[Swansea Hackspace] 3D CNC milling?

[Tim Clark]

On 02/06/2015 16:46, Gerrit Niezen wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> What can I use to mill 3D shapes on the CNC mill? Looking at the 
> hackspace website 
> (http://swansea.hackspace.org.uk/Equipment/CNCRouter), IIRC it can be 
> done using HeeksCNC, but it's not supported or developed anymore. Same 
> with PyCAM.
Heeks is under light development and maintenance, they do update it 
every few months and fix issues. PyCAM is more powerful than Heeks and 
uses fancier algorithms to produce better 3d milling, however I've never 
managed to make it work reliably without crashing.
> Why can't I seem to find a CAM application with a decent user 
> interface that's still being supported and actively developed? 
> Kokopelli (http://www.mattkeeter.com/projects/kokopelli/) looked 
> promising, but it has now been superseded by Antimony 
> (http://www.mattkeeter.com/projects/antimony/3/) that does not have 
> CAM support yet.
>
> Oh, and can I mill hardwood (e.g. walnut or cherry) with our CNC mill?
Yes, although you probably want big bits/a slow feed rate.

Tim
>
> Cheers,
> Gerrit