*** MonkeyCAM - SnoCAD-X collab ***

For discussions related to designing and making ski/snowboard-building equipment, such as presses, core profilers, edge benders, etc.

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richie
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*** MonkeyCAM - SnoCAD-X collab ***

Post by richie »

ANNOUNCEMENT *** MonkeyCAM - SnoCAD-X collab ***

I have some very good news which should mean the joe average small ski and board builder with a cnc, or those who are thinking about going down that path, can get productive much faster and exploit and get real value from a cnc, without spending hours in front of the pc on CAD and CAM. The aim is to enable a good bunch of you who are interested, to get involved and improve your designs and workshop/workflow efficiency.

SnoCAD-X - A good number of you have been using SnoCAD-X from Dan Graf for many years now, as a great tool to do your initial pre-CAD draft or full design on, then getting cnc cut templates made or going straight to the CAM and machining your board core profiles directly. SnoCAD-X was developed by Dan and he generously shared the program with the ski/board building community, and it have been widely used and appreciated and provided real value. The past few years Dan has been flat out on other business and has had less time for board building but he still has the passion and interest to see SnoCAD-X continue and develop as small shop ski/board building has done too.

MonkeyCAM - In his spare time Mike Magruder aka Head Monkey has been beavering away in his spare time with his amazing snowboard building passion, as a legit home based custom board business Happymonkey Snowboards for several years, and more recently he has picked up the tools again and started building boards in his spare time for the pleasure of it. Mike builds beautiful boards and from the outset with his exceptional software development skills and desire to do things damn near perfect he went down the cnc path very early on. Naturally he could not help but build his own full ski/board development package - MonkeyCAM, which he has recently fully open-sourced and released to the general public. Mike has put a lot of effort into making this a turnkey package that takes you from ski/board parameters to cnc ready g-code in no time at all, avoiding the need for complex and time consuming CAD and then CAM conversion which for a CNC newbie is enough to make you wonder if you'll ever get productive and make any money out of your investment - certainly thats how it is for me I believe we all have our strengths and one thing I have learned in life is to pick my battles and look around for solutions to the ones I am not naturally expert in solving myself efficiently.

Both Mike and Dan have to be praised for their generosity in sharing this software, but it has not stopped there. With some persistent but gentle arm twisting from me it got to the point for both that it made sense that open sourcing and developing both MonkeyCAM and SnoCAD-X to co-exist and interoperate almost "as one". The power of both combined could open up a raft of opportunities for developing the functionality of the combined suite and really upping the game for cnc kitted ski and board shops.

So here it comes guys, over the next weeks months years in fact for the long haul really, the combination of MonkeyCAM and SnoCAD-X has been agreed in internet blood and virtual handshake between Mike and Dan and they have agreed on a open source licence effectively offering their source code under this agreement into a development platform called Github so that all of us can use the software, contribute to the development of the software - functionality enhancement requests, raising bug requests, and for the programatically minded they can join in the fun and do some of the grunt work to enable the code to be improved and developed for better and better functionality, keeping up with modern board design trend and enabling the fastest workflow possible.

Mike is setting up the GitHub for SnoCAD-X and one already exists for MonkeyCAM, you are all welcome and encouraged to set up an account on the GitHub to allow you to enter "issues" such as enhancement requests or bugs for example, and if you know how to do some software development you can get in there and do your stuff, or maybe can provide some technical input from an engineering point of view for new functionality (structural, resins, composites, timber etc). Mike has detailed the current MonkeyCAM GitHub state here viewtopic.php?t=4450&start=0&postdays=0 ... highlight= . In due course the same information will be published for SnoCAD-X. The source code will be available on GitHub for all to see and contribute to and/or use under the terms of the license (the terms of which I will not go into apart from saying its a very permissive license and not to be scared of!) and a fully working downloadable binary release will always be downloadable for you guys to use, so no wondering where to download these programs for any more its all easy.

Mike will manage the development of both packages in GitHub and build/publish the releases, Dan will be there in the background to help with SnoCAD-X advice and improvements too. Both these guys are so busy in their own lives I find it amazing they do this!

Final thought, think big guys. With your input we can make this even more powerful. Be patient as you contribute as some of the key players have limited bandwidth, but anything that is worth doing for the bigger cause will be prioritised and tackled.

So keep an eye on this post as the way forward is set in stone! I hope you all get great value from this collaboration, again I thank Mike and Dan for their generosity in open sourcing them for us all to benefit and their skills in developing these great packages.

Cheers
Rich Mike and Dan
MonkeyCAM and SnoCAD - https://github.com/mikemag
Ski binding mounting https://github.com/splitn2/DrillSki

Richard Harcourt | www.splitn2.com | Christchurch New Zealand
rich@splitn2.com | www.facebook.com/splitn2
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Head Monkey
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Post by Head Monkey »

Thanks for the awesome post Rich, and also for bringing Dan and me together. Your enthusiasm for MonkeyCAM and SnoCAD-X has been really motivating for me!

I have the SnoCAD-X source direct from Dan and it seems to be working well. I have some basic work to do to get us setup on GitHub and the code open sourced. Expect to see that later in the week, with a downloadable release on the weekend.

Integration with MonkeyCAM will come later, and indeed it will come!

SnoCAD-X hasn't been under active development for a long time now, and I'm sure there are pent up bugs to be fixed and desires for new features. I'd encourage everyone to start thinking about these! I'll be able to help make changes going forward, and I'm sure we have some other devs out there who could help out as well ;)

Viva el SnoCAD!!
Everything I know about snowboard building, almost: MonkeyWiki, a guide to snowboard construction
Free open source ski and snowboard CADCAM: MonkeyCAM, snoCAD-X
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vinman
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Post by vinman »

Wow! That is amazing news for the ski/board building community. I'll be signing up at GitHub for sure.
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twizzstyle
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Post by twizzstyle »

This is exactly what this community is all about. I'm blown away. This sounds like a big project, godspeed gentlemen!
switzch
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Post by switzch »

This is amazing.
winter is coming..
Dtrain
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Post by Dtrain »

This reeks of word "community". I love it
dg
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Post by dg »

:D :D :D

Dan Graf here - hello all !

I think this is the best way to get snoCAD moving forward, as Rich said further up I really am pushed in other areas and can't actively develop it.

But I know you guys can - so have fun !

I'll sign up to GitHub too, and can advise or explain as far as time allows.

Community is exactly the right word, now we have the platform to do it right I'm very glad to open this up to get the very best software possible made by those who use it.
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Post by knightsofnii »

^ BAWSSS
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richie
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Post by richie »

dg wrote::D :D :D

Dan Graf here - hello all !

I think this is the best way to get snoCAD moving forward, as Rich said further up I really am pushed in other areas and can't actively develop it.

But I know you guys can - so have fun !

I'll sign up to GitHub too, and can advise or explain as far as time allows.

Community is exactly the right word, now we have the platform to do it right I'm very glad to open this up to get the very best software possible made by those who use it.
Thanks Dan I really appreciate your continued oversight as we move forward, great gear will evolve as a result of this project, its right to the core of the home / small workshop philosophy and the essence of Ski Builders community approach.

cheers
Rich
MonkeyCAM and SnoCAD - https://github.com/mikemag
Ski binding mounting https://github.com/splitn2/DrillSki

Richard Harcourt | www.splitn2.com | Christchurch New Zealand
rich@splitn2.com | www.facebook.com/splitn2
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Head Monkey
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Post by Head Monkey »

Here it is: http://www.skibuilders.com/phpBB2/viewt ... 5280#45280

Direct link to the GitHub repo: https://github.com/mikemag/snoCAD-X

I'll work on getting binaries up this weekend, and make the docs a bit more accessible. After that I'll start looking at using MonkeyCAM to generate G-Code right out of snoCAD-X :)
Everything I know about snowboard building, almost: MonkeyWiki, a guide to snowboard construction
Free open source ski and snowboard CADCAM: MonkeyCAM, snoCAD-X
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