CAM functionality vs. BobCad

[cgriffin]

CAM functionality vs. BobCad

This is a repost from the General topics.

I'm considering ADE as an all-in-one for 3d CAD as well as CAM, sending the g-code to my VMC. I've currently got BobCad 19, which is supposed to be able to do this, but haven't used it yet. It's so rudimentary, I haven't had the patience to try more than converting DXF's to g-code. It's just lousy at even creating 2d drawings.

What is your experience with AD's CAM ability? Should I just export my AD files and CAM them with BobCad? Should I just stick with BobCad?

Thanks,
Cliff

 

[krisz]

Hi there

I am using Bobcad version 19 for my g-coding and using Alibre for designing my parts. Bobcad is really hard to create complicated 3d parts, and thats what AD is really good at. Ones i create a 3D part in alibre i just convert it into .igs, and Bobcad read the 3D part in. Than all you have to do is generate your toolpath with Bobcad. I am happy with the way these 2 softwares can work together. Its working for me.

Krisz

 

[jbehrlich]

Krisz,

How do you like working with BobCad Cam? I've been trying for the last couple of days to get SprutCAM working with little luck. Besides it doesn't list the postprocessor for the machine I have access to which has a Centroid M15 controller. I couldn't find any information on additional postprocessors for SprutCAM, either on the web or through the help. Does that mean that if it isn't listed you're out of luck? Or you have to purchase something like Invariant Postprocessor? Also I couldn't find a way to use inch format for the tools and the help only listed that it had the ability to, not how to do it. Spent a lot of time and got nowhere.

Anyone with any opinions on this? I would be willing to spend the money on BobCad Cam (is there a better one for the money?) for the CNC part if I knew it was an easy to use program for those of us who don't do this all the time.

Thanks ahead.

Jon

 

[krisz]

Well i got a lot of postprocessor setups from Bobcad support all you have to do is e-mail them or phone them and they will send you the postprocessors what you need. Working with Bobcad is OK but there are definietly better stuff out there. It all depends on your needs i am looking into buying either Sprutcam or Visualmill. I you are looking for postprocessors for Sprutcam here are they : http://www.sprutcam.com/SprutCAM/Postprocessors
I've been trying out both for about a month now and they both look pretty solid choices. Its a hard decision to make.

 

[georgeyork]

bobcad g code

I had so much trouble trying to get bobcad to recognize complex shaped from drawings i did in alibre. Once I got the images converted to bobcad i still had to map out most of the tool paths by hand which is what bobcad was suppose to do. I found out that they have a problem in bobcad 18 which i own for this purpose. I bought 19 thinking they solved this. Which they didnt so i gave it back for a refund. Now I am considering another program called Visual Mill to do my tool path generations. It seems to be a much better and capable software for doing this purpose.

 

[krisz]

It is but you might want to consider looking into Sprutcam. It gives you much more functions for your buck. I bought it i was trying to make a decision between Visual mill and Sprutcam, but if i want all the functions what Sprutcam has i had to pay for the advanced version of Visualmill, which is much more expensive than Sprutcam. I like Sprutcam, but thats just my opinion maybe some people prefer visualmill becouse of its features.



Krisz

 

[cgriffin]

I own BobCAD, and have tried demos of Visual Mill and SprutCam. The tutorial for Bob is terrible. There's one CD that's 206 minutes long, and there is no menu to select a topic! On top of that, they go through the tasks pathetically slow, so you lose attention until you realize you have to rewind. BobCAD is in a league of its own compared to the other two... and it's the minor league. The interface is one of those that looks like a windows hack from an old dos program. The program flow is poorly done, like it was written by a programmer who had never seen a CAD program, much less a milling machine. However, I was able to get some g-code from an Alibre file, after several hours of terrible tutorial.

I haven't had a chance to work with either of the other two extensively...but with the Visual Mill demo, I had g-code within a few minutes without reading much in the help file. After working with SprutCam for about 3 times the amount of time, I still didn't have g-code. I figured I'd have to wait for the time to read the tutorial...which hasn't come yet. I also had trouble with Sprut importing one of the file types (can't remember if it was iges or stl...), and the same file was opened accurately with the other two programs. It showed an odd feature that looked like a drill bit in one corner of a rounded pocket. Sprut also crashed quite a few times on me.

What little reading I did do, the Visual Mill help made sense--it's written in American English. SprutCam, on the other hand, is written in Russian-English. That is to say that the words are spelled correctly, if not always used the way an American would understand them to be used. If learning curve was a big factor, I'd go with VM, and avoid Sprut. I'd also go with VM if you never plan on using a 4th or 5th axis; the prices of basic VM and advanced Sprut are similar.

However, looking at the feature list, I agree with Krisz--Sprut gives a lot more for the dollar. If more bang for the buck was the more important issue, I'd go with Sprut. Since I got Expert, I've got a year to play with it and see if its worth the language barrier.

Cliff

 

[krisz]

Well i had no problem understanding the tutorial of Sprutcam. My major problem with VM was the price and the so little differents between the features what i get for my money. I mean i have to pay a lot more money to get a few more features if i want VM the basic version of it is way too basic for me. My main concern was the features becouse of what i do so thats why i decided to go with Sprut not VM. Although VM is a really nice package.


Krisz