What would I like to see? Well, really a lot but most of them I think should already be applied to V26. Some of them are:
- As already mentioned, make the software real multi core capable. I pretty seldom see it using all the cores of my CPU, most time it just uses one.
- FIX THE BUGS! I myself have reported at least two or three dozens of bugs to them and so far there is about one or two single bugs fixed with the latest update.
- The support could stop telling me that I should update my drivers. My whole system is up to date but nevertheless randomly the view port suddenly sux and doesn't show any geometry anymore.
- In terms of software development I think there's a lot that can be done in order to get the product more professionel. It crashes so often because it just misses proper exception handling. By the way, I've never seen a software that crashes so often. Even not rudimental.
- I also never saw a software that has such an obvious and dramatic problem with memory leaking. Check it out, open a project and close it. Repeat that a few times and whatch the memory consumed by BC, unbelievable...
Beside all the problems I've got with it, in terms of functionality I would love to see:
- Automatic chamfer lead in/lead out. Imaging you chamfer an edge that leads to a vertical surface. Calculate the toolpath so it does automatical lead in/out to get the chamfer as close as possible to the vertical surface.
- Stop expanding all the expandable nodes in the CAM tree whenever BC thinks it is a good idea to expand them all, e.g. when canceling the creation of a new feature.
- Add an edit entry to the node menu when right clicking onto an operation in order to directly have this operation selected in the tree menu of the feature edit dialog.
- Introduce a much more sophistic Operation Order editing dialog. Have you ever tried to sort a list of 60+ operations within the existing one? Don't try it...
- Make it possible to edit a tool from within a project's Tool Crib dialog and get the changes applied to all the operations using the specific tool.
- Show me the tool number as defined in the system whide tool crib in the Tool Crib dialog of a job/project. On my workflow I need to know it to get rid of it I have to add the tool number to the Tool Label.
- Add spot drills to the supported tool types
- Make the software able to handle free grindings on tools
- Let me define and use Chamfer Mills without a small diameter, so tools with a tip like a needle
- Let me configure whether I would BC to add the diameter to the name of a drilling feature or not when I copy it and make that name consistent through out the whole software
- Improve load and save times for project files. As soon as a project gets a little bit more complex it take a hugh amount of time to just save it to the disk
- Give the software a consistent user experience throughout all its aspects. E.g. the mouse wheel. In the CAD view you soom in by moving the mouse wheel away from you whereas in the simulation it is the other way around. Let's define things like this through the system settings.
- Make it possible to manipulate system settings without having to open a project
- Make it possible to manipulate the tools crib and materials asf. without having to open a project
- In all the possible dialogs where you enter any kind of data get the content of text fields selected when focusing the field after you've pressed the TAB keyboard button. That would make the process of going through the settings for an operation or whatever faster and more comfortable.
- Allow us to install the software using the same registration data on two or three PCs as others do. It is very annoying having to walk to home in order to apply changes or fix bugs in milling jobs when I discover them at the machine in the workshop.
- For all those action definition window areas like the one where you enter the settings for a Translate or Rotate asf. stop loosing the focus from input fields if you move the mouse out of that are. Pretty uncomfortable in terms of usability.
- Within the simulation view, remember my last settings. I'm really fed up having to press the same buttons again and again after the simulation has been started in order to have it run the way and look I prefere it.
- Give the simulation a better performance. Have you ever started a simulation with a solid that contains e.g. 200+ holes? You can't brew enough coffee for the time you have to wait...
- Improve all those little things that make me ask why did they do it that way. An example: The close button In the simulation has got it's own row of screen area. This is a total wast of space which could be used much better for the simulation it self.
- Give us the oportunity to define on a solid/surface base if it shall be considered to be part of the workpiece or not. An example: You've got some holes/molds/pockets on a surface of a workpiece. In order to get a flatlands operation calculate a better toolpath without considering them I often add little surfaces so the calculation considers the whole are to be one surface. If you then mill or drill into those holes/pockets/what ever the tool collision checker will report a collision.
- Let us define a maximum distance within Adaptive Roughing operations the tools get repositioned using cutting feed rate (link clearance) instead of going to the rapid plane. I've been waiting for such air movements so many times so long to finish without understanding why they are needed.
Well, right now and from the gut that's it. Finally, just one more time: FIX THE BUGS!
So long...
dialsc