Favorite CAM software?

What's your favorite FREE CAM software?

What's your favorite PAID CAM software?

How do these compare for free software:
PyCAM
Freemill
CamBam Free
PartKAM (2.5D)


Also let me know of anything not on the list that you may think is better.

gera229 wrote:

What's your favorite FREE CAM software?

gEdit.

What's your favorite PAID CAM software?

I haven't used many of them, but SheetCAM is adequate for most of my needs.

However, as I mainly make CNC machines, rather than make things on CNC machines, I don't have much relevant experience.

Does G-Edit convert your CAD files?
Or is it a program where you type the commands manually (and it has a built in command list and explanation to help a bit)?
Does it have a built in screen or something to show you what you are coding in a visual manner?

gera229 wrote:

Does G-Edit convert your CAD files?

No. Sorry, but I was being slightly flippant. Gedit is the built-in text editor in Ubuntu. Just about the only think it does to help is syntax highlighting (and it does that rather badly with the default filter)

Ahh, okay. It seems like your the only one monitoring this thread.
I will wait for others to reply as well.

I have to agree with Andy my favorite free CAM is Gedit... the wiki has a cam area with links to some CAM software. I use OneCNC and while it works for me the GUI is not the best. Having said that on my lathe I use ngcgui for 95% of the ops and some on the plasma and I'm sure when I get my knee mill converted from Anilam I'll have a bunch of ngcgui subroutines for it too.

You don't say what your wanting to CAM so it is only a WAG on our part...

John

gera229 wrote:

Ahh, okay. It seems like your the only one monitoring this thread.
I will wait for others to reply as well.

Well, I have Bobcad/CAM, it is a bit cumbersome to use, and so I use it more to
make drawings than for the CAM function. The CAM does work fine, but I
mostly do instrument panels and such, with round and square cutouts,
and that is just too much work to do using the typical CAM system.

So, I made a bunch of programs that write G-code for typical things I
do. See pico-systems.com/gcode.html to see what a few of them
do. I have both Windows executables and c source code there.
I string the output of a bunch of these together with a text editor,
and machine it. The Axis preview lets me detect gross screwups
before cutting metal.

For me, this method is about twice as fast as using the CAD/CAM
system. The only downside is I don't have a nice printed drawing.

Jon

paid software ,
mastercam & cimco edit .

I'm a newbie with CAM, expert in drawings.. i was looking for some free CAM for linux, and after having tried PyCam, which is too limited, i've found Heekscad/cam interesting. my machine is a standard XYZ.

Ciao.

Yeah, and PyCAM takes sooooo long to generate the G-Code for me for simple paths. It's ridiculous.

Have you tried FreeMill?

Right now I want something simple and am trying PartKAM which is a flash based application for simple tasks and can mill 2.5D, but I hope it generates G-Code much quicker than PyCAM.