Re: Converting Rhino Drawings to G-Code?

"mmurray70 <mmurray70@...>" <mmurray70@...>
Subject: Converting Rhino Drawings to G-Code?

I'm pretty sure i'm decided to use Rhino as my CAD program. I've
started looking into what CAM software to use and now I'm just as
lost again. What do you people use?

Visual Mill 4.0 is available with Rhino as a package so I'm guessing
Visual mill 4 would work great with it. But theres no way I can
afford that right now. Has anybody tried to use the free version of
Visual mill (3.0) to convert Rhino drawings?

[As long as you save your surfaced Rhino models as STL (or WRL), the free
version of VisualMill will work to generate 3-axis code. Give it a try- you
can download a copy of Rhino (good for 15 saves) and the free version of
VisualMill, and see how it works for you without spending any money. But it
won't let you import Rhino native (3dm) files, and it won't import linear
entities (although you can do some 2d drawing in the program). Mecsoft is
talking about releasing a "hobbyist" version of VisualMill pretty soon that
will do these things. This should have some of the most-requested features
that are missing from the free version (like DXF import and waterline
finishing), but won't have the advanced features (like remachining passes
and 4th axis function) of the full 4.0 version. The price (yet to be
determined) will be credited towards the full version should one wish to
upgrade.]

Are there any other programs that are fairly cheap (or free!) that I
could use? Thanks in advance.

[There are some free programs that deal with linear input (Ace converter,
DeskEngrave), but no other free 3d CAM programs that I know of. There are a
number of fairly inexpensive ones, however- STLWork and DeskProto Lite, for
instance.]

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com