MonkeyCAM -- free, open source ski and snowboard CAD/CAM - Page 6

Richie, did you get a video done of the Skype session?

I have a small CNC that I'm just going to use for drag knifing logos and stuff into bases. It's wide enough but not long enough for a core so later down the track I'm going to buy a new 2000mm long ball screw and make the X Axis long enough to machine cores.

I have Mach 3 but tried downloading monkeyCam for windows and I get just error messages.

The links aren't straight forward to me. How many folders do I need to download to start from scratch with MonkeyCam? I already have SnoCad-X.

At the moment I'm just writing all my own G-code programs myself but cheap (or even free) CadCam is obviously appealing.

To the guy who was trying to work out how to change x and y axis, you could always try pattern rotation G code. Fanuc machines and Mach 3 use G68 I think and Fagor machines use G73.

Big machines with Fagor controls were always my favorite, no conversational control, pure g code writing but fast and super powerful.

How about you be the guinea pig and we record doing a demo for you?

Once you see it used you'll be up and running its a big timesaver.

Sounds like you have some great cnc knowledge to really kickstart your board building which is great I'm sure it will advance your progress a lot.

Just for now treat SnoCAD-X and MonkeyCAM as seperate but the intent is to integrate them as far as SnoCAD-X outputing to MonkeyCAM so we have a nice easy gui front end and a clever CAM generating back end.

Maybe an hour this coming weekend in the evening? You're in Perth?

cheers

Rich

Hey Guys - i could do a demo as well. I am in EST timezone.

Hey guys,

Sorry to derail this thread but I can download SnoCad-x but I haven't been able to install it. IWhen I click the Jar file it goes nowhere. What am I not doing right?

Thanks in advance.

> gerryrig wrote:Hey guys,

Sorry to derail this thread but I can download SnoCad-x but I haven't been able to install it. IWhen I click the Jar file it goes nowhere. What am I not doing right?

Thanks in advance.

Hi, what platform are you running on? Windows or Mac or Linux? If you have time I'm happy to jump on a screen sharing session and help out.

I trust you have the right Java JRE installed, I'm pretty sure the latest should work......

cheers

Rich

I thought for a while I had a certificate issue but after reading your reply I updated Java and now things are working fine again.

Thanks for the help.

> gerryrig wrote:I thought for a while I had a certificate issue but after reading your reply I updated Java and now things are working fine again.

Thanks for the help.

Thats good news.

Thanks for using SnoCAD-X and please feel free to offer any input into the SnoCAD-X and MonkeyCAM projects.

cheers

Richard

Updated to v4.0.4.

Many thanks to RegMeasures (not sure of his alias here) for adding partial wrap edge support to MonkeyCAM. It's great to have another contributor.

See the sample ski def and output for an example; in this case it's a partial wrap on the tail of the sample ski. https://rawgit.com/mikemag/MonkeyCAM/2f ... rview.html

It's been a while since I've posted about MonkeyCAM. Development has continued a bit slowly

MonkeyCAM is now available at https://www.monkeycam.org as an online tool. You no longer have to download binaries and figure out how to use the command line. The latest version will always run for you in the cloud, for free.

I've designed the site and backend services to fit within Google's Free Tier pricing for their servers. So no ads.

It's still hard to use. Input is still in the form of JSON specifying the board design, bindings, and machine/material parameters. It will get easier over time though as I add better input and output.

We're up to v4.0.6 now, the major additions being:

1) Support for flat nose and tail sections, making it easier to form ski shapes.

2) New binding configuration, allowing for any binding pattern you wish, including ski bindings.

This post contains the current status of MonkeyCAM and will be kept up to date. Last updated for v4.0.6.

MonkeyCAM v4.0 is an open source CAD/CAM program for designing skis and snowboards, and generating G-code programs to cut board parts with a CNC machine. It is free to use for personal and commercial purposes, licensed under the quite permissive Apache 2.0 license. All G-Code programs generated by the program are completely license free, even for commercial use. Party on.

It is available at https://www.monkeycam.org as an online tool which always runs the latest version for free. No ads, no more downloading binaries and screwing with the command line.

Take the tour here: https://www.monkeycam.org/tour

Example of what it generates: https://monkeycam.org/results/5744863563743232

The CAD portion of MonkeyCAM is quite limited, and is specifically designed to aid the design of skis and snowboards only. The CAM portion is slightly more general, but again is specialized to ski and snowboard manufacture.

MonkeyCAM source is published on GitHub at https://github.com/mikemag/MonkeyCAM

Current release with Mac OSX and Windows binaries if you want to download. Linux binaries added in the next release, and I may drop Windows: https://github.com/mikemag/MonkeyCAM/releases

Full documentation here:

User's Guide overview

G-Code Program Guide

Configuration Guide -- every board and machine parameter documented.

Features and Current Status

The program takes configuration as JSON to describe the ski or snowboard shape via a small set of parameters and generates the following G-code programs:

* Base cutout

* Core:

** Guide holes to allow the core to be removed and flipped between programs

** Alignment marks to transfer key design points to the bottom of the core

** Edge relief to leave room for steel edges

** Insert holes for standard snowboard inserts (T-nuts) in a variety of patterns

** Top profile to impart the taper to the core

** Cutout, allowing for sidewall overhang and nose/tail spacers

* Nose and tail spacers which match the core

* Edge trenches to enable inlay of different edge wood and/or sidewall material along the effective edge of the core

The G-code programs emitted at this time have been tested on my CNC machine with a very old DeskCNC controller and work correctly. Each program also loads in Mach 3 and simulates correctly. The programs not involving holes load in ShopBot's controller and simulate correctly, but the ones with holes do not work for ShopBot right now.

Around 2003 or so I built my own CNC machine specifically for snowboard construction. I started off using BobCADCAM and it was a pain in the ass. Being a software developer, I decided to start making my own program to generate G-code programs for snowboards and I called it MonkeyCAM. I ended up working on it quite a lot and used it to cut every snowboard I've made since late 2003, refining it every couple of months, and taking it thru three major revisions. Over the years I've tired other CAD/CAM packages but I've always gone back to MonkeyCAM. A few clicks and 10 seconds later I've generated 9 G-code programs to cut base, nose/tail spacers, and core and I know they're correct and fit together properly.

A lot of people have asked me if I'd sell it, or otherwise make it available, but I always said no. Mostly because I developed it for me and didn't really care about usability or making it pretty, and I felt it would be too difficult for others to use well. The code was a hacked together mess that I wasn't very proud of either.

I wanted to start on v4 of MonkeyCAM, and I decided it's time for a complete re-write. And this time I'm doing it on GitHub and completely open sourcing it. Initially it is available as a command line only app, but that will change in the near future. I'll build a new UI around it that will be web browser based, and I will eventually host MonkeyCAM on something like AWS or Google Apps so it can be used from a web browser without having to download or install anything.

It's only about 30% re-written so far and it's missing a lot of features, but I'm trying to order the work so it produces useful things early. For instance, right now it will generate programs to profile a core and cut insert holes, but not actually cut a core out. That's fine, though, since those two programs are really useful and agnostic to the specifics of how you cut out your core, and the top profile especially is typically pretty annoying to generate.

I've licensed the project under the quite permissive Apache 2.0 license. It will always be free and open source. I'm hosting it on GitHub, and for those not familiar with open source software development, GitHub is a popular site to host open source projects. It has nice features for source control, issue tracking, releases, etc. It also makes collaboration really easy. Anyone can make a GitHub account for free and "fork the repository" into their own, and change the source if they want. They can then submit "pull requests" which will let me take their changes back into the main branch. The best part is that if I stop caring about the project, anyone can pick it up and continue with it. If I'm busy one month and there's a bug that people really need fixed, someone else can fork the repo, fix the bug, and people can use that version until I get off my ass and pull the changes back up to the main branch. Essentially, putting it on GitHub like this ensures it will never die or be orphaned so long as someone, somewhere, cares.

I hope this will be useful to those of you with CNC machines. I'll also add a few features later to make it useful to people without CNC machines, but the focus for now is on CNC. If you have a CNC machine I'd love your feedback on the G-code programs it is generating: bugs, things you'd like to see it do differently, etc. Different controllers have different idiosyncrasies which tend to require slightly different formatting of each G-code command, and I'll work on making the program more adaptable to those as necessary. Also, different people have different work holding tastes and I'm open to adapting to different strategies there, too.

Finally, using it will be quite difficult at this time; you'll need a bit of a software development background to use it right now since it's only distributed in source form. I'll work on changing that in the next few weeks.

I've added some sample output of the program here: https://github.com/mikemag/MonkeyCAM/tr ... ple-output

That's rockin' Mike.

Been a while since I played with C++, but if you need any help I'll be more than willing to do what I can.

Simon

Waw that's amazing Mike ! That's a huge amount of work you're sharing (again..) with the SB community. I'll have a look into it as soon as I can even though I kinda figured out how to be efficient with my CNC using AutoCAD for ski design (I'm a control freek I like to be able to tweak every dimension/shape on a ski) and CamBam for the CAM part but as you said the profiling operation is what is more "challenging".

Thanks !

Definitely keeping my eyelids peeled open to this.

Currently using snocad when it's available. A partner has boardcrafter.

Using Vectric Aspire for cadding molds and templates, and generating the code.

Machine is running off Mach 3.

This puts me one step close to a CNC purchase once I have space.

Thanks Mike.

Thanks !

Very cool !

Very cool !

Very nice, very cool idea, Thanks Mike

Very nice, very cool idea, Thanks Mike

I tested the first six programs out of MonkeyCAM today on an old scrap core blank, and made a few updates. In addition to working on my controller (a really old DeskCNC) they load and sim properly in Mach 3, too. It would be groovy if someone who uses Mach 3 could pull up the sample programs and give them a run for me. I don't need you to cut anything; just run it and see if your controller complains in any way, and if the cutter moves smoothly. Each program states what the bounding box of the cutter will be in G54 so you can setup your machine to ensure the cutter doesn't contact anything for testing.

The sample programs are here: https://github.com/mikemag/MonkeyCAM/tr ... ple-output

If someone has a ShopBot it would also be good to get some feedback on the programs that don't involve circles. The ShopBot controller doesn't like the G02's for some reason and I'll need to dig into that, so avoid those (it will be obvious).

My guess is that by targeting Mach 3 and ShopBot I'll cover 90% of the machines people are likely to use. If you're using a different controller I'd love to know about it.

I use Mach3 on my router Mike, I'll try to get out to the shop sometime this week and give your test programs a run.

The SB3 shopbot control software is free and you can download and run in preview mode to see if it works.

Or I can test it for you.