Hello all!
So, I built the MPCNC to mill the body of a car I’m building, primarily (intend to do some other custom work here and there). It seems that every software other than fusion only does 2D milling, and I need to mill some pretty complex, organic shapes.
Is fusion the only way to go?
Any other advice?
Thanks for your time!
Estlcam does 2.5d and 3d milling
Kiri:moto will 4 axis as well if you want, as well as 2.5d - I’ll bet someone smarter than me could use a simple index setup to make the axial rotation a manual thing. Or you could make a proper 4th axis I guess.
Are you wanting to cad or cam 3d? Vetric Aspire will do both Vcarve Pro will do cam but no modeling in 3d
Just to be clear, most CAM programs that do 2.5D milling can use a mesh (like an OBJ or an STL file), and/or a grayscale height map. This means you can do the shape authoring in another tool and bring it into a CAM program to generate the toolpaths. For example, Blender or ZBrush will be better for organic modeling, but Fusion 360 could handle the CAM after the mesh is modeled.
I have already designed the body on cad. The program is going to be used for cam.
This is my design those are a keychain and a simplified version I 3D printed as a sculpture.
Even though I have been doing 3D printing for a while, CNC is kicking my butt.
My intention is to only use it for cam. I use rhino 7 for modeling and that program can export in so many different formats. It’s own format is 3dm, but it can import and export OBJ, STL, iges, SOLIDWORKS files, DXF, dawg, illustrator and so on.
I got the shape dialed in and now moved on to the important things we don’t think about when dreaming of building a car, such as door jambs, seals, hinges, where body parts join and fix to the chassis and etc.
I’m also building the chassis, so I couldn’t yet dedicate myself properly to the CNC
I’ve been digging deeper into fusion 360 and I think that’s the software I’ll settle with because it can import the files I create in rhino. I’ll give estlcam a go too, but I wanna go free, at least in the beginning, since I’m still learning absolutely everything.
My next question is about the post processor: I’ve installed the MPCNC post and I have the option of outputting Marlin or grbl 1.1.
It’s that grbl 1.1 file compatible with the grbl mega 5x firmware? I mean, does it need any adjustments to be usable?
May I suggest taking a lok into solidworks?
It’s probably not the best out there for curved surfaces, but for everything else involved in designing / modeling a car (assemblies, constraints sumulations, aerodynamics, BOM, …) it’s pretty much packed with features…
There’s a french YT channel where a guy modeled a Ford GT40 replica entirely in Solidworks, and built it in his garage
Right now, he just finished the conception and 3d model of his new car project (an “hypercar” with carbone monocoque and a custom body)
I’ve always wanted to try solidworks. Since I am familiar with onshape, I assume it would come easily.
It is hard to buy though. And I don’t know if they have a Linux version.
In ESTLcam, if you open an STL file instead of a DXF/SVG, it will work for CAM for the 3D model.
What is it with French guys and scratch built cars? You can’t even put a sticker on one legally (almost!) in terms of modifying, but you seem to be able to build anything from scratch?
Or are they just registering them in Andorra?
I’ve contemplated SOLIDWORKS and it would be interesting to learn for the future. Right now, the whole body and chassis are designed and ready to go and the software in question is going to be used for the cam only.
I’ve been leaning towards fusion because it can import step and iges files and rhino can export them.
It can also deal with STL but that limits the operation somewhat from what I gathered so far.
The channel and GT 40 project are great, by the way. I’ve subscribed and watched the compilation of the build.
My French doesn’t allow me to understand everything he says unfortunately so it’s harder to follow the new project.
