Mill Standard - Should I wait?

I'm close to pulling the trigger on Mil Standard, but I'm concerned that it is 2D only. Would that mean X and Y only and no Z? Should I wait until I can afford Mill Pro? The lack of 3D seems like a serious limitation. I have just a Tormach PCNC1100 and I have always manually coded. I don't even use their"Wizzards". I don't know CAD and even less about CAM. I've watched a few of the Dolphin videos but will need an instruction manual. In the videos the guy does a fine job but he already knows which "tool" to select and where to find it. Nice instruction for a person who already knows the system, but then such a person wouldn't need the videos. I have Ver. 11 of TurboCad, but it seems to be more oriented to architecture rather than machining.

Dolphin is not 2d, it is 2.5d. It has the abilities to do profiling paths, which are kind of 3d.

You can still select specific depths to cut. Look at my website at Mandala Rose Works - Home and you can see a lot of stuff on there that was cut with Dolphin.

Wade

Wade,

I thought it would be 2.5 D, yet on Dolphin's website, if I read it correctly, it was listed as 2D. I can certainly live with 2.5. Does it come with a manual that is reasonably useful?

Thanks,
John

It's more powerful than just 2.5D. They do have a manual that they email. I don't believe they ship a book or anything. Then again, most companies now days don't.

Honestly, if you take the hour and go thru their tutorials, you won't have any problems using the software. It is very easy to use. The most you will need to do is play around with some of the various settings for approaches and whatnot.

I have never opened their manual, tho I have looked at the help file a few times.

Wade

Wade,

From the tutorials, it does seem easy enough. I downloaded the demo but have not been able to make "snap to grid" function. It doesn't snap to the grid points. The other snap functions seem to work well. If I can get that to work, I'll buy Mill Std with my next paycheck.

Hello,

The Snap to Grid only works if a grid has been setup, from the top toolbar choose the Grid Setup icon.

Enter the X and Y gird sizes and click OK, also from the top toolbar there is a grid visibility icon the switch the grid on /off. This wont affect the grid snap which will work if the grid is visible or not.

ATB
Andre

Andre, thanks. Actually, I'd been using that procedure. It seems that my grid sizes were too small. I opened them up to 0.125" and all was good. I get paid on the 14th ande will order the Mill Std.

Andre, I pulled the trigger today on Mill Std. Hopefully I will be able to get the hang of it. I've had no problem manually writing G_code. Most of my designs are rather simple, but some of them require "S" shaped contours which, for me, have been a tad troublesome. Manually coding two curves which go in opposite directions and must be joined into one continuous curve often have a slight hump where the two curves join.

You'll be happy with it.