Any chance somebody plans to start that up at some point soon?
Alternatively, if the above is a no - any one-on-one options for this?
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Currently we are in a holding pattern. We are going to have to revamp the training based off what CAM we decide to use. It is currently being actively worked on, a perpetual license for one of the CAM software is about 7k. The committee & those who teach it want to only have revamp the class once and be done. Otherwise if we loose whatever CAM we have in the future, the rug is pulled out again.
The 2 classroom teachers are wanting to get back into the swing of things.
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Gotcha. Thank you for the update! Looking forward to when itâs all resolved.
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History repeats itself. Approx. 3-4 years ago HAAS training got suspended when we lost the FeatureCam license that was on loan to us (mostly because FC got bought by AutoDesk). Current price of FeatureCam is $10k so that was a non-starter in itself. Fortunately for us, at that time AutoDesk was offering Fusion360 licenses for anyone doing non-commercial work up to $100k a year basically for free. The Honorable Walter Anderson wrote the Part1 class for us based on Fusion. Part1 was the cad/cam portion of our domino project. I wrote the Part2 machine side class which takes you thru the use of the controller and mill functions. Both are/were basically a 6 hour class each. Part2 is still intact other than it is based in the Domino project of part 1 but all the details are there to move it to any project.
The creation of the Part1 cad/cam portion took basically 6 months to create. So since AutoDesk has cannibalized Fusion to the point that their âhobbyâ version is useless to us, we must first find a reasonable CAD/CAM software that is affordable (hopefully free) that students can buy/use and only then can the development of class material can begin. Remember it took 6 months before from our volunteer to create a usable class and before we could re-instate training. Most of us just had to suck it up and wait (self included) before we could get checked off.
So the takeaway is that we are just coming off the pandemic shutdown and are only now getting started on addressing this issue. We ask anyone interested to be patient with us. Work is underway but there is no timeline. Just like before.
The woodshop and the MultiCam CNC is facing similar issues.
In all cases there is someone that can probably sign individuals off IF and only IF they have prior experience and can demonstrate competence WITHOUT prompting or help. Basically weâll turn it on and say âshow us what you gotâ. If you donât really know how to use it weâll know.
Hopefully weâll find something that will still be around in 3 years else weâll be back here again. thanks for listening.
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Sounds like I can help on this CAD/CAM software issue by providing a post processor free for DMS use.
In my previous life, I was a software engineer developing CAM functions for a CAD vendor. A few years later, I custom-developed 3- and 5-axis FANUC post-processors for a customer who could not afford commercial versions. I still have that source code. All I need to do is to adapt them to the HASS controller and its aux functions.
In principle, Fusion and SolidWorks tool paths should generate files that contain a bunch of GOTO/x,y,z statements representing the cutter center locations with RAPID and FEDRAT/f statements at proper locations. These âcutter locationâ files can then be fed into post processors for different NC controllers to make chips.
If I can have some sample âcutter locationâ files from Fusion and SolidWorks as well as the HAAS manual and a sample G-code file showing how you guys use the HAAS machine, I can easily customize my post processor for you to test.
Sean
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Any chance your post processor would work with FreeCAD ?
Itâs not as polished as the commercial products, but itâs also much less likely to be taken away by licensing changes.
My post processor is a stand alone application that takes cutter location files as inputs. So, as long as you know how to use you CAM system of choice to generate CL files, it will work.
Sean
Nice. I am not yet familiar enough with what the CAM module in FreeCAD produces. Iâll take a look and see what I can find out.
Ok peeps, this may be a bit dated since it includes f360 as a viable altenative but this is a link to some free CAM software: 8 best free cam software for consideration.
While f360 has been rendered impotent with the removal of tool changes it is none-the-less still a good alternative when only one tool will be used. Example: Iâve got a key to cut this weekend which will end up being a single 1/8" tool path to cut a profile. I can still do this in f360 since I already know it and is still available (but I wonât Iâll do it in MasterCAM). So this still falls in the category of âuse what you want if you know what youâre doingâ but Iâm certainly not recommending f360 for future teaching software.
Cheers!
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oh and I donât know why they included inkscape (POS) in the list other than it is for lasers. We donât have any lasers that accept gcode. in fact few do. It might be good for creating a DXF file which you then import into a real CAD/CAM program but otherwise it is cr*p.
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