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This question would be for anyone using V25 Bobart. I am mainly interested in the Bobart side of Bobcad. The only reason I purchased it was because of the power of Bobart. I got a call today from Bobcad about upgrading. Did anyone notice if there is and improvement in TP creation and working with Vectors and STL models using the new V26.
Trotline , mmoe , jmach or anyone doing Bobart stuff.?? what do you guys think.
Thank You
Don
I have Bobart in V26, but I have not had Bobart previously since around V21, so I can't make a real good comparison. Sorry I can't be of much help there.
There hasn't been any change to BoBArt since the move to BoBArt Pro during V25. If you have BoBArt Pro, then as far as I know, you have the latest and greatest. (Look under [Help] <License> in the main screen, it'll have a checkmark beside everything that's authorized for your version).
As far as V27, I haven't heard anything regarding BoBArt, but it's not in general use just yet. We can ask the early adopters soon. :)
Luke
Thank you for the replies. I know there are no new Bobart things. My question was is it worth the upgrade to 27 to get better TP routines. Is there anything in Bobcad 27 that would help in the areas I work in. Is it faster better tool path generation . Is it stable and does it work better with 64 bit Windows 8.1. I think that I do not see any reason to upgrade to ver 27. I may be better off looking at another package in the price range they have quoted me for the upgrade .
If I wanted to upgrade at the same price range I bought the Ver 25 with the Bobart license and Video tutorial disks I would have to upgrade down to a lower license then I have now. I would go from 3 Axis standard and Bobart to Mill express. To keep 3axis standard would cost more 200. more then I paid the first time. ????
Don
Until the V27 demo is out for testing, it's hard to say what you'd gain by upgrading. I guess the other question is if you really need to upgrade, as in does it not accomplish what you need to do. My impression from your topics so far is that you just need more time with the software you already have and with the machine you have as many of your questions or problems strike me as a lack of familiarity with your process more so than problems with the software or machine. Practice makes perfect as they say, and I think you could gather from these forums that most of the more experienced users just don't have that many problems, but those who have less experience generally have considerably more. The software is not any different from one Bobcad user to the next beyond versions, so it can be inferred that the difference is simply user familiarity. Fortunately, Bobcad has been a very evolutionary product and any knowledge gained at a current version typically translates well to later versions, so upgrading every few releases doesn't put you behind the learning curve too much.
There probably is not much reason to upgrade until you have maximized the use of what you already own. Otherwise, the only other product I think would suit the kinds of projects you do is Vectric V-Carve or Aspire. I imagine Aspire is more than Bobcad Mill Standard, and V-Carve Pro should be nearly as much as well, but you would notice a vast difference in capability between V-Carve Pro and Bobcad with Bobart. The v-carve portion is in favor of V-Carve Pro, but the rest of Bobcad is so much more robust that it's hard to compare them.
V-Carve does, IMHO, a better job at v-carving, but it has very limited function beyond that. Basically it can do 2d operations. Most who have it then buy Cut 3d, which really does not offer much more than Mill Express in terms of 3d toolpaths strategies and does not run inside of V-Carve Pro. If you wanted to v-carve and then cut some 3d operations, you'd have to write two different programs in two different applications, and you would be limited to toolpath strategies that are more at the Mill Express level anyways. The combo of V-Carve Pro and Cut3d runs about what I'd hope you could get Mill Standard for, but Mill Standard is a much more robust CAD/CAM package than the combination of V-Carve Pro and Cut3d. Vectric products only work off of mesh type models, so all of the solids type toolpath functions are just never going to happen in that software since it doesn't work off of solid models. IMHO, the value that Bobcad brings by providing the ability to work off of mesh or solid models is much greater, even at the most basic Mill Express than I feel any of the Vectric products offer, but to each their own. If you are solely going to do v-carving, there is value to the speed and simplicity of V-Carve Pro, but if you want to do anything beyond that, I'd suggest sticking with Bobcad.
I can't really think of any other Bobart competitors that are good values, but let me know if you have another in mind and I can give you a good comparison. Also, I'm not sure that the video tutorial disks will be as good of a value for someone who has experience with Bobcad already. They are really better for the person who has never used Bobcad before at all, IMHO. It will be similar enough that you can just use what you already know, and fill in the blanks by experimenting or asking questions here. Maybe the price would be better without them?
Thank you for the reply
Don