I’ve had my Foreman Elite for about nine months, and I love it. I’m using Carveco Maker, and it’s been pretty good. I just got the Revolution 4th-axis rotary. I’ve gotten pretty good at three-axis work, but I’m completely clueless about four-axis work.
The rotary is all set up and configured, now I have to learn how to use it. Carveco Maker is supposed to be 4-axis compatible, but it looks like a lot of work to use it that way. I found DeskProto, and it seems completely capable of 4-axis work. Does anyone here use it? I want to make sure it’s compatible before buying a license.
If you do a quick search on the Masso forum you will see it being used on various machines. Users also touch on what they like and don’t like, which may also be of interest to you.
I’ve tried the demo of DeskProto with a rotary on my OF Elite Forman and it worked great - am considering getting a regular license eventually if i need it for rotary work - currently using Fusion 360 for most projects, but for rotary it only allows work positioning as opposed to full 4th axis rotary work (ie stock fusion can be rotated to a series of fixed positions and then do a 2.5D carve at each of those), however unless you subscribe to their manufacturing extension you don’t get access to full rotary toolpath options. For me that extension is overkill / very expensive for my needs and geared more towards full 5 axis machines / strategies. Really wish they would consider making some of the true 4th axis pathing avaliable as part of the basic subscription pricing of F360.
I just got my rotary and discovered the shortcomings of Maker’s 4th-axis use. I have downloaded the free version of DP, and I’m going to give it a try. I want to play with it a bit before purchasing a license, but I’m sure that I will. I only have a couple of months left on my free year of Maker. I like the fact that DP is a pay-once license for $267. Maker is $180/year.
No doubt I am so exhausted with subscriptions - I had the same reaction - NP paying for a reasonable one time license rather than another monthly reoccurring charge.