"Best" cam was Re: Quick and Dirty One-Offs?

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "ballendo" <ballendo@y...>
wrote:

> Bill,
>
> Once you decide to go the "money" route; you pretty much need to

find

> the program that "fits" the way YOU think things should be done.
> Nearly all the CAM systems these days do a good job at something;

and

> the better ones do a good job of more types of things. Price is
> definitely NOT the best indicator of value in the CAM market, IMO.
> But you do generally get more from spending more, once you move

into

> the kilobucks range... (which shouldn't be a problem if you're

gonna

> be making money with what yer buyin'. In business its cost vs.
> benefit; money vs. time.)
>
> It will be interesting to see what others say; because the question
> you have asked is kind of like "Who's the best football team?",
> or, "Who makes the best truck?". There's gonna be whole lot
> of "right" answers...
>
> So it comes back to you. What is important for YOUR projects? Which
> features are NECESSARY< and which are just "nice"? Which type of
> interface "feels" best to you? Which salesman seems to be telling

you

> the "truth" (in other words; who do ya wanna call when you have a
> problem?) notice I said WHEN, not if<G>
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Ballendo

See, now if you mentioned who made the best Hamburger, FatBurger
would be the simple answer.

But, like being able to KNOW that answer, one has to TRY a lot of
different versions.

This list is getting large enough that you should be able to find
someone local (whatever your definition of local is) to go get an
idea of how stuff works.

If you have contacts at local shops, you should be able to talk to
the operators. I have spent more than a few minutes talking to a
guy (with the boss's permission) while the machine is cutting and he
is waiting.

If you are just stating out, get Turbo-CNC from Dave K and code by
hand, and do some ACE conversions. you'll get a good feel for
setting up the machine without a lot of software in the way.

Then get Art's Master/Mach that suits your computer and you will
instantly get a feel for a lot of differences.

Less than $200.00 bux total for the training and both very useable
programs.

AND, you will KNOW what works, and what is a PITA to do. That way,
your questions will be much more refined, and he responses will be
much more meaningful when you talk to other software users.

Dave