Anyone here ever use BobCAD?

Boswell said:
Yes, please do.
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I'm sorry I use the wrong statement. I converted my student Lic to use in my hobby shop at home. It was offered to the students at a big discount then, that has been a while ago, I don't even know if they still offer this or no. I also got the Solid Cam with it they work great. It's like I said BobCAD/CAM. Is great if you have a lot experience with it, but a hobby shop at home forget it, it's just like BButcher says above "Awkward" is being kind. It was a waste of money for me.
CH
 
I have BobCAD/CAM v.26. I went through the tutorials only to have to send them 4 pages of glitches with the tutorials. Never received a response. I will say their tech support is good, but you almost have to buy the support to be satisfied with the program. I use it, but I'm sure there are other programs out there that work with less frustration.
 
medlin6 said:
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I used it when using 3 axis Prototrac every thing I ran on Prototracwent thru BobCad
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???!!!

I'm trying to help a fella learn to CNC on his Prototrac by email... I'm good at CNC but have never touched a Prototrac. Are you willing to mentor? Please PM me.

Karl
 
Karl_T said:
???!!!

I'm trying to help a fella learn to CNC on his Prototrac by email... I'm good at CNC but have never touched a Prototrac. Are you willing to mentor? Please PM me.

Karl
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Karl, that sounds like a painful endeavor. ;)
 
I'm been using BobCad for 10 years. I only run this on a CNC plasma table but still use sheet cam to generate the g-code. It can be a PITA at times when drawing a part, but then again, I don't use it on a daily basis so I'm rusty.
 
I think a person needs to decide what level of machining they intend to do before they purchase any software
if you just going to do 2.5 one off hobby projects most of Bobcads features will never be used and the learning curve
can be challenging. just this month I downloaded v27 for another look because I wanted more 4th axis mill features.
to learn enough about what i was looking for the software to do required learning everything about the software and I burnt out in
the drawing part again. my total investment in cad and cam software for everything I build is still under $100.00
keep in mind I'm hobby not a shop
I use emachineshop it's free for cad, and D2nc for cam software it is $79.00
granted it wont do everything but when the rare occasion comes up that I require something extra I have yet to not find a work around.
the more you learn about g-code and different machine setups the more you can see different ways of doing the same job.
Bobcad still calls me constantly and Dolphin calls about every three months.
Steve
 
I am getting reasonably good with the CAM part of Bobcad. I do not ever see using the CAD part. It is ok if you just want to draw a circle or a line but way too much work to learn their way of doing things for complex parts. Again CAM = OK ; CAD = Not OK. At least for me.
 
I have never used the BobCad product, but do use BobCam for Solidworks at home. I bought BobCam ver 3 (Std. 3-axis ) about a year ago, and am running it under SW 2014-std.
It also came with Predator Editor (limited capability) for transferring files to the machine. So far it works good, I had to do a LOT of trial and error tweaking with the POST file to get it working with my Dynapath controls. I was able to get it for a relatively good price after dickering with them, about $600 with the video library included. Install support is included for something like 45 days from purchase, too bad I waited six months before installing..Dohh!
 
This reply is a year late. I bought bobcad/cam 3axis with turning last year and hadn't a chance to reply to this thread before checking it out. IMOH just a waste of ~ 1k$. You get 90 days support. Assurances that you need no yearly renewal, yet after your 90 days you don't get bug fixes..NADA you have to buy a new support contract. http://bobcad.com/support/advantage-plans/?source=Advantage_Plan_TOPNAV for current pricing. It's not bad for the money if it works but if you buy it and get an update on day 87 that breaks it your on your own. I wish I hadn't bought it as I still do work as I did before. Which is hand written canned cycles for turning and anything to export to meshcam.

Steve
 
Maybe you should look into AutoDesk's Fusion360? It has HSMWorks CAM built into it. Free until you gross more than $100k per year (honor system).
 
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