboo Plugin is not open for editing its inner code for making any changes I’ve started to look for the Grasshopper solution also, maybe in the future I will be able to improve the process just to import the DXF file and get the Gcode in ISO format. What you can suggest trying first for coming up with more specific questions? Thanks a LOT!!!

why dont you try estlecam ? cheap and works ok , can read dxf surface output gcode works great even simple 3d milling , for more deskproto is free for the simple version

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