Something with that many numbers before the decimal place scare me
too. All of the Cad/Cam programs that are dedicated to jewelry
design are pretty expensive, Rhino3D is a general purpose 3 dimension
modeler that can be used for jewelry design, there are some libraies
that can be purchased and some that can be found in the Robert Mc
Neel web site. Rhino is pretty easy to learn, compared to most of the
AutoDESK programs and about 1/5 th the price, even less than that
aginst ArtCAM Do it the smart way enroll in any adult education
program and buy the Academic version for under 150.00, there is an
excelent 3D CAM program called MeshCAM costs about 150.00 it doesnt
yet support 4 axis machining but will shortly, run your mill with a
control program called Mach 3 again around 150.00 so let’s see DelCAM
Artcam last time I looked was about 8,000.00 against 450.00 For the
mill I would heartily reccomend a Taig mill with a Xylotex controll,
not the factory Taig CNC package. If a person has 25,000.00 to blow
then by all means jump on the ArtCAM with their mill, it is an
incredible system, at least the sales demos make it look as though
with 16 hrs training you’ll be designing priceless heirloom pieces,
(hint–these guys are VERY WELL TRAINED at demonstrating the
package), It really is a good system but I think it’s possible to do
decent work for a lot less money, Also Neil George who posts here
frequently reps some very good software from Vision Nuemeric,
Kenneth Ferrell