Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Recommended CAM software? - BobCad

> Is there anyone else on this forum that likes BobCAD??????????

I used v14-v17, did some pretty tough stuff with it - it took time, time,
and time. I used it in conjuction with AutoCAD v11, 13. Never used BobCAD's
support - it was a waste of time, IMO. Salespersons pesky.
But, if you could catch the programmer's intent, you could make it go.
At the time it was a great value. I will say that BobCAD required just about
perfect sequencing and geometry to work well, and that helped me hone clean
wireframing skills. The multitude of bugs to work around gave a lot of
insight into workarounds for other programs. It had lots of the quirks
peculiar to early CAD programs, for that matter.

I did prefer BobCAD's interface to Vector's.

As far as post processor, if you've been working with CAD/CAM, you should
have no problem creating one to fit, either in BobCAD or Vector.

Since I made the transition to native surface/solid modelling and machining
packages several years ago (OneCNC, VisualMill, IronCAD), you almost
couldn't pay me to use a wireframe package for 3D. Big difference in
capabilities. Sort of like beating your head against the wall, I guess - it
feels so good when you stop.

2D, it'll work great. 3D, it seems very limited for handling part models. If
you think of it's 3D toolpaths operating sort of as a ram EDM does, you've
got what most can reasonably expect it to do - a section or patch of the
model at a time.

- Keith

FYI, Some things that really made things go in BobCAD v17 were:
WinNT to recover from crashes. Win95? You were doomed. :)
Watching to ensure equal path and section counts,
Color and layer coding of paths and sections, alternate white/red and
blue/green helped when keeping track of entities in a path/section.
Tie/match point locations at surface normals.
Use of the 'divide' tool to move a tie point up or down a path.
Using CAM generated paths (0 diameter tool, if I remember right) to get
those odd or spline wireframe fillet sections at machined surface normals.
Run it zig to get one quadrant of a corner fillet, zag to get the other.
Grab the curve you want, copy to clipboard, undo back to before the 'skin'
tool to get rid of unwanted stuff, then paste the curve back in from the
clipboard.

(if you didn't get the 'normals' matched, you'd get either an jagged
overshoot/gouge, or a toolpath that didn't completely come to the fillet
edges)


Note that a surface normal as I use it here is a vector perpendicular to a
point or edge of a surface. No doubt a better definition is out there, but
not handy to me at the moment.