# what type of cab cam



## cliff (Jan 17, 2013)

What flavors of cad cam is being used, I use Procam  and Top Solid .

Thanks
  Cliff


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## Ray C (Jan 17, 2013)

Alibre Professional works for me.  It has a CAM plugin but I'm not setup for CNC.  -Like it a lot and was the easiest of all the packages for me to learn.  I tried SolidWorks, ProCad, TurboCad and a few others.  Alibre's online/downloadable tutorials did the trick for me.  Now I rely on it for anything that's not a quick knock-out.  It's a big step up from hand sketches.  It gets pretty addictive at times.


Ray



cliff said:


> What flavors of cad cam is being used, I use Procam  and Top Solid .
> 
> Thanks
> Cliff


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## Tony Wells (Jan 18, 2013)

I have SolidWorks and MasterCam, but have no use for the MC, as I don't run CNC. It was just available, so I availed myself of it. Not the newest version, but it's a good CAM package.


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## DMS (Jan 18, 2013)

I use AlibreCAD and AlibreCAM. AlibreCAD is pretty good, and I have grown to like it, but SolidWorks is still my favorite... unfortunately I can't justify the money for a hobby. AlibreCAM takes a bit of getting used to. It is really the only CAM package I've ever used, but I find myself wishing it were a bit friendlier.


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## Tom Griffin (Jan 18, 2013)

SolidWorks here and it is pretty amazing. I am lucky to be able to have a second seat at home through my employer.

Tom


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## PurpLev (Jan 18, 2013)

I tried Solidworks years ago when I had a license for it but no longer have it. nowadays for hobby use I've looked at free products: I've checked out QCad and DraftSight, and I guess for formal CAD I'd go with DraftSight as it seems to have a better user interface, although QCad seems to provide the same tools, but both are only 2D and DS is somewhat slow to render the graphics (I've run it on Mac, PC, and Linux). 

I do not run CNC, and mainly use design apps to bring ideas out and play around with them visually before I can commit to a build and then I'd like to be able to take measurements and have a solid design before I start making cuts. For these purposes I find SketchUp the best of all worlds - it's full 3D, quite intuitive (for what it is), scriptable, and FREE and has a huge group of followings and developers (both product and scripts). the drawback for some people maybe that it doesn't use the "standard" AutoCAD file system and view mode, but for me I look past it and use if for it's capabilities. here I some things I modeled with it:


http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=e83f9ad6b7632293bca0946585850f52


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## dance0001 (Feb 8, 2013)

I use Aspire. It is a cad/cam software from vetric. I do mostly woodworking, but I am looking at getting a plasma soon. I will make sure the plasma can switch over to router quickly. I have all of the Vetric software Aspire, v-carve 6.5, Photocarve,cut 2D & cut 3D. I am very pleased with vetric and they have Great Customer service! Aspire is vrtually all of these except photocarve and Cut3D rolled into one. Aspire can do 3D relief, but a full 3D model can be made incut 3D.


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## Mid Day Machining (Feb 10, 2013)

I owned a real CNC machine shop until 2008 and I used GibbsCam. When I sold my shop, no one wanted to buy the GibbsCam so I brought it home with me,

In July 2011, I bought a Tormach PCNC 1100 and put it in my garage. I use GibbsCam to program that. So far I have had wonderful success with it.

I drew, programmed and ran the parts shown here in GibbsCam.


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