[marting]

Hi Christian,
I understand that writing plugins is a challenge for people such as us and that would be a hurdle, however as long as the CAM software is stable and reliable (such as Mach 3) it doesn't really matter if the plugin works only with one software, because you will only be working with one after all and also once you get more confident of its reliability, you wouldn't trade it with anything else, well at least this is my experience. Maybe doing a joint venture with someone who is fluent with programming / writing plugins and you test them would be an alternative? Also it doesn't need to be absolutely free, as I understand that time spent on a project is time taken away from something else, hence needs to be compensated for.

I do hope that this has been somehow helpful as I too am building a CNC which eventually hope to convert into 5 axis, although I do not have immediate plans for it, so having said that it is not of major importance. However I would be willing to pay for the plugins (and what ever would be needed) to upgrade it.
Regards

[ChristianLL]

Good job ChristianLL, but how about writing your kinematics as plugin for Mach, something like this guy is showing in his THREAD.

Hi Christian,
I understand that writing plugins is a challenge for people such as us and that would be a hurdle, however as long as the CAM software is stable and reliable (such as Mach 3) it doesn't really matter if the plugin works only with one software, because you will only be working with one after all and also once you get more confident of its reliability, you wouldn't trade it with anything else, well at least this is my experience. Maybe doing a joint venture with someone who is fluent with programming / writing plugins and you test them would be an alternative? Also it doesn't need to be absolutely free, as I understand that time spent on a project is time taken away from something else, hence needs to be compensated for.

I do hope that this has been somehow helpful as I too am building a CNC which eventually hope to convert into 5 axis, although I do not have immediate plans for it, so having said that it is not of major importance. However I would be willing to pay for the plugins (and what ever would be needed) to upgrade it.
Regards

I would only make the program on the website such that people can upload their gcode and have it converted to have the correct values for functions like RTCP. With this type of setup, it would be easy for me to add support for other controllers with their own specific gcode standards. If I make it a plugin for Mach3, then I'm completely tied into that and no one else can use it. If I don't have to, I won't charge money for people to use this. I want it to be my free contribution to helping move this DIY CNC world along to become better and better while being affordable. Also, I could run ads on the website to make a little bit of money to compensate time anyway.

I do appreciate your input. Thank you.