Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Gates-free CAD-CAM-CNC? {CAUTION}

caudlet wrote:

> --- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "scyvt" <scy@...> wrote:
>
>>Has anyone succeded yet in getting entirely free of Windows?
>>
>>Steve Clay-Young
>>
> So a warning: DO NOT TURN THIS INTO A DEBATE ABOUT OPERATING SYSTEMS
> other than to outline the alternatives.

OK, briefly, here's what I do:

First, I do a lot of plain 2-D work, and for me it is much
faster to use my little programs that I've mentioned before to
write the G-code. For more complicated free-form stuff, I use
Bobcad/CAM, which is workable. It runs excellently under
VMware, a truly brilliant piece of software that allows you to
run the Windows OS from a Linux system (other combinations are
also possible). At one time there was a freeware version of
VMware which they no longer offer, but they do have a free trial
version. I imagine most Windows CAD and CAM software will also
run under VMware. I do this on a different computer that is not
the one I run EMC on. I then send the G-code file over to the
EMC machine using FTP. I believe that VMware now supports
running a "guest" OS under the Ubuntu "host" OS, they didn't
handle real-time when I set all this up.

If I did CAD/CAM all the time for all my machining jobs, then I
think I'd like to have it all run on the same machine, but I
literally don't do more than one CAD -> machining job a year!

Jon