Re:VectorCad opinions/ overall gripe (long)

Carol & Jerry Jankura wrote:

>>I've yet to see a program that has NO shortcomings.<<<

Jerry,
You strike a point with me that just grinds me to no end. Obviously, you too have come across certain Cad apps that come so stinking close to what you want them to be, but they for some reason never
ever get to that level. You can send the e-mail, make suggestions, write lengthy documents indicating the advantages or disadvantages, but nothing comes from it.

Then on top of that, you find out that they decided to forget those basic things and start down a road towards the rediculous. For example:

Signlab. (a program that has shown me it can create toolpaths gobs faster than any of the Cam programs I have used especially when any text work is desired)

Instead of improving "control" of just a few little issues in the configurable "post" .ini's to make various machines respond better.... Instead of adding a few simple true "Cad" tools like Trimming
instead of "welding".... They go off and spend all their development money becoming a "web Host" for sign shops ! foooyeeee !

AutoSketch. An excellent under $100 answer to cad. Well, all except for a few simple little things that people have been reporting for more than 2 versions.

For one, They brilliantly installed a method for defining a "default snap set". Excellent ! But, when you turn off one snap at a time as you are drawing. There is NO WAY of turning the "default set"
back On !! ( well, I do it with a macro program)

Another issue is "line widths". Now they have generously given you over 50 line "styles". But, they give you only 5 line "widths" ! On top of that the consist of "tooooo big" or "tooooo small" !! So
users report it for over two years in AutoDesks own newsgroup which IS visited by a moderator. Did they fix it with the new version 8 release? No. They acted like no one ever complained about such a
problem.. Never heard such a thing..... !!! They threw the same old program ( with 12 super secret fixes according to an AD representative in the group) out as a NEW version. They did raise the
price, remove all printed documentation and slapped an approved for XP sticker on a new shiny print box. Whooopeee.


So while I am on my Rant, I want to mention something about Vector. I KNOW vector is the most bang for the buck out there. I KNOW it can be setup to do incredible things and I KNOW the support is
fantastic.

But, while they are concerning themselves with "Nurbs" and such, What about some of the basic common sence things for a 32 bit program. User configurable tool bars perhaps ??? >> Draw - Other -
Offset >>> Too Deep !!

In the same vein of thought, One should not have to "Draw" Contour for a toolpath. When you want to creat a toolpath around the perimeter of a drawn part, you should be able to select a Contour
tooling option that Opens a dialog box very similar to the pocketing one. Enter in stock to leave, Tool radius or diameter and also you z depths and passes. This is plain and simple. I sure hope
Vector fixes such items as I would regard as common sense.

If I could have a Cad/Cam ultimate, it would consist of the following applications and their techniques:

Corel Draw-
Who can deny the usefullness of good old Corel ? Corel techniques let you do the Artsy Fartsy editing you need to do if you are going to do anything related to signage and images. Others try as they
may, but they never get to the point Corel lets you take an Vector Image.

SignLab-
Signlabs techniques for actually engraving, routing or machining Text is still not matched by most Cad/Cam apps even though they are toughted as capable. Sure some can do it, but in how many steps ?
In S-Lab, you type some text, put it where you want, drag a box around the whole shebang and select what type of toolpath you want. Male, female, online or pocket. It does it. Raised text just by
defining an overall outside dimension, combining them all and kerpow. Done deal. Toolpath is generated in split seconds once tooling, speeds and feeds are defined.

AutoSketch-
Sketch has enough drawing options that one does not need to spend anymore than its price for really good 2d Cad. Its been said before, If you use A-CadLt.... you will not adapt to this program
easily. That does not make it bad. At the shop, here and there we would run our little "races" when the office handed us a paper drawing with dimensions scratched on it, that they wanted drawn. A
good "sketchie" has more often than not outrun those with the "other" apps. Well, all except Ashlar !

Ashlar-
If youv'e used it, you know how useful it is, and how above and beyond they "were". As of late, however, many more cad apps are using techniques they had 10 years ago. This could be due to
copyrights and such...

VectorCam-
Vector Cam has a really good routine for importing DXF files. Golly, I think this is the first program that I do NOT have to worry about "dupes" and other issues creeping in. Its "Reorganize"
function is an Awesome addition not found in other apps. Just let me make the "buttons" do what I want and where I want them !

Surfcam-
I could be dreaming here, but, This is the bigger dollar one I spent the most time in.

It draws like junk ( cadkey-ish), Ok, not like junk, just painfully slow with having to grab basic commands over and over and over...... Add to that the newer versions drawing tools as displayed
along the top keep moving around all the time ! You start to feel like it is some arcade game and you are chasing buttons like little animals with a gun !

Anyhow, Surfcams CAM end is very nice. Toolpaths are relatively dependable ( not for text work however -stupid "explode" methods...) and all of the "setup" goodies you could ever want are there in
the followup windows for feeds, speeds and plunge techniques.

On top of that, their Toolpath "management" window/display is excellent. Rename, Re-work, reorganize, retool, gee, do what you want here before creating code. It does take longer to get code with
this technique though....and I will add that Signlab creates code hands down faster than most I've dealt with.

The above really only covers 2, 2-1/2 d methods.

Ok, ending Rant now. If I was ever smart enough to write an application for Cad/Cam ( i'm not ), I would FIRST order up every Demo I could find to extract the good things others use, then rely
heavily on users input. I would refrain from moving to step 5 if I did not get step 2 finished.

Know what i mean ??? Will we ever see an Ultimate program ???

Chris L