[Trotline]

I want to see the return of the Flying Wedge. It's the only thing I can think of that would make football even better than being from Alabama.

Luke

[majsteve]

I hope you're experienced with BoBCAD/CAM. I'm not and I was trying to go through the tutorials and wound up spending more type typing up bug reports/errors in the documentation and other things that I never really got the basics of the program. If you go through the tutorial files like I did, you'll be VERY frustrated since just about every topic seems to have an error of some kind. Written over 4 text pages of bug reports to them and have had no reply, except for customer satisfaction surveys. What do you think THOSE are going to show from me?

Evidently, the just cut and pasted old manuals together without walking them through the steps. I'm received my letter offering me unlimited live tech support, and I might just buy it so I can keep their employees on the phone for hours and hours till I get the satisfaction of costing them more in labor than I paid for the programs and tech support.

[mmoe]

I hope you're experienced with BoBCAD/CAM. I'm not and I was trying to go through the tutorials and wound up spending more type typing up bug reports/errors in the documentation and other things that I never really got the basics of the program. If you go through the tutorial files like I did, you'll be VERY frustrated since just about every topic seems to have an error of some kind. Written over 4 text pages of bug reports to them and have had no reply, except for customer satisfaction surveys. What do you think THOSE are going to show from me?

Evidently, the just cut and pasted old manuals together without walking them through the steps. I'm received my letter offering me unlimited live tech support, and I might just buy it so I can keep their employees on the phone for hours and hours till I get the satisfaction of costing them more in labor than I paid for the programs and tech support.

Do you even own Bobcad? You just posted a recommendation for Meshcam in the Bobcad forums where you professed that you don't need all the bells and whistles, so which is it?

If you have Bobcad and don't understand something, feel free to post a question in the forums and you'll get an answer in no time. This is probably the most active software forum on CNCzone and the level of support that fellow users provide is invaluable. Personally, I've been through most of the tutorials and was able to figure them out with very little frustration. It normally takes me about the same amount of time to generate toolpaths in Bobcad as it does in Meshcam, and I can tell you that I am extremely familiar with Meshcam and have run parts on it that you probably couldn't imagine in terms of size. Bobcad is not any more difficult to use than Meshcam, but it does have more required information to generate toolpaths because they can be more specific to a given application. Once you know the system, it's very efficient at gathering the needed information to do things that Meshcam simply can't. If Meshcam could, it would no longer be easy to use, because more decisions would have to be made by the user, which requires more knowledge to understand the implications of those decisions.

More capability requires more time investment to learn, but returns greater flexibility and control. Less capability makes ease of use more achievable, but at the cost of flexibility and control. While the initial time required to learn Bobcad will greatly exceed that of Meshcam, once they are both understood to the same level, the amount of time required to produce toolpaths becomes very similar. It takes 3-5 minutes to generate a toolpath in both Bobcad or Meshcam where they could both accomplish the same task. For more complex toolpaths, it takes longer than that in Bobcad, but infinitely longer in Meshcam because Meshcam can't do the same things and may never achieve the desired result at all. When it comes to pure processing power on simple toolpaths, Meshcam absolutely beats anything else at any price level due to the fantastic multi-core hyperthreading code that it was written in. I have personally maxed out all 8 cores of my workstation at 100% as well as 98% of my available memory for up to 8 hours straight, which is simply astonishing (may have even damaged my CPU in the process as it's been buggy ever since as load increases, so might have to switch to Xeon processors).

I would recommend watching the video tutorials and following them over using any printed tutorial at this point, they are much easier to follow and you can see the actual steps as they go, so you know it's possible to do the same things. There are many available free video tutorials on Youtube, and most users seem to be able to get up to speed in relatively little time. If you put a couple weeks of evenings into Bobcad, you should be pretty fluent with it at that point. You can learn Meshcam in a couple evenings, but again it's a much less complex program because it offers much less, so comparing them in terms of learning curve is not really possible. If all you need to learn in Bobcad is the basic toolpaths, you can do that in a couple evenings as well.

[majsteve]

Yes, I bought the program, and yes I've watched all the tutorials, and yes I've tried to follow along with them, and NO, the program that I bought is evidently not the program that they are using for the tutorials since when I do the same click or move or whatever, a different result happens vs what's on the screen or nothing happens at all. And certainly not at the speed it does on the screen.

I agree that hacking around trying to make parts is the best way to learn, but I looked for something simple like making a spring - you can make a helix all you want, but don't bother looking up spring in the help file. It would seem that you would make a helix and then fatten it up, but there are no hints in the help file.

I'm not assuming anything, but did you do all the tutorials in the V26 package or just use your experience from earlier versions. I'm about to ask them to downgrade me for free if V25 works better.

[jrmach]

If you want a spring,MSC or McMasters has a bunch.

[BurrMan]

did you do all the tutorials in the V26 package or just use your experience from earlier versions. I'm about to ask them to downgrade me for free if V25 works better.

You seem to be fixated on finding some tutorial where the creator of it has a "button that says WRAP", and yours doesn't have that button.

You CAN find this, but is that a "bug"? There are many users of many versions. The interface "does" change over versions, and even "updates" as new functions and commands and toolpaths are added.

You COULD downgrade to V25, but then, would you want to complain that the tutorial video you just watched doesn't have "that DMS thing" you just saw on youtube.

If your actually a customer, looking to use the software, I think your heading down a misguided path right now.

[majsteve]

that's a great idea!

[majsteve]

I'm not fixated on finding errors like that, but I do want to know that the developers have taken the time to review the product before putting it out for sale. I say that the tutorials were cut and past because I see at least 3 different writing styles in it, which did work, but were obvious carry-overs from prior versions (which worked).

Honestly, if I can walk the tutorial in a day, then someone there should have been able to do the same and prevent these errors.

[BurrMan]

that's a great idea!

Just don't come back complaining about your V25....

[BurrMan]

I'm not fixated on finding errors like that, but I do want to know that the developers have taken the time to review the product before putting it out for sale. I say that the tutorials were cut and past because I see at least 3 different writing styles in it, which did work, but were obvious carry-overs from prior versions (which worked).

Honestly, if I can walk the tutorial in a day, then someone there should have been able to do the same and prevent these errors.

But you seem to think there is some huge error that has incapacitated you? See this post here about your error:

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/bobcad...ml#post1403924

So, clear that one (and probably a multitude of your pre-conceived expectations as errors on the list) off the list.

The splattering of this forum will get you no where.

[Big Chips]

okay just looked at the letter again and YES it does say SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE PROGRAM.

it goes on to say the annual subscription will guarantee all upgrades of my existing products the moment they are released.

[Big Chips]

okay talked to the sales rep and he said this was a letter for 4th axis and above....so i should not have received it..HOWEVER the 3axis subscription plans are coming very soon

[SBC Cycle]

I think I got the call for the 3axis subscription today. I want to make clear that I did not take the call so I can't repeat word for word what was said. That's why I want to clear something up.

It was implied to the person that took the call that in order to continue to receive updates to the software we would have to move to a support/subscription plan of some kind or another. I'm not saying that was what was said, I'm saying that was how it came off to the person getting the sales pitch.

Choosing my words carefully here, it should be obvious exactly what BobCAD is selling to the person receiving the call. It was not clear to us what they were offering in the phone call.