Jrill
Aluminum
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2013
- Location
- Northeast USA
We make almost entirely prismatic/2.5 axis type parts. Heatsinks and small details and the like, no turning. I've been using HSMxpress for the past 3 years and it has been able to do almost everything necessary and has really good toolpaths, but creating each operation is slow and it's sometimes buggy and the tool crib is junk, but it's amazing for being free (excluding Inventor). It just wastes so much of my time. From a perspective of repeat orders, it would probably be fine if the feed/speeds took care of themselves more. From a perspective of new orders, it's slow.
So, what are some good options for quick and easy 2.5 axis CAM? I have been using the free trial for FeatureCAM and it has some intelligent... features... but it seems way more cumbersome and difficult than it should be, as if the only thing that's been updated since 2004 is the name. There are a lot of good CAM systems out there but I haven't seen a thread focusing solely on speed/ease/reliability/efficiency for 2.5 axis, so I'll start this one.
So, what are some good options for quick and easy 2.5 axis CAM? I have been using the free trial for FeatureCAM and it has some intelligent... features... but it seems way more cumbersome and difficult than it should be, as if the only thing that's been updated since 2004 is the name. There are a lot of good CAM systems out there but I haven't seen a thread focusing solely on speed/ease/reliability/efficiency for 2.5 axis, so I'll start this one.