W.E.T. [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Software options

Hi Lester and All:
If Catia cost has gone the way that the other CAD software has it
would cost more then many of small companies total budget for the
year. It cost a $1,000.00/ month for one station back in 1994 when
an AutoCAD upgrade only cost $400.00. Now AutoCAD is two to three
times that so Catia would be about $2,000.00 to $3,000.00 per month
for one workstation. What was so bad was their that the training was
not cheap or readily available. At the present there is only one
book out on Catia for general study of the software.
Thanks for your time and the time to study the different
software. I guess I cranked handles too long so I can write most of
my G code straight off the print.
GOD'S BLESSINGS
Bill

Organization: L.S.Caine Electronic Services
To: CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com
From: Lester Caine <lester@...>
Date sent: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 09:15:48 +0100
Subject: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Software options
Send reply to: CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com


OK people

Now that I am getting to grips with the back end, I can manually run
the
machine, and I've even run a couple of simple CNC operations.
Hopefully
a couple of bits will be coming of the machine today.

When I started looking at things I broke the code down into three
sections, and it seems to me that the same still applies. Working
backwards we have EMC/Mach3/TaigDOS which will allow control of the
machine from the keyboard, and running GCode scripts. This should be
the
only code I need running on the machine controller, and I just
download
scripts to this machine. At the moment it does not matter which of
the
three options I download to.

Dolphin and the like convert drawings into GCode or allow you to
'write'
GCode interactively.

Autocad ( I'm on R13.4 still :) ) provides a proper drawing level,
but
needs the likes of Dolphin to convert that to GCode. I've been trying
to
use Dolphin CAD as an alternative to Autocad but while it will handle
the basics, much of the 'documentation' type level is lacking.

Mach3 has lazycad to convert drawings to GCode and while it is
provided
as part of Mach3, it is a stand alone app, so in theory should be
able
to be run on a design station rather than the machine controller but
it
is still a work in progress with art concentrating on the hardware
end.

I'm making a deliberate split here between creating GCode and using
it,
as while most hobby users will be doing both, small production houses
will be running the machine to produce parts to sell, while designing
other parts, and what runs on the design station does not need to
affect
the machine end.

I do not think that there will be a single CAM design tool as things
like vCarve will provide specialist expertise in handling that type
of
tooling, as will ProtoWizard with machining for the jewelry trade. So
I
think the discussion is probably one of what cheaper software tools
work
will together to provide a range of facilities.

Alternatively has anybody a system that they think works well for the
design side of things? Something that DOES handle the drafting side
while also producing acceptable GCode. Something even ProEngineer
with
its large price tag does not do completely, and Catia would probably
eat
up the entire annual profit for a small operation ;)

--
Lester Caine - G8HFL
-----------------------------
L.S.Caine Electronic Services - http://home.lsces.co.uk
Model Engineers Digital Workshop -
http://home.lsces.co.uk/ModelEngineersDigitalWorkshop/
Treasurer - Firebird Foundation Inc. -
http://www.firebirdsql.org/index.php

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