Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] FeatureCAM?

Hi Tim:
Yep, I've used it.
Version 4.0 back in 1999.
Designed to be very simple to get running.
Quite powerful too...not as good as Master-scam but pretty good nonetheless.
Has some annoying quirks that they haven't gotten rid of , and very
cumbersome to do drawings in.
No selection filter to speak of and a 3D co-ordinate system that looks like
it was swiped straight from Auto-crap...ie counterintuitive and hard to use.
But to be fair, it was designed for use by machinists who are intimidated by
CNC and want to get cutting as simply as possible.
Those kinds of machinists rarely do complex 3D surfacing and wouldn't likely
be developing complex 3D geometry to make it happen.
It is very quick to learn...about half a day and you're cutting
parts...Master-scam took 3 weeks and a hefty book to learn to the same level
of ability.
I find my biggest complaint is that it wants to default all the time to the
standard settings; that includes the tool selection and feeds & speeds.
I spent more time editing these settings than I would have done picking them
from scratch.
Of course, this is ideal for a machinist who doesn't want to be bothered
making these decisions himself, but it's a real pain when they re-set
themselves after you edit something else.
Version 4.0 also had one really terrible quirk...it liked some post
processors much better than others.
On my Defiance with the Bridgeport DX32 control...never a hiccup.
On the Milltronics with a Centurion control it would occasionally create a
360 degree arc when it was only supposed to create a 90 degree arc.
It would wait until the cutter was an inch into the part before it went
nuts..so I scrapped a few parts before I learned to always simulate the
toolpath in the control if it was going to go on the Milltronics.
It only did it sometimes and I never did figure out why.
All in all, it's good introductory software, but it's pretty easy to
outgrow.
Cheers

Marcus