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Using Blender for CNC milling with the Blender Bas-relief add-on

5
By on Add-ons

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Are you into CNC milling? Vilem Novak presents a heavily updated version of his Blender CAM add-on that will allow you to export high-quality milling paths.

Vilem writes:

I put a lot of efforts into this algorithm to work well and it's a unique combination of this algorithm which cannot be found in any other software package, and also delivers better results than my old bas relief node patch for blender. It was optimized for good quality output. I recoded this algorithm from scratch in python, the only prerequisite is numpy, which is distributed with Blender CAM too.

The bas-relief add-on is donation-ware (the rest of Blender CAM is already open source), and it's up to you to decide the amount of your donation. Once Vilem has raised €2000, he will open source the script:

The bas-relief addon will be sent to all donors of Blender CAM as a bonus. Even if you donate a single euro(-cent), you are eligible to recieve a link to this addon. When the donations to BlenderCAM reach 2000 Euro since the moment of release of this addon(November 2013), the addon will be opensourced under the GPL license, and the documentation and tutorial published online. If the donations keep the rate which they had until now, this will happen approximately in 3.5 years :)

Link

About the Author

Avatar image for Bart Veldhuizen
Bart Veldhuizen

I have a LONG history with Blender - I wrote some of the earliest Blender tutorials, worked for Not a Number and helped run the crowdfunding campaign that open sourced Blender (the first one on the internet!). I founded BlenderNation in 2006 and have been editing it every single day since then ;-) I also run the Blender Artists forum and I'm Head of Community at Sketchfab.

5 Comments

  1. Vilem Novak on

    There are 2 misunderstandings in the article, please correct these:
    Blender CAM is opensource, it was and will be.
    "donationware" is currently only the bas-relief addon, which converts zbuffer into bas-relief image. This image can then be used for milling with blender CAM.

    Reply
  3. Bridgette Mongeon on

    How do I get permission to use this image and contact Vilem Novak for a book that I am writing titled 3D Technology in Fine Art and Craft: Exploration of 3D Printing, Scanning Sculpting and Milling. I'm also interested in seeing art that is created with this for possible inclusion in the book.

    Thanks in advance. bridgette ( the at sign) creativesculpture.com

    Reply

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