Re: What do we want?

All good projects start with a clear statement of the objective, and I
think we are mixing several, all valid, objectives here. I think there
are at least three very different uses of CNC.

1) A job-shop kind of part, often one-off, usually only 2D, or maybe a
kind of 2 1/2D. Here I think the acurite approach is perfect- design the
part on the macine, run it instantly- no g code, no dxf, just make
parts. I know my friend Roland has made a LOT of parts (and money) like
this.

2) a big shop, separate engineering dept from the machining floor, but
still making fairly simple 2D kind of parts. Here conventional CAD
systems are good, and some kind of tool path generation software. The
g-code files are moved to the shop for produciton. BobCad would be fine
here, if they would cut out the poorly designed 3D attempt and focus on
doing a good job of 2d.

3) High end, 3d, mold making kind of work. This is the realm of the big
bucks. Probably not worth looking at on a shared softwar basis- those
that do this kind of work dont care about a few more $ on software.

I think #1 could be done by a a joint effort to make some kind of
front-end, (I like my CNH of course) that is integrated into EMC. It
'just' needs a gui and some geometry work and then it calls the motion
code of EMC to run the motors.

A #2 kind of project really has nothing to do with EMC, if it generated
g-code then it ought to run any motion software from Maxnc to high-end
comercial stuff. I think this might be a bit big to take on as a joint
net project,but then Linus pulled off a pretty big project over the net!

ron