Hey Jon,

Figured I would jump in here.

I was using Smart Cam Dos just before they came out with tthe windows version. I used it for approx. 2 more releases then changed jobs. At my new job I was charged with selecting a CAM system and although the temptation was to stick with smart CAM Point Contriol had just sold and I elected to go with masterCAM 5.5. for the reasons you cited. Although the dealer was trying to spin the sale as a positive thing, I didnt see it.

I initially found the post rather overwhelming, but I had always been a bit of a hacker so I kept plugging away until I could make the post mods I needed.

About 2 and a half years ago I changed jobs again and wound up back on SmartCam Version 11 which was at that time several years unsupported. I have to say that Smartcam had some neat features and the Code Generator concept was a good one (Although you could see the .tmp files becoming more complex as they tried to add flexibility). The lathe product was pretty straight forward and I found lathe programming to be a breeze with it.

In FFM I always found that managing large process models became a daunting task however. One slip of the mouse on a complex model could screw up a single entity in a toolpath that might take hours to find and fix if not caught right away. SO I found myself spennding an inordinate amount of time managing entities.

In another thread I heard a rumor that there may be a new SmartCam. I'll believe it when I see it.

I found your coments about the Arizona situation interesting as we have a shop in the Phoenix Area that is all but closed up. No CNC mostly did prototypes and small quantity runs of complex components. Our PA shop has picked up this year, but Arizona is mostly doing support work for us at this time.


CAM