any open source alternative to AutoCAD with CNC programming features
Daniel Singh
I a lookign for any open source alternative to AutoCAD with CNC
programming features.
please comment.
regards
Daniel Singh
Smári McCarthy
The short answer is no. This is very unfortunate, but nonetheless
true.
The long answer is that there are a lot of things that try to get
close and fail variably miserably depending on what it is you're
trying to accomplish.
* QCAD is the closest free software alternative to AutoCAD, doesn't
do CAM to my knowledge.
* Eagle does circuits quite well, can be scripted, and thus
implicitly does CAM if you've got a lot of free time.
* Neil Gershenfeld's cad.py doesn't do design (unless you're a
numerical python fanatic or a masochist, or both, which is more
common), but it does not-entirely-terrible CAM.
* Honestly, Inkscape is the best CAD tool on the market if you ignore
the fact that it's 2D-only and not designed to be a CAD tool. As for
CAM, export from Inkscape to cad.py or use print drivers for okay
results.
- Smári
Daniel Singh
ben lipkowitz
> * QCAD is the closest free software alternative to AutoCAD, doesn't
> do CAM to my knowledge.
qcad works decently in combination with this script for 2d CNC:
http://www.christian-kohloeffel.homepage.t-online.de/dxf2gocde.html
they also make a proprietary add-on called "cam expert"
> * Eagle does circuits quite well, can be scripted, and thus
> implicitly does CAM if you've got a lot of free time.
there are a lot of pre-made scripts out there; here is a good one for
milling circuit boards: http://unpy.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/eagle/ulp/
however, eagle itself is not open source software.
kicad is a tolerable alternative:
http://www.lis.inpg.fr/realise_au_lis/kicad/
you can generate gerbers and feed them to gcam to mill around the outlines
http://gcam.js.cx/
> * Honestly, Inkscape is the best CAD tool on the market if you ignore
> the fact that it's 2D-only and not designed to be a CAD tool. As for
> CAM, export from Inkscape to cad.py or use print drivers for okay
> results.
inkscape exports to DXF but be warned that the scaling is off by some
weird factor like 90/25.4 and everything must be converted to splines
first.
more info here http://www.bobcookdev.com/inkscape/inkscape-dxf.html
and here http://tim.cexx.org/?p=590
>> I a lookign for any open source alternative to AutoCAD with CNC
>> programming features.
I've never actually used autocad for anything significant - what are its
relevant features? is it a 3d parametric solid modeler? is it a 2d
drafting program with extra crap added on as an afterhought?
heekscnc is a cad/cam program based on the opencascade libraries. it's not
very reliable yet but what's there is very exciting, and it grows better
daily. there is a cam plugin called heekscnc that can do several machining
strategies, but it's not a finished product by any stretch.
http://code.google.com/p/heekscad/
http://code.google.com/p/heekscnc/
also for what it's worth, if you've made it this far, opencascade is
actually compatible with free software:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2007/12/msg00066.html
here's a list I compiled of even more programs for creating cnc toolpaths:
http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emcinfo.pl?Cam