Looking for a 4 or more axis machine

For development purposes of BlenderCAM and my personal artistic projects,
I am looking for sponsors, who would donate any functioning machine, which has more than 3 axes.
The machine would be used mainly to develop BlenderCAM for more axis milling.

Note: I could do also with a robot arm! ;)

Blender CAM 0.6.0

simulated chain parallel + pencil operations

What is new:

• chain operations - this is useful to export more operations in 1 file and to do simulation of more operations in line - to see e.g. roughing and also finishing
• bridges for cutout operation. This is automatic by now, manual placement is on todo. Bridges don't work well together with ramping options yet.
• some essential fixes - undercut problem with stay low option, protect vertical fix
• pencil strategy has been updated. This is still very experimental, but I think for artistic use it might be allready tested (mainly cleanup of edges when doing reliefs, which is what I use it for) 
• on the coding side, a lot comments were added.



automatic bridges for cutout operation

• Blender version has been updated to the latest version.

as always, thanks to:

• Bernhard Braun and Giovanni Bianchessi for linux & mac builds
• Gaël Rosset for extensive reporting of bugs
• everybody who posted feedback or donated

this help is essential for the project, I don't have time to test everything properly, and donations help me to save some extra time.

Blender CAM 0.5.0

What is new:

• Exact mode is now faster by around 25-30 %
• support for text objects - they kind of worked in some situations but that was a coincidence! :) Now text is properly supported.
• default threshold for optimisation was lowered, the new algorithm works better with that
• Waterline with layers was fixed, now waterline works much more like in other CAM programs. It is however still experimental feature!
• Drill paths now support transformations of the source curve object

There are not so many changes as usual, but I'm kind of running in summer-mode ;)

Support this project by:

• sending feedback on forum
• posting images of your work on the forum
• learn python and start developing with me
• send some money

Big thanks go to:

• Bernhardo Braun and Giovanni Bianchessi for release builds Linux/Mac
• everybody who donates, reports bugs on the forum and posts feedback

Blender CAM release 0.4.0 is out

Because some things were finished, and also, some serious bugs were fixed, here comes the new version.
features:

• Background operations - this saves your precious time and enables you to use more cores. You can continue working on other operations while computing in background. You have to save your file before sending operations for background computing. status of computations is in upper info bar in blender. 
• Helix entry for pocket - experimental. 
• Retract arc for pocket - experimental too. Both aren't made if there is no space for them.
• First down option for cutout paths - this goes all layers down on one contour, then goes to the next one.  a condition for ramp down and out.
• Ramp down cutout operation - experimental - ramps down based on layer settings
• Ramp out - goes on along the outline, good if you don't want to leave a mark after the tool finishes and leaves material on same spot.
• A lot of cutter and operation presets, all made by Bernhard Brown
• improved path filtering, files are smaller now
• a lot of small tweaks and fixes in the UI

Also, a very serious bug got a fix now... it occured when more than 2 layers were used, and there were sharp jumps in the path.

also made 2 videos, background operations and doing a simple cutout operation with the new options. Sorry, without commentary, no time for that now, but there are key strokes and mouse buttons recorded, so they can serve as a simple tutorial...

Serious bug found today

today I confirmed a bug which was reported by Juan-Carlos Furest on the forum. It causes plunges deeper than a layer step down(!) when the slope of the object is high or 90 grades.

I am sorry for this bug and will try to fix it as soon as possible, hopefully today.

Also, then I will try to release new version .

helical entry

This was requested by some people, although I don't really need it for woodcarving. It's a helix entry into material, with options for angle and diameter. Only for pocket now:

Time for art.

I spent some time doing my art, which is still my priority. Behold the battle with the cars!

There are some little updates in the code, but still far from next release.

Main improvement is in contour processing, where you can now choose to ramp down continously around the contour, and set 'first down' option for cutting more contours - this enables to cut things out of sheet of material one by one even if you use layers.

ramp contour and first down option examples