BobCAD v24 is there anything better for £150? Any help will be great thanks

[suesi34e]

Hi Musht,

I am sorry, I was getting Meshcam confused with another CAM package that is why I thought BobCAD could be easier to learn. Now I am looking a at YouTube videos of Meshcam it looks simple as far as CAM packages go. I did just the same thing the other day with two place names!

Many thanks

Suesi

[GEOFFREY]

[QUOTEI did just the same thing the other day with two place names!

Many thanks

Suesi[/QUOTE]

It only gets worse!!! G.

[Musht]

Theres a lot of SomethingCAM packages about, its not easy not to get confused ;-)

CamBAM also offers a free trial and works very well for 2D, cutting things out of a flat plane.

Personally found Meshcam easier for 3D cutting and harder for 2D cutting, then the Vectric 2D module seems popular here....

Try the free trials of things and see which you feel most comfortable with.

It`s the one that gets the object off the screen and into your hand that wins :-)

[Robin Hewitt]

It`s the one that gets the object off the screen and into your hand that wins :-)

There is also the consideration about whether it cuts like a router in a series of parallel passes or like a CNC mill following water lines

I did write an instant gratification program once, I gave it a shape and it gave me a tool path, I then tweaked the parameters to make it credible. It was buggy but I think it is the way forwards, it should not be difficult to get a tool path, you shouldn't have to understand everything before you can see if it works for you.

[suesi34e]

Hi GEOFFREY,

It only gets worse, I hope not! I am not sure I should be let loose on CNC machines!

S

[suesi34e]

I think what you say about trying the CAM packages is very wise that is what I will do next, then I will decide.

Many thanks

S

[suesi34e]

Thanks for your reply Robin, I will see what I come up with!

All the best

S

[Ger21]

Meshcam is really a CAM program in that it dosen`t have any drawing facilities internally, need to upgrade to Meshcam Art for some CAD functionallity integrated.

MeshCAM ART does NOT give you ANY CAD capabilities. It allows you to import colored bitmaps and assign heights to the different colors, and blend and smooth them. It takes a considerable amount of skill to create quality work with this method, and even then it's main use it for artistic type carvings.

I am sorry, I was getting Meshcam confused with another CAM package that is why I thought BobCAD could be easier to learn.

Imo, BobCAD is probably one of the most difficult CAD/CAM programs to learn. A see many of it's users trying to justify the difficult learning curve and quirky functionality because it's cheap and powerful.