CAM software for the hobbyist

[Chris Yahnker]

What CAM packages are people running to generate G code? I run Mach 4 to control the machine (a Shoptask Eldorado). I've had some luck with Fusion 360 to process files and generate G code. I've had no luck with Solidworks. I've played with CamBam. For simple things on the lathe or mill, I've actually had really good results with ChatGPT.

Still, I'm looking for something that can translate my 3D Solidworks files into actual parts.

 

[MachineFun]

the most common for this combo is Fusion 360, at least for the people I know. Another option you probably haven't tired is HSMWorks. What kind of problems did you had with Solidworks?

 

[Chris Yahnker]

Thanks. I'll look into HSMWorks. I'm running Solidworks for Makers and found it to be near impossible to configure the machine so that the correct settings would be included in the G-code file.

 

[Jon S]

I've found CAMBAM to be as good as any other.

 

[ssaxer]

I have used HSMworks for about 20 years and actually teach it to the students at the university that I work for. Unfortunately, Autodesk is discontinuing this product and I am not sure if it will just stop working (you need a on-line license currently) or fi they are just no longer going to support it.

 

[kvom01]

I used CamBam for many years before I sold my mill. I used the 3D milling only once as my parts were 2D. At the time (pre-Covid) what was lacking was rest machining. You could do roughing and finishing passes, but only one roughing pass. I'm sure the product has improved since then, but I haven't looked at it again.

 

[Jon S]

I used CamBam for many years before I sold my mill. I used the 3D milling only once as my parts were 2D. At the time (pre-Covid) what was lacking was rest machining. You could do roughing and finishing passes, but only one roughing pass. I'm sure the product has improved since then, but I haven't looked at it again.

No, it hasn't changed since then, though most additions are user lead add ons. I'm sure someone could have created the script you needed to achieve that.

I don't create 3d parts either, though I get asked a lot to do so, in my experience most people want 3d at 2d prices and they download crappy STL's off the net and they don't want to pay to have corrected.

 

[terry1956]

Thanks. I'll look into HSMWorks. I'm running Solidworks for Makers and found it to be near impossible to configure the machine so that the correct settings would be included in the G-code file.

Solidworks for makers is a joke. Most of useful post profiles are missing, and it’s almost impossible to get a finished part into a good cam program. It’s now more for 3D printing than anything truly useful.

 

[Toymaker]

I'm likely to be the contrarian on this thread, but I prefer writing the G-code myself rather than use a CAM package. I write 2D, 3D, and 3D with a rotary axis for my CNC mini-mill clone running on Mach3. If you have any experience writing code in any other computer language, you should find writing G-code very straight forward. I use my CAD package to tell me what all the various coordinates are for the end mill, and to provide the radius values for curves.

Give it a go,...it's actually not very difficult

 

[awake]

I am still in the process of putting together my first CNC router, but my plan is to try FreeCAD for the CAM. I have already been using it for many, many years for design work, both for making plans from which I build machinery and woodworking projects, and for generating models that I 3d print. Thus it is a comfortable fit, and the latest version is really a pleasure to use.

While I have not used the CAM functions "for real," I have worked through the CAM capabilities, including generating the gcode and simulating the cutting, and it looks like it will do everything I need. If anyone has used FreeCAD's CAM capabilities "for real," I'd love to hear about your experience.

 

[xpylonracer]

Toymaker
"I'm likely to be the contrarian on this thread, but I prefer writing the G-code myself rather than use a CAM package. I write 2D, 3D, and 3D with a rotary axis for my CNC mini-mill clone running on Mach3. If you have any experience writing code in any other computer language, you should find writing G-code very straight forward. I use my CAD package to tell me what all the various coordinates are for the end mill, and to provide the radius values for curves."

You are not the only 1, see my earlier post.
I write my own G&M coded programs for early Emco and Denford lathes and an Emco F1 mill all in original configuration that do not have a facility to run programs coded in the usual CAM generating programs.

Emgee

 

[Toymaker]

You are not the only 1, see my earlier post.
I write my own G&M coded programs for early Emco and Denford lathes and an Emco F1 mill all in original configuration that do not have a facility to run programs coded in the usual CAM generating programs.

Emgee

Good to know I'm not the only coder on this forum.

Maybe others would be more comfortable with G-code if they saw an example of just how simple it is, so with that in mind, here's a short program that mills a 1mm wide channel for an O-ring into a flat surface.

Everything inside ( ) are comments and not used by the machine.
#1, #2, #3 are variables that can be assigned most any numeric value.

% Title: O-Ring Channel
% Purpose: Mill round O-ring channel
% Stock: Anything
% End Mill: 1mm diam (0.039") (0.0195" Radius)
% X0, Y0 = center of circle
% Z0 = top surface
%
G20 (set inchs/minute mode)
G94 (set feed rate to inchs/minute mode)
G01 (linear motion mode)
G17 (set X-Y plane)

#1 = 0 (initial Z start)
#2 = 0.005 (increment for Z drop)
#3 = 1.559 (variable for Y & R)
#4 = 5 (set Feed rate for circular cuts)
#5 = [0 - #3] (set negative Y value)

F44 Z[#1 + 0.020] (move Z above top of part)
X0 Y#3 (quickly move to start at 12:00)
Z[0.005 + #1] (quick drop to 0.005" above surface)
F1 Z#1 (slowly drop Z to surface)

M98 P14 Q6 (call sub O14 Q times)

G01 F22 Z.20 (move Z above top of disk)
M30

% <<<<<<<<<<<<<<< milling operation is complete! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

% <<<< Begin Subroutine O12 >>>>

% Purpose: mill one complete circle at #2 increments

O14

#1 = [#1-#2] (set to drop Z 0.010")
F#4
G2 X0 Y#5 Z#1 R#3 (mill CW to 6:00)
G2 X0 Y#3 R#3 (mill CW to 12:00)

M99 (end of subroutine O14)

 

[kvom01]

When I was learning CNC machining at a vo-tech school we'd hand code parts for the initial fairly simple parts on the mill. For the HAAS lathe there's a canned procedure where you input the moves to follow the desired profile.

In my home shop I was more than happy to let CamBam do the grunt work, but since I know G-Code I could later edit it on the machine when necessary.

 

[xerxes]

Fusion 360 is still my go-to for hobby work, but FreeCAD has come a long way if you're into open-source stuff.

 

[valloweaster_22]

I am still in the process of putting together my first CNC router, but my plan is to try FreeCAD for the CAM. I have already been using it for many, many years for design work, both for making plans from which I build machinery and woodworking projects, and for generating models that I 3d print. Thus it is a comfortable fit, and the latest version is really a pleasure to use.

While I have not used the CAM functions "for real," I have worked through the CAM capabilities, including generating the gcode and simulating the cutting, and it looks like it will do everything I need. If anyone has used FreeCAD's CAM capabilities "for real," I'd love to hear about your experience.

I'm just starting to explore CNC myself and curious how FreeCAD handles toolpaths for things like pocketing or contour cuts. Did you try any post-processors yet, or are you planning to stick with the default?

 

[Frans Dg]

Heb een zelfgemaakte cnc machine met zware stappen mooter en wil deze kwijt voor een paar 100 € spindel is watergekoeld ik stop met alles.

 

[stanstocker]

If your needs are fairly simple Vectric Cut2D combines decent 2D drawing with reasonable CAM. When I had a clock restoration business I made a lot of parts as that sort of became my niche and other clock guys would have me make parts or refer customers to me. I would generate a DXF for a gear (weird spoking, non standard tooth profiles, all the 200+ year old weirdness) in gearotic, spit the DXF into VCarve (Cut2D's big brother) and generate the gcode. Typically I was cutting gears by profile milling as the material used was so thin and a custom cutter would be needed for conventional 4 axis gear generation due to the mutant tooth / space geometry. I would draw up some parts such as racks, front plate levers, gathering pallets, the usual suspects in complicated restorations in VCarve or do a part trace of a photo and clean up in something simplistic like LibreCAD or Inkscape then generate gcode. Targets were LinuxCNC, Mach4, and gRbl depending on machine and associated controller. It sure in nice to make tall case bonnet fretwork on a CNC router instead of the conventional fretsaw threaded through a hole at each piercing and sawing it out.

My goal in this was simply to get good parts. The approach had to be reliable enough that I could turn on the air blast to clear brass chips, hit run, and go do profitable work for the hour or three the machine ran. Not looking to impress anyone with how latest and greatest my world was, just trying to keep food on the table and get the kids through school. Makes you brutally pragmatic. The most used CNC mill was a little Sherline driven by linuxCNC and then later with Mach4. I'd profile mill gears with 0.3 to 1 mm end mills held in the Sherline ER16 spindle with the 10K pulleys. You better have GWizard if using these smaller diameter cutters, my calculations told me I was dead on but the broken cutters said otherwise. Funny how solid carbide tiny cutters object to cutter deflection not dealt with by most feed and speed calculations. GWizard sorted that out the first day in use and cutters started going back in the tube rather than putting the bits I could find in the trash. I'm lazy enough to like wizards and use them when they can do the job without having to do the CAD part of the deal.

Not the standard expected by the book answer to this question, but it worked for my needs at the time. It would still meet 90+ percent of my needs today. If your needs are really simple 2D dimensioned drawings of fairly simple parts to spit gcode into lower end machine controllers and you aren't needing or wanting to deal with 3D, parametric CAD, and other more contemporary approaches to this game it's worth a thought. A heck of a lot of folks are running lower end routers with gRbl using on line very much non-professional grade CAD/CAM solutions and getting the results they need.

The above paragraph doesn't apply to someone creating a product line of course. If doing that it would be foolish to not adopt parametric 3D cad workflows and assemblies. It's just my retired guy happy little world is usually either making 20 copies of a simple part for model railroad stuff or knocking out a simple part one time and never making it again. Simple needs usually met by simple tools. Like many hobby guys.

I've never tried feeding model engineering sorts of 3D parts into VCarve Pro's 3D CAM. The Cut3D product is available as a stand alone. It works well with artistic and functional 3D items, at least for routers. Parts that should fit other parts do which beats some stuff out there. It's cheap enough if Cambam or Meshcam give you hives. Vectric customer service is responsive and they treat their customers decently unlike many folks in this game. They just aren't a big player in the metal munching part of the world.

As already mentioned, Fusion360 CAM at least seems to work well for many, but I believe during the big shake up about hobby / community edition rules they pulled the HSM capability from the free version of this matters to you. I'm just sort of allergic to Autodesk. Goes all the way back to the pre IBM PC days when we ran their very early products on H100 machines. Even back then you never knew when they would do something ignorant to their customers like make changes to digitizer tablet handling and not give you a heads up. Yes, I'm that old.

I really should pull down the latest FreeCAD and see how it plays. For years every time I got into it the effort turned into a train wreck, often due to really awkward constraint issues. Or workbenches that where almost consistent enough to not quite work the same as it's almost twin in strange and perverse ways... Seems I couldn't even make a cube without being over or under constrained. Never had that issue with Alibre. Hard for a linux bigot to admit that some Windows only commercial apps are so much better than open source alternatives, but truth wins over wishful thinking.

Still have VCarve, it's pretty router centric by design. Lightburn for lasers. Also have used Alibre with Meshcam, Meshcam is OK but sometimes gets grumpy with me. It also can't speak 2D to gcode directly, you have to create a thickness as meshcam expects a 3D representation of a part, even if only being used for a 2.5D part.

I can't comment on the most recent local install flavor of Solidworks for makers options, just bought a year at the half off sale and on first run through it seems pretty solid. A long way from the initial Biff and Babs flirting by the vinyl cutter at the local maker space drivel releases that came out when they canceled their EAA access deal. Haven't tried the CAM functions yet, we'll see how that plays out. Hopefully it will be chicken salad rather than chicken waste. We'll see.

 

[kvom01]

This post resonates with me. I'm currently about to try to profile mill some brass clock gears with a .045" 2-flute carbide endmill (1.14 mm). My current desktop mill will do 24K RPM.

I've been using GWizard for 10+ years on larger parts with relatively few broken mills. GW still works for me, but the developer passed away, and I don't believe the software can be purchased any longer.

While I use SolidWorks for CAD, I've been using CamBam for 2.5D CAM for a long time. It does support trochoidal toolpaths. It will also do 3D toolpaths, but lacks rest machining, meaning only a single roughing pass.

 

[JhonTheMachinist]

You can use Ecam

 

[Alan]

For a Shoptask Eldorado on Mach 4, the biggest win is picking a CAM that has a solid post for Mach and then not changing it every week. Fusion 360 is still a common hobby choice because the CAM is integrated and posts are easy to find. If SolidWorks is the pain point, a lot of folks export STEP from SolidWorks and do all CAM in Fusion or another package, rather than forcing the SW workflow. For simple lathe and mill ops, CamBam can still be a great lightweight option if you like its style.