It says it imports both STL and 3DM, but based on the other import formats it may only support polygon mesh data in the 3DM file, so the 3DM import may not work for you, but STL should.
Hi Ed,
I could generate some code from a model for you to load in Mach 3 if you want... If you post a model, and specify some tooling/cutting parameters, I'll generate the code for you to load and cut, and look at.....
I'd seriously doubt you'll find anything for free that'll support 4th Axis Rotary..!
But one of the cheaper options would have to be DeskProto.
http://www.deskproto.com/
I always check what Sourceforge has to offer http://sourceforge.net/search/?q=cnc , I don't know how good these programs are and I haven't the time to play with them but it's worth a shot if you're on a budget or have no budget at all :)
I would say with many options to look at, the main thing you want to pay attention to when deciding (Well first is can it create the toolpath I want), is that the program can output the gcode for your mach3 to read... They all arent created equal...
So, is the code output customizable and to what degree? (You could ignore this part if you are capable of hand editing)
CamBam will do a great job with 2D dxf's and stl files from MoI.
I use it for mould work quite a lot.
It doesn't have 4th axis capability, but there is another program called CNCWrapper that will convert either the X or Y coordinates to rotary. Note that it isn't a TRUE representation of rotary like you'd get with dedicated software, but it's still very good.
CamBam is fully functional with 40 trials before it reverts to only producing ~500 lines of gcode, so if you leave it minimised to the Taskbar you've got plenty of time to get the feel of how it works.
