"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:58:20 -0700, "Bob La Londe"
wrote:

"Ignoramus24043" wrote in message
om...
I had a little light bulb go off in my head.

I think that I know what to do.

I will have functions that could combine different machining notions
together.

For example, say, I have a steel plate. I could make a circular cut
through it. If the plate is thick or hard, I may need to do it in
several passes, with plunging.

Okay so far.

This really involves two separate concepts:

1) Generating the shape of the cut (circular, in this example)
and
2) Implementing a cut along an arbitrary shape, with several passes if
necessary

If I can do these two tasks separately, then I have a lot of
flexibility, as I could easily cut a square shaped hole in plate, egg
shaped, etc.

Same applies to "milling out a deep pocket along an arbitrary shape".
Generating a shape is one thing, and removing material inside it (in
possibly several layers) is another.

This kind of approach, has potential for some very fun results.


Have you looked at Mach 3? It has wizards included that do many of these
functions already. It has a number of lines of code limit, and I think
you
need to register to use the wizards, but its worth a look see.

Have you looked at Cam Bam? They claim it's a beta, but I have done some
real serious detail work with this CAM software, and it even has some
limited CAD capability. The executions limited demo is 100% non crippled,
and the price to register is very reasonable.

If you enjoy writing programs soldier on, but otherwise I think you are
reinventing the wheel.

Yes, I still do some hand coding of G-code, but as I learn to use the
tools
I have I do less and less of it.


I do have a spare registered dongle for one of the older versions of
MasterCam btw...I was wanting $1000 for it..but ..I might Swap for it.

A weekend of fishing the river and a huge bag of hand injected plastic
baits?