Re: EMC CNC recommendations

[Brian Pitt <bfp-at-earthlink.net>]

Hi John,

Slackware will not give you any problems on the realtime 
patch/compile and no more than normal on the EMC install
the ZipSlack7 install covered at
http://www.linuxcnc.org/handbook/part1/software/zipslack.html
can be modified as a guide for the full Slackware7 distro
just ignore the stuff about the additional packages and bump the
realtime and EMC versions up to the current release

1)
I would recomend searching for the most stable distro you can find for 
a machine controler but you already have it :-)
2)
get the one that matches the EMC current release
rtlinux2.2a prepatched (just to save a step)
3)
there is a Linux cad/cam package called CAM Expert from
http://www.ribbonsoft.com ($180)(15 day trial version available)
that will produce standard G-code (gerber,dxf and hpgl conversions)
its the big brother of QCad 
http://www.qcad.org (free)

Brian

John Murphy wrote:
> 
> Hello EMC'ers,
> 
> I'm a long time linux hand who is planning on adapting a benchtop
> mill to CNC.  I currently run slackware 7.0 on the system I'm planning
> to
> run EMC on.  I'm pretty new to CNC and was hoping someone could
> offer some suggestions to make my startup a little easier.  I'll be
> documenting my process so hopefully others can benefit too.
> 
> 1)  Is there any favored or problem linux distribution for EMC/RtLinux?
>     I'd perfer to use slackware or debian, but I'm open.
> 
> 2)  Is a particular version of the RTLinux extensions favored or
> particulary troublesome?
> 
> 3)  I've got a decent way to generate DXF's under linux, anybody
> have recommendations on producing G code (for EMC) either directly
> from a linux based CAD or a Linux (or DOS(emu)) DXF to G code
> converter?
> 
> Thanks,
> John Murphy