visual mill , rhino , mastercam

I'm looking at Mec Soft's Visual Mill on Andrew Werby's "recomendation".
Anybody play with it and Rhino? I'm still struggling with Rhino 1.1 and am
wondering if I should put down more cash for Visual mill or get an
integrated
package like MASTERCAM etc. TIA. Really would like to hear other's stories.
BTW, I use AUTOCAD 14 and BOBCAD 16.1 also


I have been using Rhino since its early beta days and I used visualmill
throughout its beta period. I love rhino and I am convinced you can't get
more for your money than rhino. I found visualmill to be very effective. It
certainly had no problem importing rhino native files. I can't say that it
compares to mastercam which I have previously used extensively. Mastercam is
a far more powerful cam software then visualmill. As for mastercam's cad - I
never used it. I did all my cad in rhino, export as iges to mastercam [rhino
lets you specify a mastercam iges version], then do all the toolpaths. My
point is that you have an excellent modelling software so you don't need to
go with an integrated package [both cad and cam], but there are other
reasons you might want to upgrade to a more powerful cam product.

You mention you use acad 14, there is something else you might want to try.
There is an acad plugin called powerGcode that allows you to create 3d
toolpaths in acad and export gcode. I have never used this but I am very
curious about how well it works.

powerGcode $149.
http://www.cadplugins.com/PKSN102832/prod.htm

And

powerGlathe $89.
http://www.cadplugins.com/PKSN102833/prod.htm


Patrick Huss