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Welcome to Mill Commander!
NEWS: Mill Commander has been used to drive the CNC Etch-A-Sketch!
Mill Commander is a CNC mill control program with the following major features:
- An import facility to convert 2D DXF CAD files containing cutter paths into
GCode programs with extrusion for 2½D milling. Import features including
cutter radius compensation and arbitrary closed contour pocketing with
islands.
- An interpreter to execute GCode programs - including VBScript - and command a
stepper motor driver thru the computer parallel port.
- A 3D graphic view for visualizing the projected cutter path, providing feedback
during mill operation plus a simulation mode with mill motion disabled.
- A manual-mode user interface for controlling the mill directly.
Mill Commander is not a CAD drawing program or 3D editor.
Warnings and Disclaimers
Use Mill Commander Version 1.0 at your own risk! If it kills you or
breaks your machine or ruins your part, don't come whining to me. This is free,
after all! Always verify a GCode program visually in the Graphic View and
simulate operation with ‘machine off’ before running the program with ‘machine on.’
Copyright and Distribution
See the License Agreement in the User Manual for all the legal details about using and
distributing Mill Commander.
Simply put, you can use Mill Commander Version 1.0 freely if such use is non-commercial
and not-for-profit. I retain all copyrights and the right to alter this
agreement for later versions.
System Requirements
- Microsoft Windows XP or 2000. Win 98/Me/NT may work; but are not tested.
- Microsoft DirectX Version 9d. You can download DirectX free online at
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/.
- A mill driven by a controller using a system parallel port via step and
direction signals.
- An IBM PC compatible computer with a 1GHz processor, 256 MB of RAM
and a relatively modern graphics card supporting DirectX should suffice.
(That old laptop you’ve been running DOS on for years just won’t do!)
Installation
Mill Commander is distributed via a Microsoft Windows installer setup file, Setup.msi.
The setup has no options and will not require a system restart.
For Windows 95/98/Me/NT4/2000 you may need to install the Windows Installer component.
You can find them below. Note that while Mill Commander may operate fine on these operating systems,
it has recently only been tested on Windows XP. Send me feedback about your experience.
DOWNLOAD - Last Updated 4/18/2006 7:18:27 PM
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