[foxsquirrel]

I am currently evaluating plug-ins for Solidworks and would like information from people using the Solidworks version.
1. Is it stable?
2. How is compared to other systems you have used
3. Is BobCam robust enough for professional daily use designing patterns?
4. I am extremely biased against BobCad from prior worthless versions so please forgive my negative tone regarding the information
5. They are not Gold certified and this makes me very cautious, what do you think?

[CNCdude]

Dear Foxsquirrel,
BobCAM is an add-in for SolidWorks and is currently and currently has the SolidWorks Solution Partner status. The product is not a Gold Partner product just yet. The BobCAM add-in offers 2, 3 and 4th axis machining functionality rather than design. You would use it for machining patterns rather than designing them as the SolidWorks product would be used for that. Hope that helps. There is a free demo that you can download for evaluation purposes. That should help you as well. BobCAD-CAM offers weekly webinars that you can sign up for directly off of the website. These are very helpful because not only can you see the product in action but you can ask questions during the event. These are held every week. I will let users answer your question about "stability." Did you have any specific questions about features that I can assist you with?
Sincerely,
CNCdude

[foxsquirrel]

I a little puzzled by your response, why would I expect BobCam to be used for design when we already run Solidworks?

Do you know long before they will have Gold Partner status, that is what holds water with Solidworks. Both SolidCam and VisualMill are Gold certified and from the quality of their demos it is obvious Gold Certified means alot.

[BurrMan]

I a little puzzled by your response, why would I expect BobCam to be used for design when we already run Solidworks?

Your question number 3 suggests you are asking if it can do design..????

3. Is BobCam robust enough for professional daily use designing patterns?

I think that is what the response was refering to.

[mcphill]

I am currently evaluating plug-ins for Solidworks and would like information from people using the Solidworks version.
1. Is it stable?
2. How is compared to other systems you have used
3. Is BobCam robust enough for professional daily use designing patterns?
4. I am extremely biased against BobCad from prior worthless versions so please forgive my negative tone regarding the information
5. They are not Gold certified and this makes me very cautious, what do you think?

I was one of the first 100 purchasers of it, so I have used it for a while. That said, my recent work has been in STL files, which it can NOT handle due to SolidWorks limitations, so I have been using V23 more than BobCAM even since I got it. That said, I will use it for any work I need to do that is not STL related and does not need features it does not yet have (BobCAM currently does NOT have high speed pocketing, or equidistant offset CAM paths, so there are more options available in V23 than in BobCAM). So, on to your questions:

1. If by stable you are referring to crashes, I have not yet experienced a crash when using BobCAM, so I would call it stable. I am running Win7 x64 and SolidWorks Professional 2008, 2009 and 2010, all x64 versions.
2. I find it easier to use than V23, as you can directly work in SolidWorks, you can pick faces and vertices and edges from SW, it feels MUCH more intuitive than V23. Also, the 4th axis support is much better/easier than in v23. I have not used many other programs other than demo modes...
3. This sounds like a repeat of question 1? If so, yes. Are your patters mostly 2.5D or 3D? It will do either very well, but I am curious. I would suggest you schedule an online demo, and make them open your own SW file and show you the CAM process. They do this with WebEx and you both view the screen of the guy at BC during the demo. They will do this for you. They made a 3D CAM program for me online with never seeing it before, and did it very quickly and efficiently. If you can, use CamStudio to capture the session so you can replay it for yourself or others if they need "convincing" of the system's capability.
4. I understand, and you are not alone. I "bucked the establishment" and bought v23 against all the criticism, and am SO happy I did. My understanding is that v23 is WAY different than any previous version (yes, v22 was supposedly similar, but apparently a VERY poor product offering, and it truly sounds like they "screwed" over the people who bought v22 - BAD business move!). Again, IMO, BobCAM is much more user friendly than v23, as it is used "natively" in SolidWorks. One more thing, if you update the SolidWorks model/design tree, the CAM profiles will automatically change as well. This was not possible in v23. Of course this is "within reason", if you delete a feature, I am not sure what the CAM features associated with it would do...
5. Doesn't matter to me, but would be nice to see.

One final thing, you can only use software licenses with BobCAM (or at least that was the only way when I got it), so you are basically tied to one seat per computer, or unauthorizing/reauthorizing if you want to move it around, and this is a PITA. I do hope I can eventually move it to my dongle, as that makes it WAY more portable, but I was told SW would not let them do that (at least for now).