Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Visual Mill vs Visual Mill Basic questions

Hello Peter and Keith,

You are continuing the good recommendations I'm getting from people for the Visual Mill products. One of the guys on my mc-chassis-design list has used the full version of VM since 1.0 (switching from other products he wasn't happy with), and he's paid for every upgrade since and has not regretted spending a dime of it.

He and some of the others who use VM on that list are also quite pleased with Rhino3D for doing the CAD work, and they like the close interaction between the two programs. Having the two programming teams communicating with each other sounds like quite a good setup to me, as I'm well aware of problems that can occur in getting one program to output something that another program can use (I'm a systems administrator in my day job).

I exchanged a couple of messages with Richard from the other list last night, and since he's another high performance bike/gear head he's familiar with the types of things I'd eventually like to try doing, and his recommendation was to go with the full VM package instead of the Basic version.

I'm not sure at this point how many of those extra features would prove to be worthwhile (I did order my copy of Smid's CNC book this morning and should see that delivered tomorrow so I can start studying), but my preference is usually to spend some extra money and buy a bit more than I think I'm likely to need, since I've run into the "darn, I wish I'd bought the next bigger one" situation in the past.

I'd hate to get Basic and later decide that I need to upgrade (got to get a mill sorted first though) to the full package. I also see a possibility that buying the full version might give enough extra features that would eliminate buying Basic and then the next couple of upgrades to it as they come out, though I don't have enough information at this time to tell if that scenario is probable.

But for now I need to continue accumulating data on doing the mill conversion, practice with the evaluation copy of Rhino3D, and see what develops in the near future. At this time some sort of a Rhino/VM combo is looking like a good way to go.

(I just saw Robert's comment about the Basic->full upgrade path, and if there isn't a big hit doing that then getting Basic and using it until I have a need for the full package is sounding like a good plan, especially as that frees up a lot of money that can go towards hardware).
cheers,
Michael