Anyone used Blender cam?

So my issue has been trying to get a good cad/cam for linux. Especially one that can handle complex models (I’ve tried using heeks and mesh cam and both use up my ram instantaneously. As both were written before 2013 i dont understand how they eat up 16gb so fast) after looking at all the recommended solutions, my last hope was blender cam which I was 100% sure wouldnt work. I was surprised at how competent it is though. Got some Goode for a mountain I pulled from google maps and it only took about 5 minutes to create it (only used 10% of my ram).

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I’ve been trying out the available linux cam projects as well.

Are you using blender 2.77? or 2.78? Just installed blenderCAM with blender 2.78 and I’m getting an error related to setting machine work areas.

Edit: got it working on 2.78 (it didn’t like my model). Definitely going to take a bit to learn, but it’s immediately giving me better paths, faster than any other FOSS solution I’ve looked into.

Thats been what I noticed, its just far more optimized for making paths. Took 5 minutes to do what it took pycam an hour to do. I found a couple video tutorials online and that got me up and running fast. haven’t had time to make any 3d cuts yet though :(. The biggest worry is that its all up to you to get the feed/speed/etc right. It has no babying or suggestions.

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Similar position here. I’m fiddling with it and learning it while I wait for an order of machinable wax to arrive (to make my screw ups less destructive), and for a good free block of time.

I’d be curious to hear about your experience if and when you machine something using BlenderCAM. I’ll be sure to report back when I do.

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