[Drools]

I'm just about to buy Mach3, however I,m wondering what else is available. I tried Kcam and it does work it is not as smooth as Mach3 in the motor control area. It also locked up my PC a few times where Mach3 has never given me any issues with the computer. I think Mach3 is a more polished software compared to Kcam.
However before I put up my cash I can't help thinking what else is there I can evaluate, or should I not bother and just get Mach3.

Thanks for the help!

[dertsap]

i find mach is the best for what I've got set up , Ive used kcam and it's not near as smooth as mach or emc , I liked emc but I found that it bogged down or crashed my pc when I tried to get my steppers to their top performance so i was never able to get my system to perform as well as what I can with mach , on a slower stepper system emc will do well and it can be tested from a live cd ,

[lerman]

Try EMC. It's free.

Ken

[ger21]

If you want to run from a parallel port, with no additional hardware, these are you're options.

Under DOS, there's TurboCNC, CNC Pro, and CNC Zeus.

Under Windows, there's Mach3 and KCAM.

Under Linux, there's EMC.

If you don't mind using (and paying for) an external pulse generator, you can look at USBCNC, DeskCNC, SuperCAM XP, FlashCut, and WinCNC. These run from around $300 to about $1500, or more with options.

There are other options that cost more as well.