RE: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Software Costs

This is a discussion that has come up many times. Just because it is for
a hobby and no money is being made does not mean that free or low cost
software has to be used. From having participated in this list for many
years what I see is that when many people start out they want to put
together a machine for as close to zero $$ as they can. They frequently
use free software and can not see themselves spending the price of even
the low cost packages. But as they start using the items they start
looking for more feature rich solutions and frequently will buy a
package like Vector or Dolphin or even Visual Mill. I think you would be
surprised at the number of hobby users that have spent $500 or more to
get good CAD CAM software.

This is an expensive hobby and good tools (both software and hardware)
are not cheap. But they make the user more productive and give a greatly
expanded ability. My suggestion from having use the free/low cost
solutions and using much more expensive solutions is to buy a good
CAD/CAM package right from the beginning. You will be using it a lot and
it will determine much of your capabilities.

Tim
[Denver, CO]
Sherline products at Deep Discount
Mach1 & DeskCNC with credit card ordering
www.KTMarketing.com/Sherline
Now selling Visual Mill

> -----Original Message-----
> I THINK you missed the point the man said "where no money is
> being made?"
> i.e. He finds Visual Mill 3.0 attractive because its free. I
> don't call over
> $300 for the home hobby shop doing desktop milling/routing
> CHEAP. In fact its
> very expensive. Can't speak for Andrew but my cash theshold
> for software is
> round the 100 UK pounds mark. i.e. 150 dollars maybe.
>
> FAQ: http://www.ktmarketing.com/faq.html