CNC Tooling

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I evaluated BobCAD/CAM (along with half a dozen others) and I can't say I'd recommend it based on my 2 hour demo of it. The UI and workflow seems primitive and complex compared to some other software packages. Also, once contact is initiated, be prepared to deal with their relentless sales force. You're basically on their contact list for life at that point, and you'll hear from them at least twice a month.

We use BobCAD/CAM at work. It was a program we picked up in the spring to potentially use for robotics and potentially replace our current software since the yearly license fees were getting crazy for two seats. We have a few licenses with the goal that one will be on a machine at the school so the students can design parts and make the g-code to cut out a lot of the time that was spent manufacturing parts by the small staff available to work on parts for us.

We hear from those guys once a week every Monday (going to be awaiting their call tomorrow morning!) and while yes it is annoying they give us great deals on new software as well as amazing discounts on software we purchase additional seats of so its annoying but really nice. Their training staff is also great! Met a few of them at Eastec this year and they were very friendly and informative!

As for the program itself it took me a while to get the software down since it was my first experience with a creating tool paths but I went through their DVD instruction videos and from there on a little practice makes perfect. If their is one thing I wish they did better it would be their pan/zoom/rotation. Oh well.

On the brighter side it has been very easy to use on various machines in our shop that run on differing controllers which has been a good plus!

For FRC purposes I would see if you can talk to company to get the software for free.