I am trying to resolve a problem in Rhino CAM, that seems more difficult that I anticipated. I want to set the milling direction from X/Y direction to X/Z direction. ( I am milling with a robot , not a standard CNC) There is the option to “Orient Part”, however , the milling direction will always remain downwards X/Y, which is very frustrating.
I use a Gcode parser to import the Gcode into my GH script, which works fine, however, as I am dealing with G Code and not geometry, I can’t rotate the axis in GH. ( usually not a problem)
Any help and suggestions much appreciated as ever.
ekke
Hi there, thanks for looking into this,
I am running RhinoCAM 2024, and I don’t seem to have this option available to me, I can set the WCS in Setup and can rotate the part, but it doesn’t change the direction of the tool unfortunately. I looked through all the setting many times, but I don’t seem to have this option …
I could try and rotate the robot to fit the Robot axis, but not sure my controller with the ABB would like that…
Do you have a “Setup” icon? I don’t know if this is available in the level of RhinoCAM that you have, but if you see this icon pick it. That’s how you change your machine orientation. I usually just use the “Select surface” icon and pick a surface in the orientation that I want to tool to approach. You can use the “rotate about” icons at the bottom to make sure your XY orientation is what you want for your machine setup.
Hi Dan, Thanks for that , unfortunately, my version ( still 3K US) doesn’t allow me to do this, which is pretty poor I have to say…
I will have to ponder…
It might seem like $3K is a lot of money for CAM, but it’s not. We have PowerMill subscriptions that are around $10K per year. WorkNC runs about $25K per seat with annual maintenance around $4500 per year ($7500 with full simu). Fusion is a lot cheaper, but it’s a subscription too, and by the time you add on your manufacturing extensions it’s not so cheap anymore. MecSoft products are a bargain in the CAM world. There will be someone jumping in here soon to say how horrible MecSoft is, but that’s not been our experience.
At least with MecSoft (RhinoCam) you don’t have to pay yearly fees if you don’t want to. You need to pay the fees though if you want the upgrades/new versions.
I wish I experienced workNC, but they got bought out so prob wont ever happen.
I’ll stick with mastersCAM for now, until we figure something else out lol.
well, you still have to pay 10% annually or something for the upgrades to take effect, just like mastersCAM. and yeah you don’t have to pay, but if you want new versions in the future they just charge you full price and get it out of you eventually.
but my co got mastersCAM 2022 which is a good inflection point. It only took them 13 yrs to figure out how to make it barely almost a good CAM system. I don’t see any point in upgrading for at least another 10 yrs. however now that Sandvik owns it, maybe they’ll finally make it worth the money.
it’s interesting that Sweden seems to control alot of technolgies now these days. I wonder what it would be like to build a factory there.
We’ve had great experience with RhinoCam. Guitar designing and building, 2 sided carves for bodies and necks. Carved tops (like PRS) and fretboards too.
Dan, I am an art professor at a University, RhinoCAM doesn’t offer an education licence, and when you think about how much one gets from a full commercial licence of Rhino8 ( 1.5k?) , this is poor, as I need to teach students how to use the software…and this "basic " package is still expensive for institutions like ours…,
I parse it with a HAL parser, which works fine, I have no idea how to swap the Y with Z, but usually the ABB controller is very fussy with code not being highly correct, any idea how to do this?
Yes it does, it’s a 5 seat lab license, and it’s one of the best deals around because you get a Pro-level version for the standard level price (and 5 seats of it!). Call your local reseller or Mecsoft.
I told the guys in the office to follow this up, we have to go via a local re seller, they might have screwed us…
I asked what the 5axis edu version was and they told me that it was 10K US…
Thanks for all this info, are you working for Mecsoft?
I am teaching robotics, so we need at least that version of it, we follow up…
Honestly, the entire software has Windows 98 vibes , ( floppy discs as saving icons, my students will have no idea what that means…) , its a good software now that I know my way around it, but it also feels like there has never been a complete overhaul, always bolting on things, and nothing helpful towards parametric integration.
I think, most people working professionally with Rhino will also use GH, and this software has no link to it, which is really poor…
anyway, those are my thoughts from the shop floor, I guess, if one needs standard CNC 3 axis, this is perfectly fine…
I think I still have a valid license for HAL so if you internalise your data you can upload the file for me to take a look at.
We have a 5 seat edu license with option to change machine setup, I think even bought it from Helvetosaur. For your application, maybe https://robodk.com is the better choice.
I am a local reseller of Rhino and RhinoCAM (CH). @DanBayn is a power user in the US/CA auto industry.
Yes, the RhinoCAM interface is somewhat dated, but once you get past that, the educational lab license is great for schools - I have supplied most of the university-level and technical school programs here with licenses.
30 min was pretty quick 
I wonder what it would be like to build a factory there.