Re: How to choose?; was "parallel port finally obsolete?"

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, Andy Wander <awander@...> wrote:

>
> SheetCAM has a Linux version, BTW
>
> Andy Wander
>
>

Thanks, I now see that is correct about SheetCam. Also MeshCam reports that it runs well on Wine. Not quite sure about 3D CAD, but out of all the choices there must be one that would work for me. (Got spoiled using Inventor when taking a trade school class, but $$$$ out of my league.)

Intel Macs will happily boot from Ubuntu - can be set up to dual-boot fairly easily. I fooled with that a while ago, booting from a CD, and it seemed pretty straightforward.

This suggests that CAD and CAM could be readily done on Mac hardware running Linux for that purpose. Then transmit G code to EMC on PC hardware running Linux.

No Microsoft products/licenses needed, a cheap PC dedicated to run each machine tool, and the design studio computer remains the existing Mac, albeit for this purpose running Ubuntu rather than OSX.

Perhaps this hybrid approach is as close as I can get for now, and would be relatively cheap and simple to implement. Sound reasonable?

Steve

> -----Original Message-----
> Subject: Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: How to choose?; was "parallel port finally obsolete?"
>
> scyvt wrote:
> > Many respondents have assumed that because I was a Mac aficionado that I was determined to use a Mac to control a cnc machine. That would be pleasing, but I am reconciled that presently it is not practical, and never meant to impose that restriction on this discussion.
> >
> > There are two sides to the MacUser coin: one is the pleasure of concentrating on the driving without having to do much fussing under the hood, or worrying much about potholes such as malware. The other is distaste for anything Microsoft, which in my case is pretty severe,