Educate me on 4th axis

[John Stevenson]

Dolphin does have pricing on their site, not sure if standard runs 4th axis or pro you will need to ask but they do hobby pricing.
Not published as they probably don't want to get pro shop trying to save a buck.

There is a form to fill in and it has an additional info box where you can ask about 4th axis.

I'm running an old copy V9.0 ] of the full version so mine does 4th axis but I don't know what the differences are in the various versions of V10

[pressurerelief]

John,

Spoke with Dolphin Cam today and as you said they do a pretty deep discount for the HSM'ers. Nice people to deal with. Thanks for the lead.

P/R

[Prototyper]

I too am in the market for a CAM package within the reach of the home shop.

Care to share the quote you received from Dolphin?

Thanks

[sansbury]

A year ago I looked at BobCad and Dolphin for CAD-CAM. I ended up going with the dreaded BobCAD because they offered more 3D functionality for the price. Version 23 includes 4th axis wrapping and indexing which I think is the same as Dolphin.

BobCAD as a company is a pain in the ass to deal with. They love the hard sell but they will wheel and deal if you push back as hard as they lay it on. Dolphin is certainly a nicer organization and I got the sense that the software did less but might be a bit more mature and stable. So it is a "pick your poison" situation.

The worst thing about BobCAD is that the documentation they include is crap. The training videos are OK, but they make you pay for them, and they are just now starting to sell a user's manual which may be better for some. You can piece a lot together from forums and other sources. I think it's foolish of them since I think they make a lot of enemies of users who don't pay for training and then have a lot of trouble with the software.

[Mark Hockett]

There is no need for a 4-5 axis CAM system to program for a 4th axis. I have worked on 4 axis VMC's since 1995 and have never run a program on a 4 axis machine that needed all 4 axis running at the same time. On a 5 axis machine you have a need to run 4 to 5 axis simultaneously but on a 4 axis machine you usually only run 2 to 3 axis simultaneously. When machining with a 4th axis the cutter is usually positioned at the spindle centerline (Y axis) so the only axis movement is in the X, A, and Z directions. If movement is needed in the Y axis then chances are there will be no movement in one of the other axis. Many 3 axis CAM systems allow for wrapping of a 2D drawing, This will substitute the X or Y axis for the A axis. There are also programs available to wrap drawings. Here is one,
http://d2nc.com/
http://www.d2nc.com/D2nc_4th_Axis.swf
http://www.d2nc.com/index.html

This is the 4 axis mill I currently own,


I had a high dollar multi axis CAM system for many years but got tired of paying the high maintenance fees for something I never used. So when I upgraded to Mastercam X4 I didn't get the multi axis option and have not missed it.

[John Stevenson]

Interesting piece of software mark, just downloaded it for a further look. Thanks.

.