I mentioned special pricing on my favorite CAM software on my November 15th workshop. Here’s my followup.
My CAD software of choice is Rhino3D. My favorite CAM software is RhinoCAM. Now, the names might be close but the company offering CAM software is different than the CAD software company. It’s MecSoft, where Rhino3D comes from McNeel.
Now that we got that confusion out of the way, let me explain a few details. If you’re already using Rhino3D, the best way to go with CAM software is to get RhinoCAM because it’s just a plugin for Rhino. Makes setting up machine routines a piece of cake because you do it inside your CAD program. But, if you’re not a Rhino3D user, that’s okay, too. Mecsoft makes a freestanding verison called VisualCAM. Which means you can use whatever CAD program you’re already using and export the file to open up in VisualCAM. Once there, you setup your machine operations just like I do. Works great. So, if you’re using another CAD program (Fusion360, other Autodesk products, TurboCAD, whatever) this is the soluton for you.
The reason I bring all this up, is Mecsoft is having a great sale on their entry level CAM software package called Xpress. Rather that $595, they’re selling it for $299 until December 16th. That’s a great deal. And, it’s a perpetual license so you don’t have to annually subscribe, unless you want upgrades. You can get this in the freestanding version, the Rhino version and a verison that plugs into SolidWorks.
Mecsoft makes CAM packages for machining all kinds of fancy things up to $10k in price, but I can tell you that for Digital Woodworkers the Xpress package gets you where you need to go for $299. You get the 2.5D routines you really need the basics routines for 3D carving. I’ve done a lot of 3D carving and most of the time I use just the basic routines included with the $299 Express package. And, should you get ambitious and want a fancier version, you just pay the difference.
Bonus: The Xpress package includes Mecsoft’s very good Nesting program.
So, who is VisualCAM or RhinoCAM Xpress for? Well, unless you’re already using fancy 3D CAM routines available in say, Aspire, you might want to have a look at VisualCAM. Particularly if you’re using Fusion360, VCarve, TurboCAD, Autodesk products or using the very limited software available for the Shapeoko this is a major CAM improvement . It’s great CAM software with more than excellent support.
Great sale. Go for it. Mecsoft’s Sale.
PS. Tell them I sent you. I’m not a shill. just a fan of their great software.