[MarcusWolschon]

What Free Software, Open Source Software or at least <150eur commercial software exists that does real 4 or 5 axis toolpathes?
Meaning actually moving more then 3 axis at the same time,
Not just doing a 3 axis milling with one axis being rotational.


(and usually not even caring about the specifics of rotational axis such as
0=360,
speeds near the center being different to speeds far from the center and machine control programs being too dump to care
and path distances near the center being different from path distances farther out)

[ger21]

CNC Toolkit is free.

[MarcusWolschon]

According to 404 Not Found handbook is from 2007 and is just a few lines explains what it is.
No images, features, required software, supported operating systems,...
I have no idea how to use that and frankly it looks like it died many years ago.

[ger21]

There's an active Yahoo group for it. It runs in 3DS Max or G-Max.

[MarcusWolschon]

So first thing I GUESS it only runs on Windows.
So I need to start with a virtual machine.
What version of Windows works? Is XP fine?
How much resources to allocate for the system?

A Yahoo Group is for discussing things.
That sounds usable once questions come up after installing it and getting it to run.
(I think I have a Yahoo account somewhere that I haven't used in decades)
Where do I find the documentation on what it can do, how to set it up and how to use it?
I have found a Google Code site but it has an empty Wiki section. At least that should allow me to modify the source code to my needs (however setting up a c development environment in Windows is a lot of work, especially if you don't want an expensive MS Visual C++ )

[ger21]

Looks like everything is here:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/...es/LatestBeta/

I don't use it, so don't have any more information. Afaik, though, there's no other low cost or free 5 axis CAM software out there.

[MarcusWolschon]

This gets worse and worse.
Yahoo wouldn't let me log in.
Now the file is not public but restricted for approved members of that "yahoo group".
What kind of maintainer would hide his project this deep? No wonder nobody uses it given the number of hoops you have to jump through to get there.

[awerby]

Weren't you developing a free and open-source 4-5 axis CAM software of your own, Marcus? When are you going to release it? No doubt you'll avoid all the shortcomings of the existing systems, port it to multiple operating systems, support it much better than they do and present it in a easily accessible form as well...

[MichaelHenry]

Sometimes, free isn't worth the price you pay.

[MarcusWolschon]

I released a working alpha and am stuck in my attempts to make any progress on integrating it into the unfinished FreeCAD CAM API.

[MarcusWolschon]

It's Java, the alpha works everywhere.
The final will work everywhere FreeCAD does.
Code, Documentation and Binaries are easily found on Google Code.
Right next to the public bug tracker and contact info.

PS: I couldn't find a place to still download that free "GMAX" version it's supposed to work with.
The only place that claims to host it returns 404.
The commercial 3D Studio Max is 4.485,00 € and thus no option.
Aparently a large helmet-manufacturer and a ton of other products use the name "g-max" and similar.

[MarcusWolschon]

Made some progress in FreeCAD integration.
Still a long way towards go.

Gesendet von meinem Galaxy Nexus mit Tapatalk

[ger21]

PS: I couldn't find a place to still download that free "GMAX" version it's supposed to work with.
The only place that claims to host it returns 404.

If you Google "gmax download" the first link returned has it.
http://www.turbosquid.com/gmax

[MarcusWolschon]

You do know that Google returns different results based on who you are and what country and language you are in.

[MarcusWolschon]

Turbo squid returns an error 404 when you actually try to download that.

[ger21]

Then I'm glad it gives me the results I'm looking for.

[ger21]

Not for me. I just downloaded it.

[magicniner]

Turbo squid returns an error 404 when you actually try to download that.

It works for me too, perhaps whether you can download it is country dependent too?