Blender Foundation owns the rights to the name Blender and they have requested that external projects not use their name or logo. BlenderCAM used both the name and logo, and so both needed to change.
For a time, seeing the word Blender in a product name would mean that it was made for Blender, but from now on it will mean that it is made by Blender.
FabexCNC was chosen because it combines fabrication with extension (the new format and location in Blender).
CNC replaced CAM in the name as it seemed more widely recognizable, and avoids any confusion between CAM (Computer-Aided-Machining) and Camera (abbreviated to Cam) that may come from Blender's many Camera-related functions and settings.
**Fabex** was **BlenderCAM** (now it is **Fabex** _not_ **BlenderCAM**), it hasn't been a long time now, since **BlenderCAM** and still a machinist's delight, on a moonlit night.
That will need to be sent to your machine so that it can be run.
The specifics of how to do it will vary between manufacturers, but, generally the Gcode file will be loaded into a Gcode sender which then connects or transmits the file to your CNC.
Some free, open-source Gcode senders include:
There is also a prototype Gcode sender Extension for Blender called [gControl](https://github.com/SpectralVectors/gControl) for grbl-based machines - it allows for connection, jog control and sending simple jobs and commands, but should be considered Experimental until further notice.
None of the developers currently have access to a 4+ Axis machine, so until one of the developers acquires a 4th axis, or someone with a 4+ axis machine joins the development team, 4 and 5 axis Operations will remain officially unsupported (outside of manual indexing).
The short answer is: it depends.
The long answer is: there are generally 2 reasons why a feature is marked Experimental:
-
It was developed for a specific machine or operation that cannot currently be tested or verified.
or
-
It worked with some previous combination of Python and Blender versions and needs to be rewritten.
Fabex has been in continuous development since 2012, between Python 2 - 3.11, Blender 2.7 - 4.2, and 30+ volunteer developers with different machines, needs and approaches to coding.
Everyone puts in effort to make sure that all of Fabex's features are supported and stable, but sometimes a feature will be introduced by someone who stops development, the feature will rely on a deprecated Python or Blender function, or there might be an intermittent issue that is difficult to diagnose.
It is not always possible to resolve these problems quickly, and there may be other users who are not experiencing any issues with the same feature who do not want it to be removed because someone else filed a Bug Report.
In these cases, a feature may be marked Experimental and, like 4+ axis operation, it may have to wait until a developer with the right combination of experience and equipment is available to develop, test and stabilize it.
The first step is to check the docs or the chat to make sure that it is supposed to work the way you think.
The next step is to check the Known Issues - long-standing bugs and workarounds will be posted there.
After that, you can file a Bug Report!
*Some tools will only work with a mesh, others will only work with a curve, while others will accept any type of object.
Some CAM options will ONLY appear with certain Milling Strategies - e.g. the **Parallel** strategy has a **Stepover** option, but the **Drill** strategy does not.*
On Github, in the Fabex repository, click Issues.
Check to see if any of the Open Issues deal with the same problem you faced - someone else may have found a fix!
If not, click the New Issue button.
On the next screen, click Bug Report.
A template is provided for you, and though you don't need to follow it exactly, it helps to at least include:
- your OS
- your Blender version number
- your Fabex version number
- a description of what the bug is
- steps to take for a developer to reproduce the bug
Bonus points for including:
- a .blend file where the bug can be recreated
- the Error message from the console
- your Python version (just kidding, it's 3.11!)
Bug Reports are one form of contribution, but there are a lot of other ways to contribute:
- If you're not a coder:
- documentation can be edited, updated and expanded
- icons can be designed and added
- If you are a coder:
- tackle one of the open Issues on Github
- fix a bug you've found
- stabilize or add a feature
Either way, you're going to start by forking the repository and submitting pull requests.
And you can always check in with the chat!
If you want to use Fabex with earlier versions of Blender then you need to use on of the blendercam.zip releases, and you will also have to manually manage the Python dependencies (opencamlib, shapely), which might involve admin privilege.
Blender 4.2 came with the Extensions system, which offered two benefits:
- one-click install for official Extensions
- a Python dependency management solution
It also came with a bug in the Preset system, which was patched in 4.2.1, and so, 4.2.1 became the start of support for Fabex.
Since difficulty with installation and cross-platform support were some of the more common issues with BlenderCAM it was decided to pursue the Extension platform which offered solutions for both.
Unfortunately, the Extension system is not without issues, leading to the next most frequently asked question...
Or - 'I get an error that says No module name 'shapely.lib', but I can still import shapely'
Blender officially supports Python 3.11. At the time of this writing, Python 3.13 is the latest release.
Users whose Blender installs do not come from the Blender website may not come with their own Python binary, and will fall back on their system's Python installation.
If this is Python 3.12 or higher, then Fabex will not work, but most of Blender still will.
If you are not comfortable with Python version or dependency management, then the easiest option is to just download Blender from their website - it will include Python 3.11, and Fabex and all other Extensions will work.
If you have installed Blender from a package manager and you want to make Fabex work, you have a couple of options:
- manually manage the dependencies by
pip install-ingshapely, andopencamlib - manually manage Python versions by installing 3.11, or using a version management tool like
pyenv
$HOME/.config/blender/4.3/extensions/user_default/fabex/
/Users/$USER/Library/Application Support/Blender/4.3/extensions/user_default/fabex/
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\4.3\extensions\user_default\fabex
If you choose the Developer Install option you will create a symlink for the `cam` folder and place it in the `user_default` folder described above.
The location of this addon changed with the introduction of the Extension system, the old file path was `blender/4.3/scripts/addons/cam`.
If you find that your post-processor is not included with the addon, and the ISO post-processor does not work for you, or you simply wish you write your own, it is possible to add a custom post-processor to Fabex.
This is considered Experimental, and a more advanced use case, all the prior warnings about safety apply here, and more!
Fabex's post-processors are a modified version of the nc (Numerical Control) module of Dan Heeks' PyCAM.
As such, you can use his documentation as a guide to edit post-processor files.
We have had a user report successfully implementing their own custom post-processor using the following steps:
- go to the
post-processorsfolder grblis a good choice to customize as it is a single file, some of the others are 2 or more separate files- after creating and customizing your post-processor file, you will need to add the code that allows the addon to load it inside Blender
- ~line 135 in the gcodepath file is where all the post-processors are listed for the actual calculation part
- ~line 23 in the machine_settings file is where the post-processors are listed in the UI
So, write your post-processor, place it in the nc folder, then add references to it in the gcodepath and machine_settings files and you should be able to select and use your custom post-processor.
Again, please double-check all your code to ensure that it is outputting what you expect, we do not currently have any way to test custom Post Processors, so we are depending on users to solve their own issues.
Thanks to the efforts of people with access to tachometers and high-speed cameras, we know that an off-the-shelf trim router (e.g. Makita RT0701C, DeWalt DWP611) will have a range of roughly 10,000 - 30,000 RPM.
Routers generally cannot spin as slow as Spindles, they have less power, and typically aren't made to the same kinds of tolerances as a Spindle, so the range may vary.
Some tests showed Routers spinning as low as 7,000 - 9,000, or reaching a maximum of 24,000, but as a general rule of thumb you can consider the power dial on your router (e.g. 1 - 6) to correspond to a range of ~10,000 - 30,000 RPM.
Your best bet is to ask in the chat.