3d machining

[cncdrive]

And iges and step files are 3d files built from primitives, mostly from triangles, and ofcourse those files do not include toolpath informations.
To do machining you need a toolpath where it is exactly defined how to move along the shape to cut/mill it out.
step and iges files only contain the shape, but how to cut that out with what pass sizes with what strategies, how the tool should travel, with what feedrate etc. these infomations are all missing and so ofcourese these files can't be directly loaded and executed with the uccnc (nor can be with mach3 or with any other machine controller), they require settings to be made in a CAM software and then produce the g-code which contains the exact toolpath informations.

[Vmax549]

Mach3 has LazyCam similar to how UCCNC has UCCNC_Cam.

(;-) TP

[cncdrive]

Yea, but LazyCAM is a buggy one and hard to use, I would not recommend that for anything.
Nowadays there are so many free and really cheap CAM softwares on the market which are much more powerful than Lazycam and the UCCAM...

[danando]

I'll check them all out. Thanks cncdrive.

[danando]

And iges and step files are 3d files built from primitives, mostly from triangles, and ofcourse those files do not include toolpath informations.
To do machining you need a toolpath where it is exactly defined how to move along the shape to cut/mill it out.
step and iges files only contain the shape, but how to cut that out with what pass sizes with what strategies, how the tool should travel, with what feedrate etc. these infomations are all missing and so ofcourese these files can't be directly loaded and executed with the uccnc (nor can be with mach3 or with any other machine controller), they require settings to be made in a CAM software and then produce the g-code which contains the exact toolpath informations.

I appreciate and understand this as I've used delcam powermill and edgecam, but I thought UCCNC could do this also. I'll check out the programs you have suggested. Thanks cncdrive.

[needleworks]

I just machined my first ever bowl at the weekend, this probably could/should have been done on a lathe (either cnc or manually) but I decided I wanted to do it on my mill. I drew the bowl in Fusion 360 and then generated the 3D toolpaths. I then loaded the code into UCCNC and pressed the "Cycle Start" button and stood back. It took a while but everything worked flawlessly

Any more 3D work and I will certainly be going back to Fusion 360 and UCCNC.

[danando]

I just machined my first ever bowl at the weekend, this probably could/should have been done on a lathe (either cnc or manually) but I decided I wanted to do it on my mill. I drew the bowl in Fusion 360 and then generated the 3D toolpaths. I then loaded the code into UCCNC and pressed the "Cycle Start" button and stood back. It took a while but everything worked flawlessly

Any more 3D work and I will certainly be going back to Fusion 360 and UCCNC.

Nice to know that it can be done needleworks. Does fusion come with CAM as standard? We are a charity and have Inventor Pro educational packages. I'll have to see if we can get a CAM package addon.

[cncdrive]

Fusion360 is a CAM software.

[ger21]

Fusion360 is a CAM software.

CAD & CAM

[cncdrive]

Yes, but it is optimised for CAM functions, I mean Autodesk has for example Autocad software which is optimised for CAD functionality, but Fusion360 is built for toolpaths/g-code generation purposes.