ASAP = As Soon As Possible. Translation: "Google 'CAM' early in your project and learn all you can about it".

I tough vetric was free lunch since it come free with many cnc router. Maybe the reason for the hygrade complex

Thanks Brad! Sometimes I wonder why I cannot remember things. :o:(

Gerald, you had gave one too many sound advice for yourself to remember.... :)

I'm to blame as well, my "English" is weird.... and thanks Brad & Normand for clearing things out.

Nils, in"buying time" I meant Aspire is easy to pick-up & use, others takes deeper learning to get to the same results.

(easy to pick-up & use, others takes deeper learning to get to the same results.) if it could be that easy:)

Normand, sounds like you have some sound advice that I can use. Please fire away, I'm all ears.

Hi Ken
What would be the best cad cam for you is like what would be the best car for you.
What is it you want to make with your MM ?

anyway I would not suggest toyota for a while

I think a quick sum-up would be:

a) Are you a designer, or b) are you only accepting files?


For a) you need to take a look what industry you are in

- There are excellent programs to design kitchen furniture and they save you a hell lot of time then doing it yourself in Autoklad. E cabinet is such an example of a design tool, but there are many others.
- If you are in the sign industry, then artcam or vectric is a good start, there are also some others, but they are hidden in the dark areas of the internet
- If you do more of custom in 3D, one off's, or create the same items but in different sizes/types (not sign related) then using a free form CAD tool might be better for you, they often (but not always) come with CAM tools build in, to name a few inventor, Pro/E, SolidW, they are complicated. They are parametric and if you change 'something', often the CAM files are changed accordingly and you don't have to re-do your CAM work. Ideal if you make items under some design, but allow your customer to change the width, hight, length of the item in question.
- If you do a lot of 2D cutting, then autocad/qcad might be better for you with a simple dxf2gcode converter, there is no need to get a complex 3D tool if you do mostly cutting.

b) If you just accept files to get, but don't do any designs, then you need to make very sure you work with a CAM program that can accept many file types, and understand the customers requirements, understand the limitations of your MM and understand the CAM tool to implement them as such in a timely manner (time is many, right?) the better you can create cut files in terms of time vs cut quality, to more jobs you can do in a day. PS, see what tools your customers use a lot, and get a copy of that yourself so you can always open the file in question in there CAD tool... If you have the $$$

So, it depends what your business is and what the ROI is going to be.
It also helps that you are comfortable with a specific tool, for myself I could never get used to Autoklad, I tried 3D once in Autoklad and got angry after 1 hour of working. That said, on the shipyard we had a lisp tool that could properly calculate 3D hulls with cutout/flatten calculations, very nice...

Also, look around you what friends/companies are using and what is supported by a local reseller, it's not very efficient to use tool XYZ that is amazing, but nobody uses, so when you have question you are stuck, it's always good to have buddies you can ask to...

Just my 1 cent..

Ries

Ries, thanks for the insight, opens up my horizon... will spend some effort to find out what others are doing around here & give more thought into what I'll need & getting into.

I started with ACE Converter as a free CAM solution but eventually moved to CUT2D.

I believe you will not be dissapointed with CUT2D, but once you start using the machine more and more, you would like to do more, but will be limited by the software. I started with CUT2D as wel and eventually ended up buying Vcarve Pro. Now I need Aspire to satisfy my needs....where will it stop.

Yes I can see myself moving to Vcarve Pro sometime in the future. :)

What are the features of aspire that you want the most being a vcarve customer?

3D work and now that the latest Aspire and Vcarve have the indexer function, (wrapping) and the EASE of using Vectric programs.

Hello Kobus
Looking at the way you been going I dont think you will be stopping soon. Get ready to buy lot of software or/and get some free one. After you done your wrap you will be wanting to do real 3D 4axes indexing work and then more

Where I think that there is no free lunch is in the EASE of use . I do not know many programs but I figure it is pretty much the same idea for most of them, for ex. few years back rhino 4 came out, it had over 600 new commands and now has load of plugins like this http://wiki.mcneel.com/labs/panelingtools
Are they easy or hard ? Are the nedded or wanted
And that is just the cad part .
Add up the price and learning time of all the sw you buy or borrow ,and compare to sw that would do the same and more in one environement, and all that you learn is alway used not changing from 1 sw to the next
With that apetite of your's I think you will never stop wanting more , I would suggest someting big and filling with extras,:) and doggy bag for later.

I am sure Aspire will fill me up just OK..:)

Bon Appétit mon ami!

Or ArtCam Pro..:D

Art cam is not realy a 3D Software ,but a fancy highfeild bitmap and raster to vector software great for relief work
if it is not to expensive ...;)

I tested the Vcarve trial & really like it a lot.
Seriously thinking where I can find the money...

try this
 

I like cambam too! It isn't elaborate or 3-D... but it works gooad and not too difficult to learn.

Here is a good compilation of available CAM software.
Hoipe this will help someone.