Current playing field

I'm trying to review where we are today software wise and this seems
like the best place to get a rounded response.

I'm still using TurboCad, vCarve and Mach3 for the quick job process,
but I have also used USBCNC with the Eding USB boards and the DXFtogCode
converter in that does a good job of providing gcode.

An alternative for the Taig mill controller is the Toad4 board and
EasyCNC even though it's not designed to feed a parallel port but just
wiring up the controller it does a more than adequate job when there is
no parallel port available.

The above package in general requires a windows base, and as long as
32bit windows is used Mach3 still does it's job, but my development
environment is Linux based and has been for years, with a nice XP
machine running the TurboCad and vCarve on the side. So I'm playing with
the Linux options and trying to decide just where to spend time.

FreeCAD is a little heavy going, but takes everything from TurboCad and
works nicely with the 3D model libraries from may of my normal parts
suppliers and some of the plugins provide some nice developments, but
CAM is still a little short on support. It's DXF output drops into
vCarve and USBCNC without a problem, and gives more than adequate gcode.

Having worked through a list of google results and scanned sourceforge,
dxf2gcode looks like a developing option, and being cross platform and
'python' should be easy to integrate into FreeCAD. Has anybody played
with it or got any comments on it? I'm

While the parallel port was the main link to hardware, the alternative
of LinuxCNC over Mach3 was a simple choice on OS, but USB muddies the
water, with current options coming with their own machine interface
software. I need to review LinuxCNC again, but are there any other areas
that need reviewed these days?

Just to stir things up a little more :) I'm looking to replace some PLC
controllers on automated machines, which just need a sequence of actions
via pneumatic valves, sensors and motors. The sort of thing that I've
hacked via gcode on Mach3 but now needs a better approach which LinuxCNC
may be a no-brainer? It's the graphics display which is putting me off
at the moment but that may just be lack of investigation.

--
Lester Caine - G8HFL
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