Re: Software Costs - long

> Well my main beef is that people are trying to tell me $300 is

cheap

> when to me that is not cheap.
>
> As to software costs
>
> I use TurboCad for CAD
> Intend using Master 5 for Control.
>
> If I pay 300$ for CAM then that puts the total cost around 500$.
>
> Question: Why is CAM so much more expensive than CAD or CNC control
> is it really that much more complicated that people need to charge

3

> times the cost

I think the part you are missing is the cost to develop, spread over
the number of potential users.

Many of hobbyist will spend weeks, months, years doing something then
try to sell it. There is no possible way to recover 1,000 hours
invested when selling to three people. What is your time worth per
hour ?

Some of the software people have 'real' jobs as they cannot live on
sales alone. and you want them to live on less?

The Eagle example. Do you know how much a full version of Eagle
costs ? I'm talking all three modules. at close to $400 per module.

The reason they are still around is that there are thousands and
thousands of users. In CNC you have dozens or hundreds and they are
all using free or cheap to get started and once they buy software and
can sell their service, the shop rate is like $50.00 and hour for
CHEAP labor rates. so they can afford, no require fast, simple and
non-buggy software. That means someone went over it with a fine
tooth comb.

Also, the g-code to movement is simple and straight forward. how
many pulses on each axis. turning on a few switches. very simple
stuff. that is why there are so many people doing that part. Making
it into a marketable software is much harder as the goals are
different.

CAD is simple. Basically a spreadsheet with a graphical overlay.
all it needs to do is plot points.

3-d cad is more work, not terribly harder, but fewer people want and
need that.

Now, to take a cad drawing and solid model is lots more work. and
lots less people need that.

now exporting that into a CAM package. only a handful of people need
that. The less people need or want it, the more it costs.

And understand also that software is not like hardware. you always
pay list price. your steppers new would be about $200 each or more.
your drivers are $30 to $130 each so you can easily spend $1,000 for
the pwr supply/motors/drivers.

Linear rails and ball screws are not cheap, again you could easily
spend $1,000 for those and you still don't have a machine.

This is not a cheap hobby. Ask yourself what you really need or
want. are you going to be selling your goods ? hot foam model
aircraft wings on E-bay go for $150 or so. the guy might be making
$50.00 after all the costs. that's 10 sales a year to cover
everything. 20 sales and he would see that spending another $600.00
on software could cut his programming time into 1/10 and he could
make 30 units.

DO the manual programming for your project. it may take some extra
time, but it is free and you get satisfaction of being independent.

Also, once you realize how simple most g-code programs are, you
realize that the converter is not always needed.

In the 2 local shops that do my machining work, one does the
fixtures I can't, the other does the screw machine work for hundreds
of parts cheaper than I could do them. BOTH do all g-code by hand.
and one does military work, huge titanium shells that jet fighters
have around the gauges in the cockpit. look at an airplane panel
then think of the whole thing, frame, housing faceplate, from a
single piece. all g-code by hand.

If you checked out Rainnea's movie clip you'll see a neat application
for software, and if you think about it, it is worth big money.

A thing that not many people understand is that of the guys on the
list, and I believe that we are probably representative of the hobby
industry, only a few use the converters and then most of those do not
use it all the time.

it would make an interesting poll.

If I rambled, sorry.
if I went off topic, don't worry, I said my piece and will not post
on this topic again.

Dave