I was looking at the available g-code tools that are available (open source and commercial) and it seems that MeshCAM is having a sale: $175 through April 20th (reg. $275).

I've never used it before....is anyone here familiar with it?

Good, Bad, Ugly?

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Ok, after reading some older posts, there seems to be another nice option for those going commercial:

Cut3D

Some really nice features....

model slicing
tabs w/ boundary detection
multi-sided machining
roughing/finishing toolpaths

$299

Thoughts?

Unfortunatly this is one of those questions that get the responce

"What are you trying to acheave?"

For simple objects you can get away with plain g-code or somthing much cheaper.

Most aplications will offer you a demo/trial period. So what I would do is get a few ideas together then download each application and try them out.

Yeah, I will definitely do some g-coding myself...it looks pretty simple. I always like to have a grasp on the underlying concepts for any project.

Most of my ideas however have considerably more complex geometries than can be easily generated by hand coding. I would much rather spend a little $$ on good CAM software so that I can crank out a part in Rhino or Illustrator / Inkscape and easily put it into a format for EMC without any headaches.

$300 for software that may save me some big headaches is well worth it to me.

The Vectric products seem very easy to learn and affordable. Tried the cut3D trial, and even I could make it work.

They also have the cut2D for 2,5D applications.