[finchm]

I currently own Dolphin CAD/CAM but it won't do 3D. I'm not sure if I want to buy their upgrade (or even what it costs).

I've been fiddling around with the meshcam demo the past couple of days and the product is ok. I've noticed a couple of small bugs during my evaluation. The biggest issues I have with the product is that the documentation and tutorials differ quite a bit from the product I am evaluating and that the product was last updated a couple of years ago.

Is this product still under development and being supported? Are there other alternatives I should be considering? I just do this as a hobby so $250 is the max i'll spend.

[awerby]

Take a look at DeskProto. It's capable of full 3D work, including live 4th-axis toolpaths and indexed 5th-axis paths. It can deal with very large mesh files, and has a lot of useful wizards included. For hobbyists, the price is pretty close to what you're talking about. You can evaluate it for a month for free; it will post G-code you can try out on your machine.

[sarahah]

Is it not common for CAM software to open STL files?