Curious to what people on Macs are using for CAD/CAM work. A couple people have mentioned that they've done it before, and I was just wondering what they're using. Next year I'm planning to taking some CAM courses at the local community college, and would like to be able to do my work on my G5.
And please, don't go turning this into a Mac vs. PC discussion.
I would also like to do CAM work w/ my Mac. Did you figure anything out, Pixel? My school uses rhino (PC, obviously) to "print" to the CAM machines. I don't believe C4D, my app of choice for 3D, is directly compatible w/ Rhino.
I haven't found anything out, but then again I haven't looked very hard either. Been busy with other things at the moment, we all know how that is. One thing I have found out is that there isn't (at least that I've been able to find) any CNC programs for OSX. CNC programs are fairly simple so I think thats something that could be run in Virtual PC, but I'm going to guess that CAM is a different beast all together.
Maybe I'm missing something but does anybody actually plug their laptop into a CNC machine (whatever it is: laser cutter, Router, etc)? Not in my experience. Usually you set up your files in the correct format and then you either put them on the host machine (usuallly a PC) or you give them to the contractor who runs the machine. In either case having a mac is not a problem since you can produce a dwg, dxf, stl or step file from many mac programs (vectorworks, formZ, Cinema4D, Maya, etc).
So, don't worry about this stuff if you have a mac. You can easily do it. I know some people who set up all their laser cutting files in illustrator and then export to dwg. This is not an issue.
plus, for milling you will most definitely have to use a host software to produce the tool paths (such as millit or surfcam) and these are, as of now, all pc softwares...so it is again an issue of exporting and loading onto the host machine.
you would have to do this regardless of the os you are using at home/office/school unless you happen to have your own cnc machines...
The reason I ask is because I'm planning on making a simple router based CNC machine, and I have my old iBook sitting in my room unused at the moment. I have a G5 desktop that I could produce the actual files on, and then have my laptop set up to run the CNC (which isn't possible at the moment).
I apologize for not making this clear in the beginning.
There was a tutorial on how to build your own cnc machine - miniature CNC of course. I found it interesting but I don't ever think I would be making those small of parts for my models.
Oct 28, 04 5:54 pm ·
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CAD/CAM on a Mac...
Curious to what people on Macs are using for CAD/CAM work. A couple people have mentioned that they've done it before, and I was just wondering what they're using. Next year I'm planning to taking some CAM courses at the local community college, and would like to be able to do my work on my G5.
And please, don't go turning this into a Mac vs. PC discussion.
I would also like to do CAM work w/ my Mac. Did you figure anything out, Pixel? My school uses rhino (PC, obviously) to "print" to the CAM machines. I don't believe C4D, my app of choice for 3D, is directly compatible w/ Rhino.
I haven't found anything out, but then again I haven't looked very hard either. Been busy with other things at the moment, we all know how that is. One thing I have found out is that there isn't (at least that I've been able to find) any CNC programs for OSX. CNC programs are fairly simple so I think thats something that could be run in Virtual PC, but I'm going to guess that CAM is a different beast all together.
Maybe I'm missing something but does anybody actually plug their laptop into a CNC machine (whatever it is: laser cutter, Router, etc)? Not in my experience. Usually you set up your files in the correct format and then you either put them on the host machine (usuallly a PC) or you give them to the contractor who runs the machine. In either case having a mac is not a problem since you can produce a dwg, dxf, stl or step file from many mac programs (vectorworks, formZ, Cinema4D, Maya, etc).
So, don't worry about this stuff if you have a mac. You can easily do it. I know some people who set up all their laser cutting files in illustrator and then export to dwg. This is not an issue.
plus, for milling you will most definitely have to use a host software to produce the tool paths (such as millit or surfcam) and these are, as of now, all pc softwares...so it is again an issue of exporting and loading onto the host machine.
you would have to do this regardless of the os you are using at home/office/school unless you happen to have your own cnc machines...
Since when was a Precix or Bridgeport plug-n-play?
The reason I ask is because I'm planning on making a simple router based CNC machine, and I have my old iBook sitting in my room unused at the moment. I have a G5 desktop that I could produce the actual files on, and then have my laptop set up to run the CNC (which isn't possible at the moment).
I apologize for not making this clear in the beginning.
There was a tutorial on how to build your own cnc machine - miniature CNC of course. I found it interesting but I don't ever think I would be making those small of parts for my models.
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