I am in the process of building a multi perpose cnc that i can use for some light work then with the added benafit i can allso play and learn a little about shaping some foam. It is a 3axis router and i will be using mack 3 to drive the machine.
In the past i have played a little with the varrious programs for just the very basics for geting out lines and rockers but now i will be able to acualy cut things i am going to need the full cad and cam to desing and to produce the g code. From what i have found board cad seems to be the only one offering this on a free however i have found a few bugs with board cad in finishing the nose and tail which are a little anoying. I Have a friend who has catia which is a standard cad program that i can use so that is also a option but would need to then have to use something else to generate the g code.
So i am just wondering are people using all the fee programs that are out there to get all the way though the process without it geting to complicated or weather it is far better to go the hole way and buy a full lincence to one of the spacific board programs that are avalable.
I built a flat table CNC and modified it to hold blanks. It’s a 3 axis MechMate running Mach 3. I started off designing in BoardCad and exported to DXF and cut from rectangular blocks using Cut3D. This is cheap, good 3D CAM software but it does not follow the outline, so all cuts are at 90 degrees. Takes a lot of dicking about and long cutting bits because all passes are horizontal in z-plane. Still managed to produce a few good boards and Cut3D is great for other stuff.
I spent a few months trying to get BoardCad to work. Really battled to get a decent cutting file and the online forum’s pretty much dead.
I gave up and reverted to Shape3D for design (I’ve been using it since 2003) and got the CNC option. I have not looked back. The cuts are superb and speed control excellent. Control over spacing of path is good, but I need to spend time onscreen making sure I have the right overlap. Technical help has been great from Thomas at S3D. It’s been worth the $$.
I’m now doing composites that entail putting the blank on the machine a few times and re cutting. With S3D is can simply set the offsets as skin thickness and y-offset and use the same design file to cut the core and finish the skin. The latest bit of grunge is shown below. 5’10" Parabolic stringer EPS/Airex/epoxy @ ±5lb.
You can be creative with S3D. Grip pads made from closed cell foam designed in S3D and cut on the flat bed.
I made my one cnc cutter, only use hot wire but I had the third axis for router. So I use a modify fee 2d driver soft but for 3d option I plan to use linuxcnc, a powerfull free 3d driver soft used in industry. Maybe something to look…
cheers guys thanks for the info. sounds linke a somilar thing mine will also just be a flat bed router and planing on cuting from eps block to keep the hold down method simple. It sounds like shape 3d is the way to go if i dont use catia. Out of interest which of the options are people geting for shape 3d? If you have a machine do you need the export option to send it to the cnc or just the cnc option? sory and lastly from what i gather on there site is what they call the import option simply if you have a scaner or is that also what alows you to send a file from say anouther design program on a different computer to board cad?
sorry for all the questions im sure it is stright forward stuff when you have it but the website doesnt seam to have a huge amount of information on it.
Shape3D is pretty good, but the CNC option is kind of expensive for a garage hack. Red, I thought you used Jonas’ script thiningy in BoardCAD? I have a version which produces g-code without scripting, shoot me a PM with your email and I can send it to you to try atleast and let me know what you think.
Download the S3D manual. The information is in there.
CAD for design -> CAM for cutting path Gcode -> Mach3 for machine control. You need all 3.
S3D and BoardCAD Export will output different types of files that can be read by other CAM software. I was putting out .dxf files from S3D and BoardCAD to set up cutting paths in Cut3D. Cut3D saw the board as a solid object that could not be modified. I also used to send .dxf files to a cutting service that ran a 5 axis machine and they would use RhinoCAM to set up cutting paths.
You can do a “Save As” to output files in formats that can be read by other design programs. I swapped BoardCAD <-> S3D files quite successfully.
Scanner options typically import point clouds for design work and/or facilitate automated gathering of measurements using a probe.
You need CAM software to generate cutting path Gcode. The Gcode can then be read by the machine controller software.
S3D CNC option integrates CAD and CAM so you can adjust the design and modify the cutting file really quickly. It also provides good control over non rectangular blank placement, which I think may be a problem for most low-end CAM software.
yea i am aware of the basic 3 steps i was more questioning what s3d offer with all there various options. I have read through most of there manual on line however reading is not one of my strong point and im still not to clear on what each of there “options” are required. Odviosly i would need the full lince for shape3dx and idealy the cnc option for the cam side of things. From what i understand i shouldnt need the import option as that is for scaning however im still a little confused as to what exactly the export function is and weather it is something i would need.
I admire you for making your own machine. Are you following a plan or winging it? How far along are you in the process? Once your machine/system is put together hardware-wise, many of the CAM vendors will give you a free 2 week or 30 day trial on their software. You mentioned general-purpose, you might need one CAD program for surfboards and another for objects that don’t look like surfboards. That said, I have gotten a scale model surfboard from BoardCAD (my router is too small for anything bigger than 2’ x 2’ ) to mill with a non-surf CAM package. Also, if you are going to use stepper motors I would reccommend a Gekko 540 controller. I think I avoided a lot of the startup problems with my router by NOT using a run of the mill TB6550 board.
I ran lots of test programs though the simulators in LinuxCNC (Mach3 in your case) to see if my software CAD/CAM chain would work, way before I bought the router. The CAM I use is a set of two programs, one to make the nc programs and another to check them. The combo has been easy to use and the verification has saved me many times from making scrap.
Looking on with interest - as it’s been a long-term goal of mine to make a CNC that sits as a bench on top of the shaping stands. I use a profiler that gives me x y z axis but still requires hand-routing.
hi J ive based my design by doing a stack of reasearch and trying to figer the best design for the space i have and to make it as practical as posable.The frame will all be ali extrushion so it does give me some flexability to change things if needed. A friend is a cad designer so i have acess to catia for anything no surfboard related although he has actualy done surfboards on it as well and been saying it should be fine however i think if i can get one package that is designed to work all together and do the cad and cam together then it would be worth spending a little on it simply as not to waste a hole lot of more time and materials trying to get things to work properly as i expect there will be a certain amount of that just seting up the basics. The steppers and drivers i have been advised by a retailer that seams very clued up wi will be using 4nm nema23 and micro stepper drivers and then a usb motion controler fingers crossed it doesnt give me to many headakes but i do have a few friends who have said they can lend a hand so that is a little pice of mind.
I may see about starting with a year on shape3d with the though that if it is good then upgrade to life time copy however i would be interested to hear if any one uses precishion shaper as that is a significant amount cheaper.
No Rich, It’s a self-built number. The typical ones such as from Shapers, only do deck roll in 2 axis, i.e the roll in the centre deck stays the same out to the tips.
Mine follows the outline to cut the deck roll in a curve along the length of the board. It’s dead easy as a flat blank on a flat bed. Looks very much like the bastard child of an old style profiler with templates married to a flatbed cnc, without the motors.
I’d have to be a skinny frame as a standard set of shaping stands doesn’t offer a good base for a machine kind of. Why would you want to do that? Perhaps if you use a makita trimmer with a little bullnose cutter… But doesn’t sound like a great Idea to me.
