I started using SolidWorks about 2000 and bought my own license in 2004. When
the market effectively died in 2007 I decided to let the SW maintenance expire
since it wasn't earning its keep.
In 2010 I bought the full monte Alibre Design Expert package and it has served
me well doing most everything SW was for 1/3 the cost. I also use the Mecsoft
AlibreCAM plugin for milling. I will skip the drama of Alibre being bought out
by 3D systems before the founding Alibre staff ransomed back the company. My
main fault with the Alibre staff is they based the product on the Visual DotNet
platform. (bad programers - should have to go sit in a corner and write a loop
that prints "I will not write code that links dot net libraries!" in assembly
code a million times.)
But to be honest for most work, the fastest solution for a 2 1/2D program is to
fire up a DOSBox window and run a virtual x86 session for BoBCAD gold v12 DOS
edition. I can draw or solve needed geometry and generate the basic gcode in a
few minutes. Due to being compiled for DOS (circa 1991) I can run the DOSBox
app on a raspberry pi and for BOBCAD its like running on a CRAY super computer.
Its greatest detraction is the built in DOS VGA output coding which leaves you
stuck with only 640x480 as your only output option.
I once inquired about obtaining the rights to the source code for V12 and V14,
but BOBCAD was content to keep the DOS version dead and buried. V12 was rock
stable, V14 I can not comment on as I waited too late to consider upgrading and
the NEW Windows (buggy as an ant hill) version was out.
Serious thought - if a group of serious programmers formed a open source
CAD/CAM project for Linux and could show the community a viable 2 1/2 D CADCAM
suite with a structured published goal list I think many of us using Windows
based warez that are paying yearly maintenance fees would consider signing on
as patrons. The ultimate goal would be to drop the commercial warez once the
software matures enough to cover a users needs. I would be paying $1200/yr just
to keep my warez up to date. If I could drop the commercial warez to run open
source and be a $400/yr patron I would be thrilled. Having the option to
request certain new features and being able to add an additional donation
incentive would also be nice.
Greg
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