Free Computer Aided Design Programs. CAD software can help you to create computer models of designs, reduce flaws that will show up during production, and can ensure that your model is ready to go. You can also transfer programs from CAD design directly into a CAM program to modify it for CAD/CAM production. Are there any inexpensive Cad/Cam (mechanical design) software programs for Apple?
I am not aware of decent NON-Free CAM for macintosh. Get boot camp, buy a single copy of Windows, and you can run anything you want on your mac. I run various Windows only software on the mac all the time- takes a minute, literally, to reboot in windows, and voila- you have a pc, right there on your desk. There are a lot of cam/cad and similar programs that simply dont exist for macs.
I run a digitizing program for cnc embroidery machines, for example, and, while there are a good dozen competitors for PCs, there is not a single option for the mac. Many industrial and machine control programs are like that- it just costs too much to write them for macs, and your potential market, worldwide, is much much smaller, so most programmers dont bother. Some day a programer will wake up realize that there are enough Mac computer out there to make a CAM program for the Mac profitable, however until then there is Parallels or VM Ware, both good solid programs. Recently, I abandon Windows 7 and a new T.station and purchased a Mac i7 Mac 27' and Parallels. The reason for the change from Win to Mac in one word is, stability. No virus software, no viruses, no crashes, no more missing files, and no more corrupted files to rebuild, just Little Snitch.
I came full circle from a Mac Plus computer to Windows computers because of CAD/CAM software and back to Mac, using CAD/CAM and stable. Presently, the programs of choice are ViaCAD, and XR5. Some day a programer will wake up realize that there are enough Mac computer out there to make a CAM program for the Mac profitable, however until then there is Parallels or VM Ware, both good solid programs. Recently, I abandon Windows 7 and a new T.station and purchased a Mac i7 Mac 27' and Parallels.
The reason for the change from Win to Mac in one word is, stability. No virus software, no viruses, no crashes, no more missing files, and no more corrupted files to rebuild, just Little Snitch. I came full circle from a Mac Plus computer to Windows computers because of CAD/CAM software and back to Mac, using CAD/CAM and stable. Presently, the programs of choice are ViaCAD, and XR5.I haven't had a crash or virus on a windows computer since XP.
Most crashes and/or virus are from people downloading toolbars or fix my pc crap. What do you think will happen when a mac becomes mainstream? They will make viruses for mac. I was told at one time that Macs didn't do math as well Windows systems and that's why cad/cam is on Windows primarily. The Motorola's were better number crunchers. During the distributed Seti computing time, Mac-teams were always in the top rankings.
I earned my living as a programmer on Windows. For my amusement, I programmed on Macs. All the framework and foundation classes are much better thought out. GUI-development is decades ahead. I don't know C# (I quit programming then), but Obj-C (Apple uses it, but is switching to Swift now) was way better than the crappy C POS.
![Cam Cam](http://www.freebyte.com/cad/screen/pycam.gif)
Full implementation of the MVC-concept (model/view/controller), that MS didn't have heard of at that time. I'll probably start learning Swift shortly, I either need to pay-up to get my Developer License back, or I wait till fall when next releases are made public.
From what I've been reading the length of a line of code is going to decrease drastically (Obj-C is very verbose). The 'Playground' concept looks amazing, being able to see whats going to happen with your code as you right it. By the way, I have a 2 open source iOS apps anyone can feel free to play around with if they want, (and have X-Code).
An app that you might find useful if you work with triangles alot. And, an app that meant to help first and second graders learn math.
Although, it lends it's self to any multiple choice question. Last edited by iMillJoe; at 04:36 AM. Some day a programer will wake up realize that there are enough Mac computer out there to make a CAM program for the Mac profitable, however until then there is Parallels or VM Ware, both good solid programs.No, they should build software to run in Linux.
The OS is free, opensource, and stable. My personal machine has ubuntu on it, otherwise I run windows7. No real issues with either. The linux machine always runs faster and smoother.
Linux will also run on most anything. But, I'm indeed more of a geek than most. The linux machine did require some tweaking and a lot of googling.
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. 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.
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$'. In the other hand we have Vectric Aspire for the woodworking art 1500$ with a lot of tutorials around the web, for cabinets try Cabinet Vision.
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.