first project in Plasticity - CAD to CNC
So I've been using ViaCAD for years since I vowed never to use Fusion again. ViaCAD has really dropped the ball in recent years and it's totally unusable for me on my current Apple Silicon-based hardware and newer OS. Someone on their forums recommended I check out Plasticity so I did. I have to say it was pretty easy to pick up but coming from more of a casual CAD background and not a modeling background, it's ...different. The dimension tools are pretty primitive, but most of what I make is not especially complex, but they are parts, not art. I either 3D print stuff, or it gets cut on my CNC router.
I'm in the process of setting up a small CNC mill at the office and needed a new spindle mount, out of 2" aluminum. I was able to model it in Plasticity in about an hour (not bad for a first project), and it had most of the elements I usually deal with: through-holes, counterbores, pockets.
CAM was done in DeskProto, which I switched to at the same time I switched to ViaCAD. Two separate operations, one for each side, since the material would have to be flipped.
I didn't surface the material since the CNC machine at home kind of sucks and I wanted to minimize the time it took. A quick sanding will be all this needs since I will likely have to shim the actual spindle mounting bracket anyway once I get it installed.
Pretty happy with this. Still on the fence about switching to Plasticity for CAD, but it wasn't terribly difficult to do this with no experience using the software, and it was very stable, which I can't say for ViaCAD these days.