Hello folks,
I haven’t pulled the trigger on getting a long mill just yet but I’m wondering if anyone has used solidworks for design and it’s cam package with the long mill.
Any guidance would be appreciated.
@3DDESIGNZ I can’t help you with solidworks, 3D, but welcome to the group. The only info that I could find on using solidworks with a grbl machine was that there may not be any good post processors. Don’t take that to the bank, though. If you already have experience with solidworks, you may well have addressed this already.
I’ve used Siemens Solid Edge 3-D modeler and when the design is completed save it as a stl file. I didnt have their CAM module, so I used Sienci’s CAMLab to generate the nc files with good results… Only issue I’ve had was some instability with large files with CAMLab. But that is a different issue. I would think if you already know Solid Works as a design tool and have access to it your in great shape. I suspect like Solid Edge’s CAM tools, Solid Works is a highly efficient and solid application. With that said, because it is marketed for a broad number of Mechanical Design applications it is not optimized for wood routing. I suspect you will need to spend time configuring the CAM module for all your bits. In the long term I suspect it would payoff. Probably the biggest downside is you wont find a lot of others using it for wood working and dealing with common issues.
Thanks for the feedback guys.
I will use alternative software for the time being and perhaps invest into Vectric later on.