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

[Dtrain]

Your radical!

[Head Monkey]

Docs will be dropping all weekend here: https://github.com/mikemag/MonkeyCAM/bl ... s_Guide.md Obviously incomplete right now, but you'll see as I fill various parts in where it's headed. Feel free to shout if there's something unclear or missing.

[vinman]

Can't wait to get a cnc. Mike u rock.

[richie]

The man is a legend!! Thanks Mike for your commitment to this it just accelerates the board development for cnc users where we don't need to all become CAD and CAM experts, I'll build those skills all in good time but its not what I want to do right now I want to build boards so MonkeyCAM hits the spot!!! I like where this project is going and also your future tweaks planned. cheers Rich

oh yeah, splitboard insert patterns and a few other ideas coming your way !!!!

[Head Monkey]

Alright, first version of all docs are done. Lemme know where things seem unclear, or pictures or video would be helpful.

User's Guide overview
G-Code Program Guide
Configuration Guide -- every board and machine parameter documented.

[Head Monkey]

v4.0.3 has dropped: https://github.com/mikemag/MonkeyCAM/re ... tag/v4.0.3

This includes a few fixes (inserts were slightly off), but the big change is that I now generate a HTML overview in addition to the G-Code programs. This is a single HTML file which stands alone and can be copied/sent wherever you'd like. This has zoomable diagrams which show every shape and toolpath generated by MonkeyCAM based on your input, how they fit together, important dimensions, etc. on a 1cm grid.

Check out an example here (tested on Chrome and IE 11): https://rawgit.com/mikemag/MonkeyCAM/ma ... rview.html

With this new overview you can see how all of the shapes and toolpaths fit together. MonkeyCAM runs so quickly that tweaking the input parameters, running, and refreshing the browser to see the changes did takes a handful of seconds. Since I've been so intimate with the details of how all this stuff is generated for so long I have a good sense for how all the parts fit together. I'm hoping this new overview will give others that same sense.

The overview contains a copy of all input parameters at the end, so everything can be regenerated if all you have is the HTML file

[Head Monkey]

Also, if there's something you'd like to see added to the new overview, like a helpful dimension, different/additional comparison shapes, etc. just gimme a shout here or via an issue on GitHub. I'm happy to improve it and generally find a little time to work on it each weekend these days.

[richie]

wow, another big leap forward, I'll keep posting my suggestions into Github Mike , for the mean time also I will test a lot of the tip/tail shapes with the current bezier handles and see how it pulls the curve around, its hard for me to visualise without a gui but some test runs printed off will help me in the mean time.

Skibuilders with CNC I encourage you to get behind this project and input your ideas into it, the effort Mike has put into this program and his generosity in open sourcing it is just outstanding!

cheers
Rich

[mikemigs10]

Just got done reading this tread and I have to say thank you. This sounds too good to be true thank you so much for sharing all of you hard work and time. I have been driving myself crazy trying to learn my cnc machine. I have the basics down but the profiling was giving me the hardest time.

I want to try this program our but I am having trouble downloading it onto my mac. I keep getting a MonkeyCam is damaged error and it can't be opened. Does the program still run for Mac Users?

[richie]

Just got done reading this tread and I have to say thank you. This sounds too good to be true thank you so much for sharing all of you hard work and time. I have been driving myself crazy trying to learn my cnc machine. I have the basics down but the profiling was giving me the hardest time.

I want to try this program our but I am having trouble downloading it onto my mac. I keep getting a MonkeyCam is damaged error and it can't be opened. Does the program still run for Mac Users?

Hi , can you please submit this error on the GitHub as a "new issue" https://github.com/mikemag/MonkeyCAM/issues and then Mike will look at it when he has a chance, I just tried both 402 and 403 and have the same issues on my MAC, so I can't see its anything you are doing wrong. So sign up on GitHub and you can post issues, suggestions etc, that way you are contributing to MonkeyCAM which is great and all a part of the Open Source way of doing things.

cheers
Rich

[richie]

Just got done reading this tread and I have to say thank you. This sounds too good to be true thank you so much for sharing all of you hard work and time. I have been driving myself crazy trying to learn my cnc machine. I have the basics down but the profiling was giving me the hardest time.

I want to try this program our but I am having trouble downloading it onto my mac. I keep getting a MonkeyCam is damaged error and it can't be opened. Does the program still run for Mac Users?

Hi , can you please submit this error on the GitHub as a "new issue" https://github.com/mikemag/MonkeyCAM/issues and then Mike will look at it when he has a chance, I just tried both 402 and 403 and have the same issues on my MAC, so I can't see its anything you are doing wrong. So sign up on GitHub and you can post issues, suggestions etc, that way you are contributing to MonkeyCAM which is great and all a part of the Open Source way of doing things.

cheers
Rich

Tonight when I get home I'll try this again in an osx commandline window rather than just using finder and clicking on the file to execute it, not sure if it will make any difference but its not how I tried earlier. cheers Rich

[richie]

Just got done reading this tread and I have to say thank you. This sounds too good to be true thank you so much for sharing all of you hard work and time. I have been driving myself crazy trying to learn my cnc machine. I have the basics down but the profiling was giving me the hardest time.

I want to try this program our but I am having trouble downloading it onto my mac. I keep getting a MonkeyCam is damaged error and it can't be opened. Does the program still run for Mac Users?

right I figured some of it out, bit of unix in behind the scenes here which is cool..... but then I ran into other issues, read on..... all can be sorted just need some advise from Mike now!

so when you download the MonkeyCAM-4.0.3.dwg file it goes into your downloads folder. If you click on the file then the operating system mounts the dwg file - dwg files are a disk image , so its a bit like mounting a cdrom or other device on unix it ends up on a mount point. So in my case it ends up mounted under /volumes/MonkeyCAM-4.0.3

So you need to go into finder, applications, utilities and run Terminal to access command line. Then execute as per below........

Rileys-iMac:bin new$ pwd
/volumes/MonkeyCAM-4.0.3/bin
Rileys-iMac:bin new$ ./MonkeyCAM
MonkeyCAM v4.0.3, Copyright (C) 2013-2014 Michael M. Magruder
This is free software; see the source for license information. There is
NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Missing required board definition file

Usage: ./MonkeyCAM --board brd.json --machine mach.json [--outdir <existing dir>]

Rileys-iMac:bin new$


THEN I RAN INTO PROBLEMS!!!!!!!


Rileys-iMac:MonkeyCAM-4.0.3 new$ bin/MonkeyCam --board example/board-def.json --machine example/machine-tool-def.json
MonkeyCAM v4.0.3, Copyright (C) 2013-2014 Michael M. Magruder
This is free software; see the source for license information. There is
NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Using board 'example/board-def.json', machine 'example/machine-tool-def.json'
Building board shapes...
Generating G-code programs to './'...
Sample-snowboard-top-profile.nc
Assertion failed: (o.is_open()), function write, file /Users/Mike/dev/MonkeyCAM/core/gcode-writer.cpp, line 412.
Abort trap: 6

[richie]

Just got done reading this tread and I have to say thank you. This sounds too good to be true thank you so much for sharing all of you hard work and time. I have been driving myself crazy trying to learn my cnc machine. I have the basics down but the profiling was giving me the hardest time.

I want to try this program our but I am having trouble downloading it onto my mac. I keep getting a MonkeyCam is damaged error and it can't be opened. Does the program still run for Mac Users?

sorted, create a new directory and run the MonkeyCAM binary executable and the configuration files all out of the one directory..... see here.....

https://github.com/mikemag/MonkeyCAM/issues/22

cheers
Rich

[mikemigs10]

Richie I am glad you have figured it out. I on the other hand am having a really hard time. to be honest this is way over my head.

After reading these last two post and the stuff on the github site I am gathering that I have to place the file in its own folder/directory. I am not sure if these are the same. I know how to create a folder but not a new directory. Also am I suppose to be copying the code that is in github to the files in the folder.

[richie]

Richie I am glad you have figured it out. I on the other hand am having a really hard time. to be honest this is way over my head.

After reading these last two post and the stuff on the github site I am gathering that I have to place the file in its own folder/directory. I am not sure if these are the same. I know how to create a folder but not a new directory. Also am I suppose to be copying the code that is in github to the files in the folder.

ahh ok, I understand, don't worry we all have our strengths !

Yes in MAC/OSX terms a folder and directory are the same thing.

If you download the file "monkeycam-4.0.3.dmg" and it ends up in your downloads folder, then in the background the MAC/OSX operating system will "mount" it which means it opens it up, a ".dmg" file is essentially a disk image. This is a read only file system mount though so you need to create your own folder and copy the contents of the MonkeyCAM into it. I put mine under my documents folder into a directory called Monkey CAM and it ended up like this.

Rileys-iMac:Monkey CAM new$ pwd
/Users/new/Documents/Monkey CAM

Rileys-iMac:Monkey CAM new$ ls -l
total 7840
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 new staff 4004000 4 Dec 12:47 MonkeyCAM
-rw-r--r--@ 1 new staff 1292 8 Dec 20:51 board-def.json
-rw-r--r--@ 1 new staff 1754 4 Dec 12:47 machine-tool-def.json

I am using the osx command line (its a type of unix operating system shell) to do this.

If that is beyond you then I will put together a list of commands to run to do this so its simpler, I completely understand how much of a pain this can be for non unix folk, I'm just lucky I have done a fair bit of this sort of stuff over the years.

In the future with MonkeyCAM and the other packages we are looking at bringing into the suite it will be more gui driven and less command line so less hassle.

Any more questions please sing out. Prob best to use the GitHub "issues" feature to raise requests for help as we do keep an eye on it and issues can be turned into enhancements and bug fixes if they need to be which means they then will get actioned into improvements in due course.

cheers
Rich