[dkaustin]

Have been waiting for further updates on SprutCAM 8, but the silence is deafening.

Early issues with the online registration appear to have been resolved. Other than that, there don't seem to be any major problems (at least none that anyone is complaining about).

Has everyone's upgrade experience been so uneventful that they see no reason to comment, or is everyone hanging back until someone else takes the leap?

Mike Henry -- Very interested to hear your thoughts on the upgrade.

[MichaelHenry]

Hi,

The disk and dongle are sitting right by my PC waiting for me to get to them. Hopefully I'll have something to report by Friday or Saturday.

Mike

[KrausMotor]

I just loaded Sprut 8 and started twiddling with it. Got a bunch of crashes while trying to simulate a hole being drilled. The hole operation parameters, differ a lot from sprut 7. I also can't get sprut 7 to recognize the new sprut 8 dongle.

Alan

[KrausMotor]

After talking to Tormach, I learned how to make the new dongle work with both Sprut 7 and Sprut 8. And after a day I figured out the new interface and some of the new operation parameters. It all seems to work much smother then Sprut7 and faster, and it takes advantage of my quad processors and 16 GBytes of memory, so so far no crashes. As I familiarize myself with this new version, I'll report more.

cheers
Alan

[dkaustin]

In the "SprutCAM 8 Stability" thread, RndmNmbr states:

"SC8 is a LOT slower than SC7. I was not expecting this. SC8 stops to "think" (i.e. freezes) a lot more than 7 did. (I keep thinking it's going to crash but so far it always comes back.) I'm on a 6 core machine - I thought this version was supposed to leverage that but it doesn't seem to even during long path generation runs it only seems to be loading a single core."

Alan's experience seems to be quite different, i.e. SprutCAM 8 is making efficient use of his multilple cores.

Since the optimization for multi-core CPUs would be my main reason to upgrade, RndmNmbr's comment concerns me. Are others' experiences more like Rndm's or Alan's?

At this point, I'm thinking it might be a good idea to hold off at least until the first Service Pack come out.

All opinions wecome.

[KrausMotor]

Continued the saga with SC8, I am encountering big problems with simulation performance. Whenever a new operation is added or if one just switches between the simulation and machining, or any other tab, when returning to simulation the simulation results resets to the original workpiece. Basically the same as if one was to press the big X in SC7 to reset the simulation. Also pressing the next simulation button sometimes results in "Catastrophic Failure"
and the 'simulate to this operation' button does not do anything.

The hole machining operations parameters are completely different then the help file, which looks like it is meant for SC7. The new parameters as well as actual hole parameters are totally different and take some deciphering.

Seems all very buggy

cheers
Alan K

[25ncjimmy]

Anyone having problems exporting from Solidworks 2013? When I press the SC8 export icon in SW. SC8 opens but there is nothing there. Eric had a teamviewer session and could not identify the problem so was wondering if it was just me?

jim

[TDukes]

I am having the same problem importing from Solidworks to Sprutcam 8. I get a "LoadLib Failed” error message when I try. I contacted Eric 02/13/13 about the issue he told me to download the latest version of Sprutcam with a link that he provided. This did not solve the problem. I did advise Eric of the continued problem 03/2/13 but never received any responses or updates since then. Currently I am having to import into ver 7 using my ver 7 HASP then save the file. I then open ver 8 and load the file into ver 8. This is becoming a big hassle. Does anybody know of a solution to this?

[saabaero]

I'm not sure what other's experiences have been with version 8 but at first it seemed OK however the more I use the worse I find it to be. For one it is much slower in generating tool paths than version 7. The simulation only randomly works. I have had a couple unexpected crashes. The hole parameters are weird and the .step file input capability is through a 3rd party program that has to be downloaded and installed. The code that is posted for holes is also strange. Version 7 used a G73 for chip brake but version 8 uses G83. Also, version 7 used only G code for a string of holes but version 8 inserts one after each hole which makes it difficult if a parameter has to be tweaked. You can't simply delete the extra ones because it also inserts a G00 with each new hole move which messes up the canned cycle. This may be good or bad - I haven't determined which as I'm not quite sure if the old method did rapid feeds between hole position moves.

All in all, except for the cosmetic changes... I haven't seen much benefit in switching to version 8 yet. In fact my experience is that things were faster and more stable under version 7.

Just my 2 cents!

[LRF]

My 2 cents for what it is worth:
Periodically I advise that you exit SC8 and even rebooting the computer may help, SC seems to have a problem using memory and releasing it when done which means it gets consumed and can leave you with a crash potential situation. I'm not a computer geek up it helps me. (I'm running Windows 7 Pro with 8 gig memory)
On Friday Tormach told me they have stopped selling 8 and gone back to 7. They said they would support 7 again.

One frustrating thing is that it will simulate and operation with a particular cutting path and then the next time without changes it will simulate it different. Frustrating.

The G-Code has lines of code that make no sense at all, they run, but why the extra lines.
I do not like the dynamic leadin leadout, might help if anyone could provide some documentation as to how it is suppose to work.

Radius cutters error everytime even though the code works as planned in actual operation.

If an operation doesn't run to a green check, SC, should tell the programmer where the problem is not just saying it gouged the part. Where and why. The actual code runs perfect with no issue but why does it error?

The programmers are on holiday break until Jan 7 (crazy Europeans, more holiday and sick time then work time) so hopefully they will start getting serious about fixing the issues. They have a product that could be so much more.

Also SC8 does not have any acceptable improvements over 8 that justify an upgrade cost. The .STEP is a joke, 3rd party software I thk just converts the STEP to IGES and then SC imports the IGES. IMO

[MichaelHenry]

If an operation doesn't run to a green check, SC, should tell the programmer where the problem is not just saying it gouged the part. Where and why. The actual code runs perfect with no issue but why does it error?

The command that causes the error can be found in the simulation tab. Look for the red exclamation point symbol and expand that section to find the cause of the error.

Mike

[LRF]

Thank you Mike, I did know that and the collisions that sprutcam is erroring on is the cutter itself engaging the workpiece in a planned machining operation. Thats not an error. For example I am using a face mill to flatten the top of the work piece and is taking a passing cut of .030". That is not a collision that as you know is what we are trying to do. Interesting this errored operation is followed by another errored operation which is to retract the face mill to its safe height after completion of the planned cut. How could that be an error?

This is just an example, so many many more just like it.

Its not the end of the world because I don't rely on any SC written program without carefully reviewing the program line for line followed by an initial test run in air above the workpiece.

I would have alot more confidence in the software if there were so many errors being reported that are not real.

By the way, I thk SC has a useable product that needs to be cleaned up and improved.

[0llie]

Hello all~

I have a job on my Tormach that's actually hitting a production run! I got ahold of Tormach and said I needed the All Post version of SprutCAM 7. There was a mess up when I ordered back in summer of 2011 and they incorrectly put Tormach-only post version on my order and shipped same. It took so long to get all the pieces of my mill - tool changer, tool holders, heck, what seems like half the machine - that when I caught it, I was told that they could sell it to me for the difference but by then, I could no longer afford it.

Long story short, last week, Jan 2 of 2012, I was told that they can not sell version 7 and everything had to be version 8. I could run both but I could had to buy 8 to get the all post version I wanted in the first place.

I have stuck with an older version of 7, 1.6.47769 because it was the only one i could run through all of the steps needed to make my part without crashing, locking or throwing constant errors. Version 8? I have looked at 2 different copies of 8... the very first that still worked with my 7 dongle - talk about not ready for release! and one from late December. I DON"T WANT VERSION 8!

I like my Tormach. It's got a "personality" but i can generally work with it. Sprutcam 7... I've got literally hundreds of hours into it and can do about anything you want to with it, quirks and all. But instead of churning out a more expensive program, fix the one you've been selling!

Sorry. Rather frustrated by this very recently.

UPDATE 1-7-2013 Bit the bullet and ordered the all post version. Was told that they are holding off until the version 8 is ready. Which they're expecting to be any day...

[LRF]

Another thing Eric said, "don't update your SC8 using the automatic update" He said that the SC people have disabled it now but don't even try. He said if you have a version that works stay with it.
I'm still running the initial SC8 release..it works..and I am not going to change. Does everything I need.

Sorry to hear of the issues, you might try to revert to the earlier version if possible or maybe give Eric another ring

[MichaelHenry]

Someone posted a question about this on the SprutUK forum and the problem seemed to be that SC needs to be run from an administrator account. You should be able to do that by right-clicking on the icon or execultable used to start SC and select "Run as administrator" from the resulting pop up list.

Mike