Re: Bobcad 17 Review

Fred,

Sorry if I stepped on some toes here. I said at the outset that I'm a
novice when it comes to these things. I was aware of Vector, but last time
I looked, there was no readily available download available (you had to
request it I believe) and the price was a lot higher than the $375 I paid
for Bobcad 17 (with a mill purchase) or even the $495 for Bobcad
16. Further, Bobcad has received a lot of positive comments here (and
elsewhere). I've seen less info on Vector. I considered Vector to be a
more expensive product, but I can see now it's competitive pricewise with
Bobcad (at least with the special offers, at $1995 list it's still a lot
more expensive).

I'd further like to point out that I've had no problem getting support from
the San Jose Bobcad folks. I haven't asked them any tricky machining
questions, but I got right through to a helpful person first try. I also
have yet to encounter any bugs in Bobcad but it wouldn't surprise me if
there are some.

My first project is a relatively simple 2D panel with a few dozen or so
openings of various shapes and sizes. It's not rocket science, but it does
have to hold tight tolerances. I first drew it up in Quickcad and became
frustrated with the difficulty in placing things with the precision I
needed. I tried to be clear that I hadn't used the 3D capabilities in Bobcad.

It doesn't surprise me Vector has some advantages over Bobcad. I suspect,
Bobcad also has a few advantages over Vector. I wasn't aware of the
special offers to members of this list, or I probably would have taken the
time to get a demo copy.

For me, Bobcad is vastly superior to the combination of Quickcad and the
various DXF to G-code conversion utilities I've tried. That was the main
point of my original post. I was just trying to be helpful to other
novices but I guess I should keep my mouth shut until I learn more about
these things.

Mike