[KevinWilkins]

Has anyone used the version of Esprit bundled with Haas machines? I would be using it with a TM-1 without a tool changer and was wondering if it's good for 2D - 2 1/2D milling. I searched the forum but came up with nothing. Thanks for any information!

[marto74]

Hi,
We have TRM-1 and we did received this 2 1/2 d esprit.
It's now somwhere in the desk of one of our cnc programers.
We did not even tried it , because I did tested Esprit a few years ago and it was poor product for the jobs that I do.
We are working with MCAM , EDGECAM, Sagawire etc....

Regards: MArtin

[KevinWilkins]

I've been working with the deom versin of Esprit 2005 and it seems to be a pretty powerful program. Of course I cant output an NC program to see what's there, but once I got the hang of it, I can get things to work pretty well.

I've tried MasterCam and despite it's clunky old interface the program is straight forward... costs extra money though that's why I hope I can get on with the Esprit Bundle until I make some money! Maybe I'll even stay with Esprit?

[ghyman]

I've used Esprit since way back when it was called Vantage. It started out as a very powerful system; it had to run on a Unix system, or at least a unix platform (Xwindows, etc.). As they became more popular, they still kept their original interface, but still required a powerful platform (NT, not 9x). About 5 years ago, they came out with a totally redesigned Windows look-and-feel interface. Unfortunately, they took a giant step backwards as far as functionality and performance. Not only was the entire system buggy and unstable, but they lost a LOT of the features that had made it the powerhouse it was.
After the initial release, they've done a lot of bug fixes and have implemented some better features, but they are nowhere near as good as "back in the day".

As far as simple milling, they've usually been pretty good with most 2/2.5 axis contouring, but the cutting conditions (lead in / lead out / approach / retract) screens take for freaking EVER to get through! It's a trade off between "having control" and "having time for lunch".

If you can trade down to an older (Esprit-X) version, I'd do that. Unless you need 4 and 5 axis contour milling capability, the old Esprit can't be beat.

[KevinWilkins]

Thanks for your input! I only need CAM program for 2 1/2 D milling. Esprit in an abreviated version is bundled with the Hass TM-1 I'm planning on buying. I've tried MasterCam and like it, but it will cost about $3000-$4000 extra. The Esprit 2005 demo I have been using seems to work very well for what I have in mind: countouring, boring and slitting 6al4v titanium. I don't think there's any way to trade down. They hand you a CD with the machine and no support. An upgrade to the full Esprit is about $3000, but I hope to get buy on the bundled version for a while. I'm wondering if the bundled version is realy workable. If not I might as well plan on buying MasterCam and stop wasting time before I buy the machine learning Esprit. I hope to be up on and running on the demo of whatever CAM program I use by the time the machine is delivered. But as a one man shop, I have limited budget. $5000 for softare is a lot of money for me.

[deanrach]

We have 13 seats (educational) of ESPRIT 2005 at the Community College. It's an all-a-around great product. I have 12+ years experience with SURFCAM and was reluctant to make the change to ESPRIT. I have been an ESPRIT user for under 2 years - the software is intuitive and easy to learn. There is no "magic bullet", which means ther is no perfect product ............. If I had to make the CAM software purchase decision all over again, ESPRIT hands-down!

[MrMudd]

Are you refering to the HAAS Quickcode (ESPIRIT)?

HAAS has this availabl e for download on the website.

Send in the fax generated and they will fax you a registry key.