hi folks, prepare for a complete newbie question...I have bought the WorkBee CNC from ooznest 1500mm x 1500mm, not built it yet? I also bought vcarve pro, so question is, I design my work in vcarve assign tool paths etc then what? How do I send that job to my machine? What do I need to do next? I heard about CAM and g code sender but unsure what they are? Also how do I manually control my machine? Thanks folks
hiya Read this page starting at 'Software' near the bottom WorkBee CNC Kit – A Complete CNC Machine Setup Starting at the machine end..... the xPro controller runs GRBL. this is software that interprets the Gcode sent to it into pulses the hardware understands as 'move this motor so much and move that motor this much'. GRBL is free. RTFW Home · gnea/grbl Wiki · GitHub Your PC needs to send the Gcode to the controller. There are many GUI's to choose from (in no particular order) Universal Gcode Sender GRBLPanel Candle bCNC CNCjs Laserweb and others, just make sure they are compatible with GRBL v1.1 that is on the xPro GCode is generated by CAM software (or a human programmer writing it, it is just a programing language after all). things that can do that: Sketchup Make + the SketchUcam plugin (invented by Openbuilds guru Mark Carew) Fusion360 Vcarve Estlcam cambam laserweb Estlcam and thousands of others, some free, some cheap, some very very expensive. CAM software relies on a CAD drawing. Some of the above are pure CAM, you have to do the drawing in some other program then import it, others are CAD/CAM combinations. You should watch this for the basics of the hardware/software setup....
Thanks David, That’s really appreciated, I have a lot to learn over the coming months, definitely looking forward to doing my build, the help and advice on here is second to none. Thanks Cam
