CNC milling and solidworks

Jul 22, 2003 3 Replies
R

For my graduating project on school I have a scale model (size=shoebox) cnc mill without any kind of steering at all. Now I want to make new communication, but I don't know where to start. We use solidworks for drawing. Is it possible to make software that can read simply parts (solidworks), and then generates G-codes (only G00, G01, G02, G03)? I know that there are many packages on the market which can do this but there isn't budget for it. Is there someone who can help me any further with this?



Thank you very much,



Rik


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M

Rik,

Do you mean you want to write a CAM program ? or that you want one for free ?

Any CAM program that can read SW or parasolid 3D data is gonna cost some serious money.

You could maybe get a free DXF to G-code program. This would require out putting a 2D SW drawing to DXF. Do a Google search in "alt.machines.cnc" for "DXF to G-code"

Regards

Mark

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C

Many have limited time/use "free demos" (but *some* do not save the code generated). As it's perhaps a one-shot deal ....

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J

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (Rik) wrote in news:84e59f86.0307220231.7f731c5 @posting.google.com:

There's nothing that will simply output a G-code file from a model (it's not like converting a SW model to IGES).

There's a lot of work involved in machining a part. Setups, tool sizes, operations, blah blah blah. It requires complex software to manage that process. Complex software = $$$.

Sorry.

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