hi Roger, and Dude,
thx both for your input. I had seen references to FUSION but honestly thought it only was cabable of indexing, not continuous, and had so un-checked it off my list pf possible soultions, as indexing isn´t the way I need to go...large pieces cant easily be spun on a trunnion type rotation axis (A or B, or whatever you call it ). Now I see that, yes, 5 axis continuous is possible. So i will continue investigating and try and see tutorials etc.
I came across videos of POWERMILL, and it looks exactly what I need, but haven´t been able to discover what price it´s at. Here´s a chinese tutorial video, in English.
Roger, have you considered "cnc tool kit"?
http://www.cnc-toolkit.com/ It´s eems viable, free, but quite intensive at a programming level.
With regards our common interest in cnc machining stone, I´d be more than happy to share all info I find. Interested? Is your machine home built?
Yes, my web is at present only in Spanish. I´m Irish, but live in Spain and my customers are up to this only on a national level.
Are you considering using a diamond disc to rough out work before milling? It seems to be the way big industrial machines do it. But yet another complication when it come to programming, as I know of no software cabable of accepting the geometry of a flat disc and creating toolpaths for it. Ther is a high end English industrial program, I cant think of the name at the moment, which does allow this.
More questions for you, Roger. How do you use AutoSketch at a 3D level?
Thanks again,
Frank.