bobcad crashes a lot

I have bc V24. (24.01821760)
I have been using it for about 2 years now. I have issues with it locking or crashing on many occasions.
If you ask it to fillet a solid and the math isn't there it crashes. So if you have a 1 inch cube and you ask it to fillet an edge all the way around the top perimeter and the fillet call out isn't possible it crashes....sometimes

When skinning a frame with if you get the order wrong choosing the edges it crashes, all the time

If you offset a skin and the geometry isn't perfect it may crash...or not

Sometimes when simply opening a file....it crashes or freezes. not often but often enough to be a real pain.

You can't preview a file from file manager either..it just looks scrambled...

When you post and save to a thumb drive it crashes..every time..unless you save to the hard drive first...then to your thumb drive...

Another fun thing it does if you make roughing passes at around .150" or more it may simply skip a few steps...In other words if it takes 4 passes to rough it will simply skip one and the next cut will be .300" deep....I make skateboard/longboard molds. I can easily cut .200" at 5/600 ipm. But I can't since once in a while it will skip a step and .400" at 500 ipm doesn't make for accurate cutting...So I'm stuck at .120ish depth of cut for roughing.

If you use the program a lot more weird stuff happens...like the "quick trim", becomes useless and you can't select an entity...more things start to degrade. Most of the time I figure I'm doing something wrong....but then I reboot and it works...for a while.

Anyone else in the same boat? Anyone have a reasonably price alternative??

I figured I just didn't now how to use the program...or so I'm told by BC support....so any help would be great.
I'm reluctant to reinstall being I may lose the program for good. BC support isn't helpful and I can see them trying to make me pay for any info I need to fix or reinstall it.

Honestly it hasn't ever worked right. It took the first 90 days of owning it before I could even draw a single line with it. They had to change versions/builds for me and give me an extra 90 days free tech support because it didn't work at all through the first 90 days. They said they I should just set up an auto save function so when it crashes my info has been saved.

I have a 5x10 router which I got up an running thanks to the cnczone people. I use it almost daily. The biggest struggle now is bobcad. I went to finish a drawing yesterday and its crashed so many times I had to give up. This is a paying job I had to quit on account of BC. I think it may be time to give up on BC and buy something else??? Its my first real stab at CAD/CAM and I really figured it was me. However I have had a chance to briefly use mastercam and autodesk.....Hmmmmmm I couldn't make them crash if you paid me. Food for thought. I just can't afford them and I sorta figured BC should work within reason. Now its the weakest link in the system and adds so much extra time and frustration I'm not sure what to do....

PLEASE HELP!

It shouldn't take you 90 days to draw a line. That's just crazy talk....

I would install new from disk. Either the download was bad or the software just isn't installed right...

Start fresh, also what kind of computer specs do you have?

It's true that BobCAD will seem to crash all the time until you get far enough up the learning curve to begin using it correctly. Once you make it to the point where you habitually do the steps of an operation in the correct order, it will run much more smoothly. Really there is no simple and intuitive CAD/CAM. You might not get Autocad or MC to outright crash, but that doesn't mean that they'll work correctly, unless you use them as they're intended to be used.

Sadly, some of the best online videos, (Sorin's), are not available right now, as far as I can tell. His site is down. There are a lot of other videos though, and watching some of the relevant ones should be helpful to you. Also, the help files within BobCAD are actually really good. The onscreen prompts within the program will also help you to do operations in order, which as you've seen, makes a difference.

Aside from those suggestions, you might post some specific questions here in the forums. There are a number of users who are generally helpful, and some BobCAD employees who check the forums, and can help you with specifics. One general observation I'll make is that the most common issue I've seen here is what's generally grouped together as "Bad Geometry". There are lots of opportunities for small issues to creep into a project as you draw it, and they frequently cause problems. They're hard to see until you learn the tricks for locating them, and it takes the correct habits to avoid them in the first place.

Luke

Hey VPL,
You came to the right place with your problems,just sounds like you should of came a lot sooner.I started with V23 4 years ago.I had no clue what cad/cam was or how to use a cnc mill.I had a pretty extensive machining background though.I had nobody to help me but me and the forums.I read what you are having problems with and I could of easily added 3x more to the list of problems the first couple years.I use to cuss this damn software at the top of my lungs,no kidding.I am here to tell you,this stuff ain't easy all the time.LEARNING CURVE.
To not repeat what Trotline has already said,I agree %100 of what he said.I can tell you I now use V25 and it is better,for sure,,,BUT,I still use v23 more of the time for a variety of reasons that suit my personal likings.That said,,I can honestly say,I use it flawlessly(meaning no crashes or major mistakes) %99 of the time.I will admit I do not do complicated cad drawings of solids,,so there is my weak spot.But all in all,,if I was to sum it up of how BoB works,,I would say,,yes it has quirks/work-arounds needed here and there,,,,But as far as the problems on the list go,I might have a couple now and then.In other words,,they have have gone away,,or in reality,,I learned how to use BoB,in an efficient manner.
There is a wealth of info out there on BoB,you just got to know where to look.For that reason I put together a thread with just that.Trotline is correct that Sorin took his site down.But there is still a wealth of knowledge here http://www.cnczone.com/forums/bobcad...formation.html
If your thread is here for just a way to "vent",,I won't waste your or my time,,,I have seen them before.If you are on here to get this stuff sorted,,I am sure everybody here can,,as all of your questions are not unique,and have been asked and answered before.A couple of suggestions if help is what you seek.Make sure you are on the latest build,,,go here Software Archive | BobCAD-CAM
Make sure Windows is up to date.Make sure your computer and graphics card are good enough to run the software.This is all very important.
After that,if you will post each question on a new thread,include pics and more importantly,a sample .bbcd file of the problem,I think we can get most of your problems sorted in short amount of time.I really believe this.These forums are an indispensable tool to have,,and they are Free.There are some smart people on here for sure,

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Trotline

It's true that BobCAD will seem to crash all the time until you get far enough up the learning curve to begin using it correctly. Once you make it to the point where you habitually do the steps of an operation in the correct order, it will run much more smoothly. Really there is no simple and intuitive CAD/CAM. You might not get Autocad or MC to outright crash, but that doesn't mean that they'll work correctly,

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It's not so much that it'll seem to crash , it just does . I don't see why keeping a software from crashing should have to be a learning curve , it shouldn't be a factor .
Since you mentioned mc , I can pound and crunch on it all day long and not crash it while trying to force blends or whatever , I've crashed it maybe a dozen times tops throughout my years of using it , and that was mostly due to my impatience . Bc on the other hand has up and crashes on me for little or no reason far too many times . It seems to me that it's missing critical safety mechanisms that should let the user know that it cannot perform the operation rather than simply crashing and loosing valuable amounts of work and time .
Don't get me wrong , I'm not trying to knock anything , I get a lot of use out of my software . But I'd like to feel a higher level of trust in the software.
I do agree that once a guy gets used to the software things do get better , and crashes do become less frequent
As far as the cad goes , I'd recommend using another cad product , then import it into bc (at least for the 3d).

Hmmmmmm...what's a disc cost and how much for a new key?

download it off the site , install it and your current license will be fine

IME V23 crashed quite a lot. You quickly learned to hit save button before the simulator (to be fair that might not all be BCC's problem but the sim's)
V24 was quite a bit better, but V25 is better still crash-wise (nb: I use the 64 bit version). It will still barf sometimes on complex 3D work, but it's no longer required to hit save before doing anything complicated in 2D.

Agreed there are somethings you just can't do or must be done in a certain order. However I was adding an angled line to a line segment. It added the line but scrambled most of the rest of the frame. If you save the drawing and open it again its all there??? Just one of the weird things that happens sometimes.

Jrmach-
Thank you for your reply and the time it took to type it up. I will check your links and I agree 100% this forum is for sure indispensable. My router would probably sill be in a box if it wasn't for the very helpful people here. I guesses I vented a bit but really just want BC to work...within reason. So if it isn't too expensive to get a disc and key to replace what I have already paid for I might give it a try. For sure I repeat some of the same known mistakes, but it also isn't stable enough to be called remotely reliable. I just wanna a fix :)
Thanks- I guess I'll figure out the expense vs just going in another direction.....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aldepoalo

It shouldn't take you 90 days to draw a line. That's just crazy talk....

I would install new from disk. Either the download was bad or the software just isn't installed right...

Start fresh, also what kind of computer specs do you have?

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Thanks for the reply-
How much is a new disk?
Computer-
windows 7 home premium
service pack 1
Toshiba Satellite A665
Intel Core 3 M 380 @ 2,53GHZ
4.00 ram

Thanks again..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aldepoalo

It shouldn't take you 90 days to draw a line. That's just crazy talk....

I would install new from disk. Either the download was bad or the software just isn't installed right...

Start fresh, also what kind of computer specs do you have?

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BTW no crazy talk....90 days of nothing but one issue after another.I had to do install after install, updates, new versions. framework up dates, etc. When I got it to sorta work I didn't want to risk making it worse. However now I need it to actually work now. I'll pm you my personal info and you can look it up my account if you think I'm even slightly exaggerating. In fact I'm going very easy on bc and the bc tech people here...just trying to make the thing work. Help me out here. I don't envy your job Al.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by vpl

Thanks for the reply-
How much is a new disk?
.

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can you not download the installer from the bc site ?

Just a thought, "NOT ALL" but the majority of problems and crashes that individuals have while drawing are graphics card related. I know this first hand seeing that many of my normal drawing issues went away with the purchase of a Dell Precision with an opengl graphics card. I still get crashes sometimes in cam while re-selecting geometry. It sometimes does comedown to the order of things.

Forrest

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Forrest C

Just a thought, "NOT ALL" but the majority of problems and crashes that individuals have while drawing are graphics card related. I know this first hand seeing that many of my normal drawing issues went away with the purchase of a Dell Precision with an opengl graphics card. I still get crashes sometimes in cam while re-selecting geometry. It sometimes does comedown to the order of things.

Forrest

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Yah, that is what I have found too. You may have a fast enough processor and a minimum amout of RAM, but the Graphics Cards of most laptops are not so great. My old computer had issues and crashed quite a bit, but now on the newer computer I have almost no issues at all.

Mike

I am running BC on 2 very different computers 1 an athlon II x2 64 win7, and another on an very old intel p3 I think running xp 32
and Now have a very hard time remembering the last crash. I trashed ALL anti virus (malware) and on the win7 box trashed all the Microsoft feel good graphics gunk like the shadow fonts etc and BoBCad flat out works Ver 23. BEFORE TRASHING ALL THE AFOREMENTIONED JUNK THEY BOTH CRASHED REGULARLY. Bonus the Win 7 box looks just almost like XP. Headaches all gone, work gets done.

Hello All!

I wanted to reply to this thread for an update on how you can help with any performance type issues that you run into when using BobCAD-CAM.

There have been many updates through-out the years to help with internal crashing issues in the software. However, most performance issues can be solved by only checking a few different elements on the computer. The computer used and its configuration play a large role in your overall performance when running BobCAD.


The Tech Support department has created an in-depth Knowledgebase article that covers this very issue here: https://bobcadsupport.com/knowledgeb...on-a-computer/

I recommend reviewing that article to help with most performance type issues. It also links other useful articles that may help as well.

I would say the biggest issue that I normally see is 1. The user does not have a dedicated graphics card (Which is a minimum requirement to run the software) and 2. If they do have a dedicated graphics card, BobCAD is not linked to it. Please review the article above to assist with this.

Also, our Knowledgebase is a very useful tool that you can utilize to help with other issues when using the software and is one of the many different teaching tools we have created to help users understand how to use the software. Knowledgebase here: https://bobcadsupport.com/knowledgebase/

Anyways, I hope this comment finds some people and is a useful resource to assist with these types of issues! Have a great rest of your day everyone!

Bobcad crashing ? no way :lol
best thing I ever did was quite using bobCRAP and switch to fusion 360 lol

I haven't tried the latest versions of bobcad but v31 cam has been good to me so far , it's far better than previous versions and it's a lot more stable . I use another cad software instead of bc so I don't know how much the drawing has improved . The change in the join line function sure sucks though I'll say that much

Apparently i edited this post….