Engineers were finally able to view a part and rotate it on the screen. This created a rush for others to try to mock this ability. ProE, being the first, did have a lot of features that needed to mature over a period of time, just like AutoCAD and other 2D programs when they first came out. Also the original set up then involved sub-windows on the right side of the screen. ProEngineer evolved and a lot of the features were upgraded, and a lot of the bugs were fixed.
The software focused on performance and building upon what they already had. Another group of engineers, however, believed that some inherent problems with the ProEngineer existed and were not likely to be improved. This led them to develop SolidWorks. The primary difference between SolidWorks and ProE is truly the interface. This is a minor point, but it catches me out Every.
The former, texture maps, means colour is transferred over, while the latter, normal maps, means that even though your new mesh is low poly, a lot of the fine detail is preserved.
However, xNormal does not UV-map for you — so you have to do that first in Meshlab, or Maya or Blender, or whatever unwrapping workflow you use. This whole task is far more niche, at least for dealing with 3D data in my usual capacity, but I include it here because it deserves a mention.
Of course, as outlined in two recent papers here and here , you should always keep the raw data in the case of photogrammetry, the photos , so that high resolution models can be used or at least remade in the future as necessary. But, it may make sense for your own purposes to downsample and re-texture just to make working with the models easier.
Those are the pieces of software I regularly use for playing with 3D data. They also tend not to be as good at some of the functions above, particularly around mesh decimation and retopology, when working with very large meshes.
Hi Peter, I would certainly be interested in seeing a workflow for Autodesk Meshmixer if you have time! Thanks, Jim. Dear Peter, I optimize and retopologize the 3D models with Blender 2. Maybe Instant meshes improves the retopology or at least it is easier to use. All the best, Ina. I find that blender isnt particularly quick with big meshes. Instant meshes is orders of magnitude quicker and more stable.
But yes, Maya and Blender can both do all these tasks to some extent. Nice list for editing mesh. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. The community at the vectric forum can be really helpful for learning and troubleshooting.
The software has several tool and shape libraries that can save your time. It is a truly industrial-grade tool. You can install it on a Windows or MacOS computer.
The software is free for personal use, but the features will be limited in the unpaid version. The limitations include the number of active documents you can have at a time maximum is 10 , lack of rendering and simulation features. In CAM the limitations include not having the automatic tool change and rapid feed features.
These limitations can considerably increase your job time. However, unlike most other software, it is possible to do a lot of meaningful work with the free personal version.
You can get a free student license if the educational institution you belong to has a Fusion license. One key difference between the licensing of Fusion and VCarve is that Fusion is a subscription software and you need to pay for it every year. Also Fusion is a cloud based software and you need to connect to the internet at least every 2 weeks for it work properly, unlike VCarve which is not cloud based.
On the other hand you buy a perpetual license for VCarve Pro and you only need to pay again if you want a version upgrade with new features. Fusion has good technical support from Autodesk that provides you with resources to learn the software.
The forums, blogs and groups on their official website have a large online community of users to help you with your queries. Fusion is for users who want to access advanced features in CNC Machining and don't mind the learning curve involved with mastering it. You can design 2D as well as 3D models. As it is a paid software, the customer support is good and reliable. Their website provides a customer portal, training and tutorial videos. Inkscape is free-to-use software that is primarily used to create vector drawings.
The advantage of vector drawing is that the lines have a mathematical function related to them and can be manipulated to create G-code. Alternatively, you can also download plug-ins for Inkscape that will let you create G-code directly in Inkscape. There are several tutorials on their website and many more YouTube videos to help you through your design process. The designs you create are well detailed, and it allows you to color-code your lines for ease of understanding.
AutoCAD has a very large user base and has a subreddit that you can use for troubleshooting. It also provides user-friendly and reliable official support. Controller software and motion controllers cannot read 2D or 3D design files. The design file needs to be converted into direction and speed commands called G-code. This G-code is then used by the control software to output signals that result in the movements of the CNC. The following software programs are considered as the best dedicated CAM software programs on the market.
This software is almost a plug-and-play solution, which highly reduces the amount of machining knowledge you need to know. For an experienced machinist, this means there's less freedom to customize while for beginner's it makes things really simple. This 3D files is then used to generate toolpath. Which makes things much quicker by not having to model it in CAD first. MeshCAM Pro offers a toolpath simulation tool apart from all the features in the standard version.
This helps in identifying any errors before doing the machining. Although the single license is intended for a single user, MeshCAM allows you to install it in up to 3 computers. MeshCAM claims to have more toolpaths than all other competing CAM software and that makes it easy machine even highly complex parts using this software.
These tabs greatly help in keeping the stock zeroed and also helps hold down the part after its flipped over for machining the other side. If you're unsure of whether MeshCAM is the right fit for you, they offer a 15 day free trial for their software. This means there is a learning curve with CamBam compared to MeshCAM which doesn't required much knowledge of machining. However, if you're someone who loves to manually set each parameter and wants full freedom with your CAM software then CamBam is a great choice.
A major drawback of CamBam was that it did not support spline editing. CamBam offers a free trial which lets you run 40 sessions with all the features to test everything. Overall, if you want more control over your CAM work and not a plug-and play solution then CamBam is a good choice. Estlcam lets you do 2D and 3D toolpath generation by cutting out all the complexities for a quick operation.
What is remarkable about Estlcam is the much lower learning curve and quick turn around times which a lot of hobbyists prefer compared to the bulk of other CAM solutions.
Overall, this is a good choice for a hobbyist who's looking to make quick inroads into CNC work, but as you learn and your requirements change you might feel a bit limited. Now, Openbuilds is an end to end CNC manufacturing company which sells their own machine kits and software. True to the philosophy of the open source maker movement, the software made by Openbuilds is free and open for use to anyone. Openbuilds also makes the openbuilds control which is a G-code sender software which I have talked about below in the Control software section.
One important drawback of Openbuilds CAM is that it only works with Openbuilds Control G-code sender and you cannot use any other control software. The great thing about Openbuilds software is the community around it who have great experience in using and troubleshooting it. Instead of support from a brand like with MeshCAM you get support from the Openbuilds community, which is expected as its a free software.
Overall, this is a good CAM software for hobbyists and people who love the simplicity of a free software and the great community behind it. This interface softaware is used to send the G-code from the computer to the CNC controller board. Therefore this interface is also called as a G-code sender.
The G-code that's received in the controller hardware is interpreted by the firmware that's installed in the control board. These all-in-one control software do all the tasks that's to be done after g-code is generated. These software programs do the process of sending the G-code as well as interpreting the G-code for outputting signals for motor movement.
Mach 3 is a control software that you can install on a Bit Windows PC to control the motions of your CNC machine through a graphical user interface. This is because Mach3 runs in real-time and USB does not support real time access. Smoothstepper has a parallel port end which connects to the CNC and the other end that connects to the computer can be a USB or ethernet port.
However, a breakout board is highly recommended as it results in much lower latency and immunity from electrical noise compared to connecting directly from the computer.
It also provides a wide range of customizability for the user interface and a collection of operations through the wizard. You can use these to create the most common designs without the need to generate G-code. Mach 3 is a paid software, but you can use the demo version, which has several limitations on functions and the number of lines of code. Mach 3 has a large user base.
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