[sortafast]

I think I have settled in on one of these programs. Seems to be a pretty good bang for the buck all things considered and either version should fit my needs for 3D design work. The question becomes, is it worth it to spend the extra for the Pro over the $99 2d/3d? I am just needing to design some simple 3D parts to run on my mill. Most of the parts will have little to no profiling work needed and will be relatively simple. Mostly 2.5D type stuff just to speed up production. I just need a 3d program so that I can dump drawings into CamBam to get some code going. Anyone have thoughts on this?

[TOTALLYRC]

I have been using Viacad since version 6? I think. I have not yet found the need to go pro.

Mike

[sortafast]

I have been using Viacad since version 6? I think. I have not yet found the need to go pro.

Mike

I think I may have found the first limitation to the 2D/3D last night. I was trying to blend an edge of an extrusion that was basically an angle (around 120°) with a radius in there to get rid of the sharp inside corner. The blending tool informed me that it was "too complex" in the 2d/3d, but when I tried the same op in the pro it went just fine :/

[mmoe]

I've just recently purchased the 2d/3d version just to have a look at it, as it was on sale through Amazon and Fry's did a price match on a boxed version locally at $33.55 (plus tax). I expected the software to reflect the price, but the box specifications and the way the user interface looked was tempting enough that at that price I couldn't pass it up. I've been very pleasantly surprised and have modeled some parts that I used to find difficult with much greater ease.

From my rather limited experience, I've found the blend to work in places that other software simply will not allow you to create fillets or radius/chamfered corners, and find that to be one of the strengths of this software. A couple of thoughts, you may have had a radius too large for the geometry. I get that "too complex" message from time to time, but changing the radius to a smaller one usually eliminates the issue. Often, I've thought I set the radius to a desired value, only to find that it defaulted back after a failed attempt (due to the next possibility). Once you complete an action, it remembers the radius, but if you don't it seems that it goes back to the last one that was used (successfully) or the default which is like 10mm. The other possibility is that the component selected was different when you used pro vs. 2d/3d, meaning that sometimes there are two or three different ways you could select something, and if you happen to choose the wrong one it won't work. When possible, try selecting the same corner in a different way and see if you get different results. Remember to double check that the radius doesn't default back to a different value on a second attempt.

I think the main difference between pro and 2d/3d is the addition of a few additional surface tools which are probably invaluable for some and irrelevant for others (including surface analysis). The tools that are the same, such as the corner fillet/radius tool, should behave the same in both, so I suspect there was probably a slight difference in how that tool was implemented that made it successful in Pro and unsuccessful in 2d/3d. I think I'll be upgrading to Pro, but just for the surface analysis feature. From a modeling standpoint, the 2d/3d version has been enough for even very complex parts.

For what it's worth, you can get 2d/3d for $33.55 on Amazon right now, and if you chose to go with Pro, you could do an upgrade for another $129.99 on the Viacad website, making the total for Pro only $162.55. For that kind of money, I am stunned at how good this software is.

[sortafast]

I have been using both the pro and the 2d/3d trials at the same time. So far I am really impressed with it. I can draw parts I need pretty fast. It has good export features for moving files out for the CAM program. Its definitely a keeper. I wish I could do assemblies, or at least new how to, but that will come with time or with buying a different program once stuff is moving and I have more capital to do so with. But I am more than pleased with it. I bought the 2d/3d for like $44 or something from amazon as well. This was last week. Wish I would have waited a week now :/ oh well.

But my only issue now, is that I bought it for use on my Mac and the disc doesn't have (as far as I can tell) the .dmg files on it for my mac so I can't load it on my machine. I know my DVD drive doesn't want to work so I am going to try it in a different machine before I get too bent out of shape, but on my windows machine I have for drip feeding my mill (running XP) it says the only thing on the disc is the application file (viacad.exe or something like that) and an auto run file. Not sure if I am missing something here but whatever. I will get it sorted out soon enough I supposed. I just hope my free trials don't come up before then.

[mmoe]

The disc version should have both Mac and PC on there, but the PC will not be able to read the Mac file and probably won't even know it's there. When I insert the disc in my PC, it only reads that there are 2 files on the disc as well, autorun.inf and the .exe file, same as yours. I'm sure that both versions are on there, since they do make a point of it on the box.

One thing I noticed is that the license is for a single computer only, where some companies such as Adobe allow for installation on a desktop and a laptop of the same owner. I think that I'll be buying a second license for my laptop, but probably only one license of Pro to keep on my desktop since the 2d/3d version is really more than enough capability. At $33.55 per license, it seems like it would be silly not to just have it on every computer I own. I think that for the long haul, this seems like good software to invest in not only from a usefulness perspective, but also a financial investment perspective. The upgrade fees are reasonable, and they allow you to upgrade from ANY previous version, so you don't have to upgrade every time a new one comes out to stay on an upgrade path. When you have to invest time learning software, it's nice to know that you won't later need an upgrade, due to changes in operating systems or some other factor, only to find that they want you to pay full price because you missed a version or two.

[mmoe]

I guess that I should point out that it's for an Intel based Mac, though I'm sure you probably knew that already as well.

[sortafast]

yeah, I was wondering about the ability for the PC to read or even find the mac files. I kind of wonder if the disc is somehow partitioned or something as it says there is 0mb free, but there is only about 1gb used for the main program. I even went into the command prompt in XP to see if I could find anything in the DIR for the d: drive, but nothing but the windows files came up. I am going to try it on the inlaw's mac tonight and see what I can come up with (assuming there's has a dvd play in it and it can read it as well. Macs are notorious for having their optical drives fry even right away. About the only part about mac that I don't like. That and no one makes CAM and other machine related programs for them (although that is starting to change).

With the price drop, I wonder if they are going to be releasing V9 soon or something? If and when it comes out, I might just upgrade to pro then, or something. But I must say I really like this program for a beginner like me its great, it has the power to get stuff done that I need (fairly simple parts) and its easy to use. I used sketchup in the past for doing simple drawings for use on the manual mill and lathe and such. Its ok, but I never really liked it all that much. Then, about 2-3weeks ago I started learning and using Draftsight. Took about 2-3days to get upto speed there with the tutorials on youtube. ViaCAD took about the same amount of time to learn and get used to. But so far I am very much enjoying it and will probably use it for the foreseeable future. I am working pretty much in a closed loop by myself. I make a drawing, run it through CamBam, then feed it into my mill to make my parts for me. And ViaCAD seems to be getting the job done quite well. At this point I just need to learn how to utilize it better to become quicker and do make the program everything i want it to with my drawings.

[mmoe]

I was wondering the same thing about V9. I don't know when V8 came out, but it states on the box that it was "designed for Windows XP" and my experience is that it behaves like it was designed for Windows XP. There aren't really any problems with it in Windows 7, but it doesn't support the standard Windows 7 graphics and works like when you run something in compatibility mode, even though it doesn't require a compatibility mode. I would think that a true Windows 7 version would be in the works, and that may be why it's on sale right now. If you do the math, buying the software for $33.55 and then buying a $59 V9 upgrade later is about the same price as the full version normally wold be, so it makes sense that they are trying to perhaps entice new customers who may then upgrade to V9 without really loosing anything. Nothing makes people less happy than buying software at full price a month or two before the new version is released, so this would be a pricing move that would prevent such issues.

I used to use a Mac laptop back before the Intel chips, and loved having it. CAD was always a problem though, and the primary reason I went with a Windows laptop when I finally replaced the Mac. I've always used Windows as a desktop, but feel comfortable using either really. I think that there is a possibility that Mach 4 will support Macs, so you may see further inroads into Mac based machining. The real disconnect will probably be CAM software, but I'm sure someone will figure out that there is quite a large niche of people who would love to have a good Mac based CAM application.

[sortafast]

yeah, if i could get a mac compatible CAM and DNC program I would be very excited. Then I could get a mac laptop for the machining stuff. But alas I will probably have to just nut up and buy a windows laptop here soon. For now it will just be truffle shuffling files out of the mac and onto the windows computer. I may just try to get a mac laptop and try to run CamBam on a virtual machine, or dual boot it or something like that and see how it does. But I may just end up running windows as that is the cheapest bet with this stuff. I just hate all of the digital STD's windows computers tend to get.