[DolphinG]

I will be purchasing a CNC, ShopBot Desktop ATC Max with 4axis (indexer / lathe).
a bit of a newb, so any input is much appreciated.
ATC MAX is a 2x3' work area, XYZ, CNC for wood and soft metals.
It seems most of these type of CNCs run off VCarve or Aspire.
asking for recommendations for CAD and CAM.
a few questions...

Is Alibre EXPERT a good 3D CAD program to use for this type of work? Since I only need to renew my license, this makes the most sense. I have minimal experience with it though, and dont want to invest the learning curve if the program is not ideal.

The CNC comes with VCarve pro, can this be used as CAM program for the Alibre files I create? Will VCarve run the 4th axis? Can any CAD program use any CAM program for these CNC machines? Checked VCarve website, it was not so clear to me, it seemed the CAM capabilities are limited.

I wanted to avoid Fusion 360 due to them constantly changing the rules.
Any other recommendations would be appreciated.

[megamoog2]

Take a look at Ez_Cam
They partner with Alibre
Contact Chris Lalashius, very helpful gent...

https://ezcam.com/

[DolphinG]

thx for tip, I did speak with Chris
it seems the limitation is in the indexer itself...
seems the XYZ flatbeds are the norm, moving into indexing is a niche, hard to get detailed info.
It seems what I need is a continuous 4th axis cnc machine, not sure the basic indexer on the ShopBot can do this... still waiting to learn more from them..
any input would be appreciated...

[awerby]

Shopbot charges several thousand dollars for their motorized 4th axes; it seems they should be able to cut continuously: https://www.shopbottools.com/product...ories/indexers
If indexing was all you needed, you could do that with a simple dividing head, no motor required.

I'd suggest DeskProto multi-axis (which we sell) for writing code for 4-axis toolpaths. It has various strategies for continuous 4-axis carving, including n-sided indexing.