37 Answers
The best 3D modeling software will vary based on your needs, but there plenty of options available. Here are our favorite pieces of software. Professional3D CAD Modeler for ALL Microsoft Windows & Mac OSX 10.7 or higher Description: It is a general purpose feature-based, parametric 3D modeler for CAD, MCAD, CAx, CAE and PLM, aimed directly at mechanical engineering and product design but also fits a wider range of uses in engineering, such as architecture or other engineering specialties.It is a parametric 3D modeler made primarily.
The question is a bit vague. Remember that you will need to generate a model in a CAD program (if you are working in 3D), then transform the model to G-Code using a CAM program, then use the G-Code to operate your CNC mill or lathe. For generating your 3D model, I recommend FreeCAD as an open source product. If you want to pay, you can use Inventor, or SolidWorks or many of the other commercial programs.
The next step is your CAM program. Unfortunately this step is the weakest in open source programs. You can try PyCAM to generate your tool path if you need a free product. MasterCAM is just too expensive; SprutCAM is a good program and costs just USD1500, but only runs under Windows.
The third step is you machine interface. Mach3 is very good; it costs USD150 and is widely used / pirated. EMC2 is great, it's free and runs under Linux.
There is no magical program to generate a cnc program, for each one I've try you have to know your way around and what you are doing to get a good results. Personnally I had good experiences with mastercam but i'm sure there is some other good software around.
1) For 'lowcost' CAD SpaceClaim (http://www.spaceclaim.com/en/Resources/VidPlayer.aspx) or IronCAD (http://www.ironcad.com/) not Inventor, SolidWork and company,
2) For Artistic CAM Vectric Aspire (http://support.vectric.com/) not ArtCam and company
2.1) For Technical CAD CAM TopSolid (or TopSolid Wood; http://www.topsolid.com/) or ZW3D (http://www.zwsoft.com) not MasterCam and company
3) For free take LinuxCNC (linuxcnc.org) never Mach3.
This list will spare you so many headaches, trust me.
For more info: http://falegname.wordpress.com
If you're going to purchase a program , try Aspire from Vectric.
It's a CAD / CAM program ,all in one.
The trial version is here.
http://www.vectric.com/downloads/trial-software.html
Nothing comes as free. If you want to do business go for valid software with reasonable solutions.
I just found out HSMXpress. It's free and integrated in SolidWorks as long as you have a legal version. http://www.hsmworks.com/hsmxpress/
I downloaded and tested the software without generating any code because the post-processor for my CNC does not exist.
The software is verry well integrated in SW and I could program simple 2,5D parts in just minutes.
I think CNC router is the best for generating cnc part program.It is very good & easy to use.CNC routers are the machines that are used in a number of ways.
<a href='http://www.routercenter.com/'>Used CNC Router</a>
Minha resposta será na língua portuguesa:
1- Se você está querendo um software open source, recomendo: LinuxCNC e FreeCad ou BRL-CAD
2- Para software pago, existem muitos, posso falar do CREO (ProE) e WorkNC que são os que eu trabalho... mas, não é a melhor opção. Na minha opinião a melhor opção é aquela que você domina.
espero ter ajudado.
abraço
You can complete a part start to finish (3D model, generate tool paths and export Gcode) with Autodesk fusion 360, which comes with integrated HSMworks cam, 2.5 D is $300 /yr commercial and free for hobbyists. up to 5 axis machining is available for $1200/yr.
I have actually left my more expensive solutions for this one. I believe this will be the new standard for those just getting started as you will not outgrow it anytime soon and the price is literally unbeatable .
As for me there are only two options:
1) Paid - ArtCam - http://www.artcam.com/
2) Free - Dxf2Gcode - https://sourceforge.net/projects/dxf2gcode/
For both of them I advise you to use free dxf files library - http://dxf1.com/
I like CATIA because it can do 3D graphic and CNC gcode + machine simulation all in one software. :-)
I am aware itis an old post but I want to share my opinion with you guys! For SolidWorks I use MasterCam everyday too , very powerful. I would recommand it without any doubt.otherwise CATIA will do everything for you 3D graphic and CNC gcode and machine simulation!
If you want it for free, I advise to you this - https://sourceforge.net/projects/dxf2gcode/
Also you can join this for other your questions https://www.cleveroad.com/blog/check-out-the-benefits-of-open-source-library-and-open-source-software
I am not sure what do you mean by “best”. However you may have a look at Replicantis for iPad. It has some good price/features ratio. Generates G-Code and has some neat augmented reality preview - you can simulate and view your parts in augmented reality.
Also I can add this article https://artjoker.net/blog/how-to-choose-open-source-software-for-your-project/
My favourite is cam.openbuilds.com = 100% free and open source
I use MasterCam everyday, it's versatile and powerful. I would recommand it without any doubt. I know delcam also make good product like powermill and featurecam, collegues had used these software and were pleased. The limitation of Mastercam is that it's not parametric, if you make a change to your model you have to reimport it insede mastercam and reasign the operations to the geometry. If possible try to go with something integrated inside your CAD software like mastercam for solidworks or delcam for solidworks. NX has a built-in cnc porgramming software wich is very powerful I used it at school
MasterCAM is very expensive and rather buggy. None of the software mentioned in this thread so far is completely free. There aren't very many free options.
I will not make a recommendation based on the performance of the software as I have not examined the items on the following list. But these softwares are free or open source.
MecSoft FreeMILL
GNU Computer Aided Manufacturing (sources are on GitHub)
HeeksCNC
CollabCAD
OpenSCAM
As Nicolas mentioned before HSMXpress is free for users of SolidWorks who hold a valid license and, honestly, it is the most viable option. The world of free Manufacturing software is an ugly place and considering how the commercial software normally is, it is safer to invest in a well-recommend inexpensive entry-level CAM solution.
Bob Miceli here from MSC machinery I have been using BOBCAD-CAM. Its very reasonable in price and does a very good job! Their toolpath algorithm is sometimes a little wacky but other than that its fairly easy to pick up. Plus you get to try it free for a month. We are currently selling it at MSC for just under $1k
free 3d modeling software sketchup,blender.low cost 3d modeling software
design cad 3d,alibre is a good software ,linuxcnc is free download. I use it to run my sherline 3 axis cnc mill ,linuxcnc is easy to install and use also mach 3 is good for about 200, I use solidedge which i have been using fo about 10 years but it is not cheap,you could try taking some classes in 3d modeling as a student you could get 3d modeling softwaer a great discount
Trabalho com o software CIMATRON E11. e consigo só ele fazer meus modelos 3D , montagem ,detalhamento e usinagem .
E se tiver alguma alteração no produto no modelo ele atualiza todo o resto pra mim .
Sem ter que re importar novamente .
Mas isso vai do gosto de cada um .
Pois todos fazem a mesma coisa só que de um jeito diferente com outros comandos .
Working with CIMATRON E11 software. and he can only do my 3D models, assembly, machining and detailing.
And if you have any change in the product model it updates all the rest to me.
Without having to re import again.
But it will taste of each.
For all do the same thing just in a different way with other commands.
Free 2.5 axis for both Solidworks or Inventor can be found here. You can also try the cloud based version as well.
Enjoy!
cnc (vmc) programming with unigraphics is very easy.
I also use Mastercam a lot but a novice needs a program with an intuitive interface that he can learn by his own.
Imho HSM is one of the best options but is not a standalone program, it is integrated in Inventor or in SW.
The most convenient CAD CAM in terms of money is ZW3D 2015 Lite (only 2.5 ops.), it has very nice CAD interface and a potent CAM for 'less than 1000$' http://www.zwsoft.com/products/zw3dlite/. The doc. is good.
In the other hand we have Vectric Aspire http://www.vectric.com for the woodworking art 1500$ with a lot of tutorials around the web, for cabinets try Cabinet Vision http://www.cabinetvision.com.
If you use a Router you should have a Router version of CAM with Nesting, Engraving, Inlay, Raster to Vector, DXF Batch Import, joint fillets, doors and hinges macro and others common woodworking operations.
And remember if you want play CAD CAM and you are not a pirate you must spend some money because unfortunately, the free software is not very productive. Forget the 2d design and immediately begin to draw and calculate the toolpath in 3d.
I am aware it's an old post, however you should look at SheetCam. Good product for a small fee and! service is great.
Also just as a note
Look at Gcode alternatives,
Shopbot control software.
I use autodesk inventor HSM . As any other autodesk tool, it's time consuming to learn all the options, as it has many of them. But the flexibility is rewarding and the tools to simulate /debug toolpath are very flexible.
Cambam is a great option for 2D - 2.5D solution.
They have a great trial period
it works well with most CNC
Good Support
and best of all, its not terribly expensive.
When it comes to PCB, I elected to flatcam. I am not using a free software generating my G-code outside of PCB making.
Aspire. http://www.vectric.com/products/aspire.html
Recently, I came across a CAM software: Oncreate3d. It is a cloud based CAM software to generate toolpaths free of cost. For more details visit http://www.oncreate3d.com/
compared to other cam software................nx cam a product of simens ......is almost efficient to generate cnc program
MasterCAM is the best software for generating CNC Part.
It is free available with easy installation.
I would like to share my tutorial video for CNC Part by using MASTER CAM Software.
Please watch tutorial video for user friendly.
I am searching for the best CAD/CAM for my studies for now I only use CNCSimulator
It is really sad that most people don't know the difference between Free or Open Source software and freemium/shareware/spyware tools. I have previously listed all the available options for CAD here:
and I have also listed all the available CAM/CNC ones here:
I have been using linuxcnc(EMC2) to control my small mill for a number of years. I like to use heekscad/cam to generate g-code for cutting.
https://code.google.com/p/heekscnc/
He seems to have a non beta commericial version for windows available now but I haven't tried it.
I really like the way you can freehand straight paths but mix in curves(arcs) just by holding down the a key while drawing. If I am making something fairly simple I don't draw a model I just draw the cutting paths to save a bit of time.
- Pros
Excellent battery life. Thin and light. Crisp Retina display. Price drop from last year's model.
- Cons
Connectivity limited to two USB-C ports. Small 128GB hard drive.
- Bottom Line
The base model MacBook Pro gets an updated processor and a price drop, making it the best choice for Mac shoppers who want a blend of power and relative affordability.
The 2017 update of the 13-inch MacBook Pro ($1,299) isn't a groundbreaking refresh, but it does come with two very important new features: a reduced price and new processor options from Intel's latest seventh-generation Core i5 and Core i7 series. The exterior design remains identical to the previous version, but more performance for less cash easily makes up for the laptop's relative dearth of USB ports and the lack of a Touch Bar compared with the more expensive 13-inch MacBook Pro. Add in vastly improved battery life and better performance benchmark results than many of its Windows competitors, and the result is that this already-excellent ultraportable notebook now earns our Editors' Choice award as the best Mac laptop.
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Thin and Light, With a Shallow Keyboard
The 13-inch MacBook Pro is extremely thin for a full-featured laptop, measuring 0.59 by 11.97 by 8.36 inches (HWD) and weighing 3.02 pounds. That's actually thinner than Apple's original and now somewhat dated ultraportable, the 13-inch MacBook Air. But it's not quite as thin as the MacBook (0.52 inches), the New Razer Blade Stealth (0.51 inches) or the 0.41-inch-thin HP Spectre 13, which HP bills as the world's thinnest laptop. The MacBook Pro is almost imperceptibly heavier than last year's model, which weighs 2.99 pounds.
Its aesthetics, however, remain identical to the previous version. Available in either Silver or the Space Gray of our test unit, this is a gorgeous machine amidst an ever-growing crop of well-designed ultrabooks. Long-time Mac users may lament that the Apple logo is no longer backlit, but the logo's new shiny silver finish will assure everyone in front of you that you're using an Apple product. Whichever color you choose, it will pervade the entire chassis and lid, which are both made of aluminum. The only departures are the keyboard and screen bezel (both black), and the glass trackpad, which takes on a slightly lighter hue compared with the body.
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The backlit keyboard has butterfly switches and extremely shallow key travel, which requires a bit of acclimation if you're upgrading from an older Mac. Apple claims that its butterfly mechanism is more stable than conventional laptop keyboard switches, which resemble a pair of scissors. The sound of the keys vaguely resembles the electronic clicks you'll hear from an iOS keyboard. The typing sensation is similar, too: it requires just a little more pressure than what you'd use to type on a touchscreen. We eventually found the typing experience tolerable—not necessarily enjoyable—but the keyboard will likely meet with your instant approval if you learned to type on a smartphone instead of a PC.
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Short on Connectivity
This MacBook Pro offers very few ports. It has just two USB Type-C/Thunderbolt 3 connectors on the left edge, and a single audio jack on the right edge. (The 13-inch Touch Bar model, which starts at $1,799, includes two USB-C ports on each side.) Having only two ports is an inconvenience, but remember that you're going to need to buy an adapter or USB hub for most of your older peripherals that don't support USB-C anyway (think mice, keyboards, hard drives, and even your iPhone). You can buy Apple-branded adapters like the USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter ($69), or opt for all-in-one adapters and desktop docks. Some, like the Satechi Aluminum Type-C Pro Hub Adapter ($99), are offered in colors that match the MacBook Pro.
The lack of a Touch Bar, however, isn't necessarily a bad thing. This model is $500 cheaper than the MacBook Pro with the bar, which makes it more likely to appeal to budget-conscious college students. While the Touch Bar is innovative and convenient for certain creative workflows (here are 15 things you can do with it), most other buyers will find it to be a luxury instead of a need-to-have productivity feature.
Thanks to their upward-facing design, the MacBook Pro's speakers sound robust for such a thin laptop, and are more versatile than those designed to bounce sound off of a desk or other flat surface. As with the previous model, the MacBook Pro can fill a medium-sized room with distortion-free music. The2,560-by-1,600-resolution Retina display is equally impressive. The 500-nit screen is brighter than the Dell XPS 13 Touch and HP Spectre 13, and people who work with images will appreciate that this MacBook offers support for the P3 color gamut. The screen's downsides are its slightly inferior resolution compared with the 4K display available on the New Razer Blade Stealth, and the fact that it's only available in a glossy version—there's no matte option to reduce glare, which was a problem for our review unit in the brightly lit PC Labs. Above the screen is a forward-facing 720p FaceTime HD camera, better than the 480p camera you'll get on the MacBook. Wireless connectivity options include Bluetooth 4.2 and 802.11ac Wi-Fi.
Our test unit is loaded with macOS Sierra, but macOS High Sierra, an iterative update, will be available for free once Apple rolls it out this fall. The MacBook Pro comes with 90 days of free technical support and a one-year limited warranty.
You won't find a lot of storage with the base configuration, which comes with a 128GB SSD. That's half the capacity of the base model MacBook, which also starts at $1,299. Drive options are plentiful, however: they include 256GB for $200, 512GB for $400, or 1TB for $800. All are SSDs, which explains why the price doubles along with capacity.
Better Processor, Excellent Battery Life
Other than this MacBook Pro's $200 price drop, a seventh-generation 2.4GHz Kaby Lake Intel Core i5 processor with an upgraded integrated Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 GPU are the only major improvements. Our MacBook is also stacked with 8GB of RAM. Various upgrades in processor and memory are available at the time of purchase, as well as the aforementioned storage options. While we can't run our full suite of Windows-based tests on this system, the new components resulted in markedly better performance in our multimedia tests than the previous MacBook Pro. It took less time to convert a video file in Handbrake (one minute and 51 seconds vs. 2:10), manipulate an image in Photoshop (3:46 vs. 4:23), and achieved a higher score on the Cinebench 3D benchmark (376 vs. 306). The MacBook Pro's scores on the Handbrake and Cinebench tests were also better than many of the competing ultraportables we've tested recently, including the Core i7-powered New Razer Blade Stealth, the Dell XPS 13 Touch, and the Microsoft Surface Laptop.
See How We Test Laptops
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Gaming performance, however, was somewhat worse than the previous-generation MacBook Pro, despite the upgraded GPU. Our review unit failed to break the 30 frames per second required for smooth gaming in our Heaven test at medium graphics quality. Scores on the similar Valley test were a bit better, but as with any ultraportable without a discrete graphics card, you shouldn't expect smooth gaming at maximum screen resolution and graphics quality settings. On the other hand, if you intend to play casual games at moderate quality as a study break, for example, the MacBook Pro is a better choice than much of its Windows competition, which posts even lower frame rates on the Heaven and Valley tests. It even does better than the New Razer Blade Stealth, although that laptop is compatible with Razer's Core external graphics card enclosure for more serious gaming.
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Battery life is excellent, even by the power-sipping standards that we've come to expect from Mac laptops. The MacBook Pro lasted for 16 hours and 26 minutes on our battery rundown test, nearly an hour longer than the current-generation MacBook and the 15-inch MacBook Pro, and a staggering four-and-a-half hours longer than the previous 13-inch MacBook Pro. The only laptop we've tested recently to post a better battery rundown score is the Microsoft Surface Laptop, which came in at 16 hours and 44 minutes.
This Is the MacBook You're Looking For
If you're willing to spend a bit more than the $1,299 base price, you can outfit the MacBook Pro with a 256GB SSD for an additional $200. That add-on will make its spec sheet nearly identical to the $1,799 Touch Bar version, with the only significant differences being a faster processor clock speed and a second set of USB-C ports on the Touch Bar model. For videographers who can improve their workflow with the Touch Bar or need extra ports to plug in external hard drives, spending the extra cash for that model may be prudent. Touch screen aficionados who are OS-agnostic will also want to consider several Windows alternatives that offer full touch screens, and in the case of the New Razer Blade Stealth, a 4K display. But if you're a macOS devotee who wants a relatively affordable and very stylish ultraportable with a long-lasting battery and a processor that won't be outdated for several years, this MacBook Pro is the best laptop you can buy.
Apple MacBook Pro 13-Inch (2017)
Bottom Line: The base model MacBook Pro gets an updated processor and a price drop, making it the best choice for Mac shoppers who want a blend of power and relative affordability.
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