Re 2.5D with gmax
Hi There,
The board did send a copy of your post by email and I thought I'd reply to try and offer a bit of guidance re: the parts of the ebook that should be most helpful to you.
You are correct in thinking that 2.5D or Parts type work is best addressed using spline or vector modelling / editing in gmax. I think Chapter 4 of the ebook is most relevant to the type of work you are looking at, particularly the 'Parts and Layout' and 'Toolpaths' sections of the chapter. As you have a 4 axis setup, the 3D spline building parts of the 'Toolpaths' section might be helpful. Toolpath processing examples in chapter 7 will probably also be helpful.
gmax and CNC_Toolkit excel at this type of work and for many parts you need only create a simple 'outline' drawing, from which you can then generate a multipass toolpath to whatever depth your tooling can cut with a user specified number of passes.
If gmax seems a bit heavy for the work you are doing, a useful and less complex alternative might be found in the FREE CamBam beta software discussed in chapter 8. CamBam does excel at things like region based clearance paths and outline cutting and can be a lot more 'automatic' than gmax although it's editing tools are not as powerful.
ebook content related to image editing and mesh deformation etc will not be required in the type of work you describe. The ebook starts with these aspects of CNC as, like yourself, many people do at least have some familiarity with image editing.
hope this helps
Danny
What one man can do another man can do..
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