[patrickrd]

I have used I-DEAS manufacturing for generating G-Code for two years. The program is pretty good. It's major drawback is that it was ported to windows from a UNIX environment, and it is not always stable. If you can get by the weird user interface, the program is great. It generates pretty much any G-Code you can need, from simple geometries to very complex 3-d curves and contours. One complaint is the in-process stock feature (which basically shows your piece and what material is removed as it is being machined)... It calculates the in-process stock incorrectly sometimes, and it can really, really mess up the g-code, later on causing cuts in places that it shouldn't cut. As a result, I don't use this feature, and it works great. You just need need to know very accurately in your mind where there is material to cut and where there is not.