[grebber]

I just got 3 axis milling v27 bobcad from work. Is there aNY point in getting sprutcam now? Do I have a choice to not buy it?
We used autosketch for a lot of layouts at work and now we are starting to use bobcad v27 as well with our new mills. Since I got these for free, should I even bother with sprut?

[pickled]

Until you find the limitations of your bobcad vs. what you want to make why would you spend the $ on Sprut? Sprut does EVERYTHING that I need, but I also own 2 other CAM packages just because they are much quicker at certain operations/set-ups. If I were you I would focus on learning a single software and then demo a few if your needs still aren't met. Sprut's tutorials are so much nicer now than they were back in the day and there are actually enough regular users that one can ask others for help. Seven years ago this wasn't so much the case and it was PAINFUL to learn in a vacuum. FYI- for the money it is hard to beat the Vectric cut 2D and cut 3D packages and they are freely available to demo. Good luck!

[grebber]

Until you find the limitations of your bobcad vs. what you want to make why would you spend the $ on Sprut? Sprut does EVERYTHING that I need, but I also own 2 other CAM packages just because they are much quicker at certain operations/set-ups. If I were you I would focus on learning a single software and then demo a few if your needs still aren't met. Sprut's tutorials are so much nicer now than they were back in the day and there are actually enough regular users that one can ask others for help. Seven years ago this wasn't so much the case and it was PAINFUL to learn in a vacuum. FYI- for the money it is hard to beat the Vectric cut 2D and cut 3D packages and they are freely available to demo. Good luck!

I just didn't know if it was a good idea to have sprut since it is what would normally comes with a tormach.
I was under the assumption that bobcad_cam would be plenty powerful enough.

[SomeWhatLost]

yea, what pickled said...
unless you really like writing g-code by hand, you need at least one CAM software...
but does that need to be sprut? no...
you may want to try sprut and see if you like it better than what you have... but then, you may also want to try any of the other billions of CAM software out there to see if you like them better...

[mountaindew]

I just got 3axes milling v27 bobcad from work. Is there aNY point in getting sprutcam now? Do I have a choice to not buy it?
We used autosketch for a lot of layouts at work and now we are starting to use bobcad v27 as well with our new mills. Since I got these for free, should I even bother with sprut?

Answer to questions above No and yes!
I would learn whatever my employer uses. Imho these are tools and in many cases up to user to get the most out of them. From a employee point of view I would work towards one of my favorite lines. "know more about it then anyone else and they put you in charge" In this case master the cam software used at work and sooner or later you will be a very valuable asset to the company. At same time if you also have your own tools at home that are driven by same software that's a added benefit. Also as pickled mentions you can add to your tool box over time. There is always something new or more focused on certain types of operations that make that cam tool more productive or powerful.
Ditto on the Good luck!
md

[pickled]

I just didn't know if it was a good idea to have sprut since it is what would normally comes with a tormach.
I was under the assumption that bobcad_cam would be plenty powerful enough.

You know I have never used bobcad so I can't talk about what it does or doesn't do. If it supports true 3 axis work you should be good for almost anything that you can throw at it. Sprut enabled me (with sweat equity in learning) to perform 4th axis work and that was what closed the sale. To be honest you will probably find that most of what you do is 2.5 axis minus that one time where you REALLY need the 3rd axis simultaneously driven. When you need it you NEED it LOL. The great thing is that once you learn the workflow, best strategy and management of tools/speeds and feeds jumping around in CAM packages gets much easier. When I first started I almost literally asked, "Who the hell is this Cam guy?". I was coding manually and didn't know that there was an affordable way to generate operations. My my have things evolved and the future looks very bright for all of us.

[grebber]

You know I have never used bobcad so I can't talk about what it does or doesn't do. If it supports true 3 axis work you should be good for almost anything that you can throw at it. Sprut enabled me (with sweat equity in learning) to perform 4th axis work and that was what closed the sale. To be honest you will probably find that most of what you do is 2.5 axis minus that one time where you REALLY need the 3rd axis simultaneously driven. When you need it you NEED it LOL. The great thing is that once you learn the workflow, best strategy and management of tools/speeds and feeds jumping around in CAM packages gets much easier. When I first started I almost literally asked, "Who the hell is this Cam guy?". I was coding manually and didn't know that there was an affordable way to generate operations. My my have things evolved and the future looks very bright for all of us.

I totally get where you are coming from. I have manually coded the lathes at work for 20 years. (Fanuc series 18-t on most) We just now are starting to use cad cam (just on our new mills so far). It's all new and kind of exciting. Plus the more I know the more valuable I am as someone else mentioned.

[phoneman]

I own a 770 and SprutCAM9. I have discovered the benefits of having the 4th axis. I can machine on 3 sides of a part without changing the setup. Then by rotating my part in the fixture I can machine on 2 more sides so 5 sides total.

Dave

[CadRhino]

Nice part and fixture, Dave
I am a sprutcam user and I use the 4th axis component quite a bit too.
Sprutcam is pretty cheap for all of its features. There are some bugs and quirks but I have always found a work around.

I own a 770 and SprutCAM9. I have discovered the benefits of having the 4th axis. I can machine on 3 sides of a part without changing the setup. Then by rotating my part in the fixture I can machine on 2 more sides so 5 sides total.

Dave

[grebber]

I own a 770 and SprutCAM9. I have discovered the benefits of having the 4th axis. I can machine on 3 sides of a part without changing the setup. Then by rotating my part in the fixture I can machine on 2 more sides so 5 sides total.

Dave

Very nice work dave