Quote:
Originally Posted by teslalab2
Solidworks, Mach3 CNC,.NET, I mean you got your open source knock offs in linux, but lets be honest with out selfs, productivity wise, they suck. You don't have time too make excuses, it just needs too work. That is why no one in industry uses linux.
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I guess it depends on your interests:
I have plenty of Mach3 and plenty of LinuxCNC.
I think the LinuxCNC is far more powerful in closed loop.
I also think the LinuxCNC community has far greater number of highly competent developers who can program FPGA to assist with closed loop.
.NET is also a hand hold. I mean I think it is great Microsoft finally delivered on the libraries you had to buy by the truckload with VB6. However even Microsoft realized they can not ignore Linux hence Mono.
Solidworks is good. I run it all the time on a Windows VM on Linux or OSX. I also own a license for Rhino which I helped beta on OSX.
If your shop thrives on mere turn key production I can see why you would want it to just work. My shop thrives on innovation so I want to know how and why it works such that I can completely tune my process. I have always made money by being the guy that could do what the bulk repeat people will not.
I mean let's take that a step further:
Why use Mach3 at all? Haas makes great controls. Spend the $30k and skip the retrofit entirely. Use AutoDesk Fusion 360 and HSMWorks so you can leverage someone else's infrastructure. Now you can skip all the CNC/CAD/CAM engineering and relinquish your cash in exchange for the time to focus on the projects. I assume, of course, you have projects that pay enough to cover these costs and up keep.
In reality no body I know in industry that has paying work of complexity enough to cover the CNC/CAD/CAM work bothers with building controls at all. The industrial guys that do dabble with building controls either have limited operating costs or custom needs. A good place for them to start is probably Windows. Sooner or later all the industrial guys I know that are serious either worked till they could buy the integrated controls or ended up on Linux when their needs became closed loop and their systems got custom enough. One of these guys I know is actually doing all this from his wheel chair with limited ability to control his movement so able bodied people we have no excuse.