Our Bantam Tools Software is a user friendly method of working with our machines to run the files produced in other CAD/CAM software. Our software handles the communication of the produced files and our machine, giving the user additional control in setting up their jobs.
When using these external design programs, it is advisable to use post processors that work with our machine's specific controller and software to export the files in a way that is most suitable for our software and machine to interpret and run.
Below is a list of some of the more common design programs and the related support pages and Post Processor files. We highly recommend using Fusion 360 for your CAD/CAM work, as our machines were designed this program specifically. You can also use others listed below:
Fusion 360
Support Page: https://support.bantamtools.com/hc/en-us/articles/360057730434
Post Processor: https://cam.autodesk.com/hsmposts?p=bantam_tools
CAD/CAM support: https://support.bantamtools.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001671574
Programming CAM Support: https://support.bantamtools.com/hc/en-us/articles/360057624454
Autodesk Inventor
Support Page: https://support.bantamtools.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001668313
Solidworks
Support Page: https://support.bantamtools.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001668293-SolidWorks
Post Processor: https://www.dropbox.com/s/o3e5p1ewu01wjlj/Bantam-Tools-Desktop-PCB-Milling-Machine%20%28modified%29.zip?dl=1
Creo
VCarve
Support Page: https://support.bantamtools.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001668333
Post Processor: https://support.bantamtools.com/hc/en-us/article_attachments/115002242053/Othermill_tinyG_mm.pp.zip
PCB Related Software
Altium: https://support.bantamtools.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001656813
Circuit Maker: https://support.bantamtools.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001656853
Gerber related Files: https://support.bantamtools.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001656773
FlatCAM: https://support.bantamtools.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001658834
KiCAD: https://support.bantamtools.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001656833-KiCad
Alternatively you can follow the below steps as a work-around if you are having issues running files produced in your particular CAD/CAM software.
- Design in your CAD/CAM software
- Export as a .step file
- Import into fusion 360 (there is still a free version available here)
- Process CAM (using the Fusion 360 post-processor) - refer to this link for more info
- Import and set up G-code file into the Bantam Tools software
If you wish to try to come up with you own post processor:
- You can find some sample GCODE files on our project pages.
- For someone trying to create a new post processor they would be best off using the information in the Bantam Tools Fusion 360 post processor and the Gcode reference for our controller.
- We have had some users use the post processor for the PCB mill available at https://camworks.com/post-processor-library/ with some success.
- The controller used in the Bantam Tools Desktop CNC is a TinyG V9 board by Synthetos running a forked version of their firmware