[FRC Blog] 2017 Early Release Vouchers and Software

[Cory]

Originally Posted by cgmv123

These are all of the posts that come with Inventor HSM.

HSMWorks/the various packages it has morphed into for investor/fusion is exceptionally generous then. I'm sure that was a conscious decision by Autodesk to try and gain market share because they were by far the latest to get in the game of any company when it comes to CAM. They had to offer an exceptional value when it came to the software purchase price and the extras it comes with or they were never going to get people to switch from MasterCAM/surfCAM/GibbsCAM/etc.

It is also geared more towards hobbyists than those other packages so it makes sense that they would out of the box support controls like Mach 3 (though I know for a fact there are mach 3 posts created available for free on emastercam.com as I downloaded one when I needed to use a tormach). I wouldn't be surprised if the generic fanuc or haas posts get you close enough to be usable with mach 3 either.

Originally Posted by mman1506

I'd understand if they omitted posts for crazy multi axis CNC machines with pallet changers and advanced tool inspection or outdated proprietary systems but straightforward 3 axis posts for Mach3 and Centroid really don't seem like too much to ask for. HSMworks was providing them before the Autodesk acquisition to both free and paid users. Do they really expect people in industry to pay 5000$+ for this experience?

Maybe I'm just spoiled by the "everything should be free" internet generation but these high communication, behind the curtain sales methods just bug me. Sure tweaking one to work wouldn't take long but should I really have to?

If you were a paying user they would get you a working post for your machine, I'm sure.

Basically what I'm hearing is the complaint comes down to "this company gave me their software for free that costs $15,000 normally and said they'd give me more posts if I needed them, but I have to wait for a real person to do that and they're taking too long because they just set up their sponsorship of FRC and don't have a good process in place yet and I'm not happy about it".

I would give it some time. As far as I can tell everyone who applied got the initial email yesterday, so I wouldn't call any reply/non reply from your reseller "slow" yet. Unfortunately giving it some time means not having everything before kickoff, which sucks, but what are you gonna do?

[mman1506]

Originally Posted by Cory

I would give it some time. As far as I can tell everyone who applied got the initial email yesterday, so I wouldn't call any reply/non reply from your reseller "slow" yet. Unfortunately giving it some time means not having everything before kickoff, which sucks, but what are you gonna do?

I got my activation code a week ago and sent them an email about then. I still haven't received a response on the posts yet. I just wish they would post at least a couple on their site or followup fairly quickly. Mastercam demos at trade shows with Centroid machines so they must have them. I'm taken a back a bit that this is the norm but I still greatly appreciate the sponsorship.

I'm going to stick with Fusion for the time being and I'd recommend others to do the same if they have a machine that is picky about its post and isn't a Hass or Fadal.

[mman1506]

Originally Posted by mman1506

I got my activation code a week ago and sent them an email about then. I still haven't received a response on the posts yet. I just wish they would post at least a couple on their site or followup fairly quickly. Mastercam demos at trade shows with Centroid machines so they must have them. I'm taken a back a bit that this is the norm but I still greatly appreciate the sponsorship.

I'm going to stick with Fusion for the time being and I'd recommend others to do the same if they have a machine that is picky about its post and isn't a Hass or Fadal.

Update: I received a response back today from MasterCam with posts for Mach 3 and Centroid. Sweet!