Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re[5]: EMC, Linux, RTlinux, General Questions

Only 200 facets? I'm wanting to do bas relief carving using REALLY SMALL
(some as small as .005" diameter) end mills to get the detail I need. I
hope all the software I wind up purchasing will accomplish this!

Smoke

>Yes! I have the capability to do exactly this, but I can't say I have done

it, quite.

>I have Bobcad/CAM, which can read in a DXF file. A friend tried a

massively

>complex design for a molded part, with about 200 facets, faces, blends,
>fillets, etc. Bobcad might have been able to handle it, but *I* couldn't,
>not really understanding the part, etc.
>
>I did a much simpler part for him later, and it worked fine. I had to use

the

>DXF information as a base, and then do a bit of editing on it to get the
>toolpaths I really needed, like adding points for the cutter radius

compensation

>lead-in and lead-out lines.
>
>I then sent the CNC toolpath (G-code file) to the Linux machine over my
>little Ethernet network, checked it on EMC and then cut the part.
>
>I have found EMC running on Red Hat Linux 5.2 (2.0.36 kernel) with the
>applicable real-time patches. I have only had one crash with trusted
>versions of EMC, and even then, the motion control kept running the
>toolpath even though the screen froze. This is in 2 years of use!
>(How many times has Win 95 hung up on me in that same 2 years?
>I can't count that high!)

>
>