So, I spent the whole day researching ways to ditch Autodesk Fusion360 and moving to native Linux alternatives. FOSS was not a requirement.
The CAD part is sufficiently covered by FreeCAD since version 1.1, but it lacks 3- and 4-axis CAM functionality (it can mostly do 2.5-axis). So far Deskproto is the only software that covered all my requirements:
- native Linux support (Appimage)
- perpetual license
- not cloud based
- relatively affordable (145€ - 995€, depending on functionality)
- 4-axis support
The drawback of this software is that apparently the generated toolpaths are not accurate enough for engineering parts (e.g. injection molds), it’s more geared towards woodworking and model making.
The company is located in Utrecht, Netherlands and the software can be paid via bank transfer, no American payment provider required.
Tbf, for the maker scene there is always Estlcam which runs very well on bottles. Not a true 4 axis one,though.
I have it and use it regularly, but yeah - deskproto does not support true 4-axis toolpaths, they just run 3+1 (or 3+1+1 for their 5-axis paths). And unfortunately there’s no compensation built into their toolpaths, they don’t really have any QoL things like adaptive toolpaths (or even things like continuous pocketing), their acceleration control is -garbage- so you really have to be careful doing anything difficult like copper, the list goes on.
Honestly the tl;dr is that it works fine if you’re using a CNC router, and you’re going to have a pretty rough time if you’re using a milling machine.
Unfortunately there are essentially no FOSS programs able to produce engineering parts, and even fewer linux-native CAM programs at all. It’s really a huge gap in the FOSS world (driven largely by it being an incredibly difficult problem to solve)
Thanks for the review, it’s really helpful. I want to use it for making musical instruments with my cnc router, so it should be fine.
