andrewm
04-10-2004, 09:17 AM
http://www.cncportal.com/ (FreeMill)
If you haven't tried this little program, its worth the download. I downloaded it a while back but yesterday was my first chance to actually put it to use. I have now milled out 3 great looking little pine wood derby cars with it. (One for each of my sons and one for the big kid, me!)
It is a really easy to use program with just what is needed for small projects without any frills. You need to be able to output STL files from your modeler. (It also takes in Rhino files and VRML though I haven't tried those formats.) The models I output from 3D Studio Max translated perfectly from STL including a lot of the complex surfaces. Rhino 3d looks like it would also work for modeling. There are a number of inexpensive modelers that output VRML. (Thats a kind of 3D HTML code that was supposed to turn the whole web into virtual reality)
So whats it missing? The big minus is that it only supports one pass, so your bit has to be long enough to penetrate and cut in one pass. It seems to ignore the flute length of the tool information so you beter make sure your flute length is long enough or it will jam it into your material and drag it through. It also doesn't save your tooling information, so when you exit the program and come back in a again you have to reenter the size and shape of your bit you plan to use. The program asks for your feedrate in inches/minute, but I found that with the Shopbot Post from Mecsoft this is actually inches/second when it outputs the code for the Shopbot.
http://www.mecsoft.com/Mec/Downloads/posts.shtml
If you need to cut simple 3D parts and can output STL or VRML files, this program works and you can't beat the price.
Andrew McClary
By the way, if anyone does need a 3D model made, I do some freelancing. I have over 12 years of experience with 3D animation before I got into furniture and working with the Shopbot.
If you haven't tried this little program, its worth the download. I downloaded it a while back but yesterday was my first chance to actually put it to use. I have now milled out 3 great looking little pine wood derby cars with it. (One for each of my sons and one for the big kid, me!)
It is a really easy to use program with just what is needed for small projects without any frills. You need to be able to output STL files from your modeler. (It also takes in Rhino files and VRML though I haven't tried those formats.) The models I output from 3D Studio Max translated perfectly from STL including a lot of the complex surfaces. Rhino 3d looks like it would also work for modeling. There are a number of inexpensive modelers that output VRML. (Thats a kind of 3D HTML code that was supposed to turn the whole web into virtual reality)
So whats it missing? The big minus is that it only supports one pass, so your bit has to be long enough to penetrate and cut in one pass. It seems to ignore the flute length of the tool information so you beter make sure your flute length is long enough or it will jam it into your material and drag it through. It also doesn't save your tooling information, so when you exit the program and come back in a again you have to reenter the size and shape of your bit you plan to use. The program asks for your feedrate in inches/minute, but I found that with the Shopbot Post from Mecsoft this is actually inches/second when it outputs the code for the Shopbot.
http://www.mecsoft.com/Mec/Downloads/posts.shtml
If you need to cut simple 3D parts and can output STL or VRML files, this program works and you can't beat the price.
Andrew McClary
By the way, if anyone does need a 3D model made, I do some freelancing. I have over 12 years of experience with 3D animation before I got into furniture and working with the Shopbot.