{"id":3624,"date":"2019-05-31T11:43:53","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T16:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thmsblog.com\/?p=3624"},"modified":"2021-10-19T12:40:30","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T17:40:30","slug":"deskproto-for-4th-axis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/?p=3624","title":{"rendered":"DeskProto for 4th Axis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Using 4 axis milling, requires a CAM software system to create the necessary CNC G-code. It\u2019s not something one can easily hand code when doing 3D designs. Simple level surfacing could be hand-coded on a 4th<\/sup>axis, but probably lathe turning would be far easier.<\/p>\n

Aspire, a three-dimensional CAD\/CAM produced by Vectric can produce G-code for the 4th<\/sup>axis. It is one of my go-to programs. However, I don\u2019t design everything in Aspire CAD. Fusion 360 and RhinoCAD are also programs I use for design.<\/p>\n

Both these programs have 4 axis CAM built in. Fusion 360 has a built in CAM, and with Rhino5 I have a plugin RhinoCAM 2012 w\/4axis.  In Fusion the 4th<\/sup>axis CAM is 2.5D and cannot produce 3-dimensional 4th<\/sup>axis G-code. I added 4th<\/sup>axis 3D CAM to RhinoCAM 2012 but find it extremely difficult to produce quality cut pathing. It seems to contain some very strange algorithms producing highly fragmented pathing.<\/p>\n

This has led me to another 3rd<\/sup>party CAM software (from the Netherlands) called DeskProto<\/em><\/a><\/strong>. It can take input (in the proper format) from any CAD software. (I won\u2019t be getting into describing the process here.)<\/p>\n

DeskProto\u2019s claim is that it is CAM software for creative people and not the die-hard machinist. I find agreement to that statement. I find details missing with some lack of particular seldom-needed features perhaps needed by a high powered VMC machinist. For the rest of us common users, making things (on up to 5 axis milling systems), DeskProto gets the job done without micro-managing every single minor detail.<\/p>\n

Having made that (limiting) statement, there remains plenty of useful variables that will insure getting the results a user like myself desires.<\/p>\n

I will admit I put off choosing this program, as I had access to the \u201cprofessional\u201d CAM in my existing CAD programs (described above). I discovered I didn\u2019t need all the hard-to-use and “understand” details of those programs. Pride goes before failure. I failed in easily getting what I wanted from the other systems.<\/p>\n

I downloaded and installed the unlimited use DeskProto trial software. I had full access to creating 4th<\/sup>axis output. It does imprint a large \u201cX\u201d (trial copy) in the output file and is seen on the visual display. But I was able to produce some very clean and sensible G-code pathing.<\/p>\n

Since I am a hobbyist user, I decided DeskProto was an excellent value<\/strong> CAM addition for my 4 axis needs. It is an improvement of what I get from Aspire on 4 axis output. I paid for the highest-level version of DeskProto and (of course) the registration removed the trial edition \u201cX\u201d without re-installing the software.<\/p>\n

Now that I have a full non-obfuscated version of DeskProto installed, I will run some real projects.<\/p>\n

My first task is to machine a suitable mandrel to hold the wax I intend to 4th<\/sup>axis machine. The picture is a 3D printed example of the mandrel I will make with 12L14 carbon steel. I will be posting 4th<\/sup>axis cut wax examples sometime soon\u2026  <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Using 4 axis milling, requires a CAM software system to create the necessary CNC G-code. It\u2019s not something one can easily hand code when doing 3D designs. Simple level surfacing could be hand-coded on a 4thaxis, but probably lathe turning would be far easier. Aspire, a three-dimensional CAD\/CAM produced by Vectric can produce G-code for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77778,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[105,104,138,146],"class_list":["post-3624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cadcamcnc","tag-cad","tag-cam","tag-cnc","tag-machine-tools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/77778"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3624"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3777,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3624\/revisions\/3777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}