It’s a bummer that scallop cutting only comes in expensive CAM packages. Constant scallop is what I was picturing in my mind and that’s why the angle settings didn’t register at first.
Once one gets into adaptive or hybrid CAM strategies the time to develop and maintain the strategy goes through the roof… and the complexity grows nearly exponentially as one adds more axes (4 and 5). High end packages have as many as 20 strategies that work with 3, 4, and 5 axes. The math and maintenance issues are quite a challenge.
The package I own and use for complex jobs - BobCAD-CAM Mill Pro MultiAxis (V28 currently) - has the hybrid and adaptive CAD strategies and 4th and 5th axis support. The purchase and support price are… formidable. I get the results I need, the bugs fixed quickly, and I don’t have to learn 20 strategies and ~400 parameters again. Expensive, but I’ve been using it for years.
I can get “perfect normal” machining when I do 5 axis work, for instance. The CAM compute time is …impressive. The results? AWESOME
I have a post processor for BobCAD-CAM for the Nomad. I haven’t used it much since I’ve been doing things I share with the Forum and I’m willing to be bet I may be the only one using BobCAD-CAM. When it is on sale (like right now) it’s an awesome CAD/CAM package with impressive support.
I’ve got some ideas for a project or two and I will be using BobCAD-CAM since I MeshCAM would require multiple invocations and other tricks (@Randy is an expert at that. Me, I let the CAM software to the work. YMMV).
Other “high end” packages can cost tens of thousands of dollar US. They are this expensive because a huge volume of parts runs is generated with them… and they have to work. Machine usage costs, no mistakes, increased speed and minimized tool wear all come into play.
Could all of this be open source? Sure! The work would be enormous. Since the needs are exotic there just isn’t sufficient critical mass to do it… and most machining is 3 axis (or multi axis indexed) -excellent quality parts can be created without all of the fancy strategies… especially in the hobby and prosumer marker where time and machine usage costs don’t really come into play.
Remember to set the MeshCAM tolerance to 0.0001" and let it crunch. The more CAM computation up front, the better the tool path will be.
That said, you really should look at Fusion 360 for 3 axis work (and 4 and 5 axis indexed; Pro version). It offers many of the fancy CAM strategies at a fair price (per month; cheaper when purchased by the year). Many in the Forums are using it instead of MeshCAM since it has really good CAD abilities and excellent CAM support.
I’m hoping that Fusion 360 will eventually have 4 and 5 axis continuous machining support. There is just too much to relearn and remain effective until I’ve got all of the features I’m used to. If the cost is low enough, the pain of relearning (CAD think, CAM think) would be worth it.
mark
P.S.
Robert is looking into a nasty MeshCAM bug that causes a part to be gouged. @Randy verified it and even produced it using a totally different CAD package and STL file representation. It shows up when several curved surfaces meet:
Keep an eye out for this problem. There is no known workaround as yet. We’re waiting to hear from Robert on an ETA for the fix.