V20 post processors

I sent the following inquiry to Bobcad early last week but did not receive a reply. Perhaps a member of this list may be able to help.
..................

Good afternoon;

A client recently asked me help select a CAD/CAM package for his shop.

I initially recommended against Mastercam because of that company's unwillingness to provide documentation for their post processor language. Having worked with older versions of Bobcad, I recalled a post processor that was easy to understand and modify.

Last month I had the opportunity to review Bobcad V20. The program has improved nicely. However, I noticed that the simple text file post processor is no longer used.

Is post development now an in-house process, or do you provide the necessary extensions and/or documentation to facilitate customer development of posts? Are these items available without charge and open to review prior to software purchase?

I wish I could help you but all I can say is for you to try calling them next.
I upgraded to V20 and also think the improvments are nice, but I have had some problems and NOT ONE OF MY QUESTIONS to thier tech support have even seen a reply. Not sure whats going on with that but as the supposed "tech support" that comes with the program is not free for long I'm starting to get impatient and will be calling starting monday. :mad:

Support for existing customers has always been unpredictable. I can live with that.

It seems odd, however, that they would not be interested in providing information to prospective clients. Perhaps the answers to my questions are not conducive to a sale.

Doug

Write a private message to CNCdude, a member of CNCzone. If he doesn't know the answer, he will hook you up with someone who does.

Apparently, Bobcad is working on the documentation at present. I received a reply this morning, as follows:

>>
Dear Sir,

We have moved to an open architecture software system. This means the user
has full control over the user interface via scripting or other menu
configurations. We can and do supply info to the user to make modifications
to post processors, or handle them in house as well. We do not yet have the
scripting info available to all but it will be complete in a manual in about
two weeks.

If you need any further assistance or have any further questions pleaser let
us know.

Thank You,
BobCAD-CAM Technical Support
Ph. (727) 489-0003
Fax (727) 734-8239
email: [email protected]
>>

Hello all...
I have been out of town for a few days on business and am just getting to this. BobCAD-CAM V20 software at this time, does not create a CL file to be used for posting. Nor does it create a "toolpath entity." Currently we use scripting to create posts and the toolpath that is generated can be edited by you. Our next software version will change in regards to this approach and will be simplified while not taking away this scripting method.

Because of this, currently our technical support team does spend a lot of time building post scripts for customers even though we already have many posts built. Most of the time they are customizing existing posts for customers that have special requests. There is a section of the manual that is dedicated to post scripting and scripting in general to assist customers in creating their own posts. In fact, there is a ton of information on building posts and creating g-code that matches your machine.

If you are not a current BobCAD-CAM customer and are trying to reach support for questions, you may not be gotten back to immediately as they are dedicated to servicing existing customers. I'm sure that you can understand that. If you are looking at a buying BobCAD-CAM software but need your questions answered, you should call our sales department. If the rep that you speak to doesn't know the answer, someone here will. However, we actively train our reps on a daily basis. Therefore, that would be the best approach to this. You can also email me or PM me and I will try to get back to you fast.
Sincerely,
CNC Dude