Amen, there has never been a product like Smartcam! You would think that SDRC in all of it's infinite wisdom would build a next generation Smartcam, that product would blow the doors off the market. I never saw a product of any kind that ended development and the users didn't go away. Since Smartcam development ended I have seen many demos, none of which can carry Smartcam's jock. I am sure that IDEA's by now has the kinks worked out much better, only I don't want that kind of mega package. Smartcam was exactly the product I needed. My Artisan was uninstalled long ago and still lives in a file cabinet. I do appreciate SDRC giving me the free Artisan upgrade when I bought the last Freeform version. If Smartcam were rewritten in a more current language and a modeler with Rhino's capability were integrated into it, that would be the top cam product available today. Freeform and Rhino together make one heck of a package. Those ill behaving Freeform surface models, remember those, you can export the ill behaving Freeform surface model via IGES into Rhino and simply save it in Rhino's .3dm format, then import it back into Freeform as IGES and every problem you had with the model will be gone and the model will be very editable once again. Punching surfaces and flat surface shapes with irregular boundaries were always a problem. In Rhino you can create any irregular shape, select all of the bounding line or curve elements, then Select "N Sided Patch", click Join to make the boundary a Single entity and whamo, you have your irregular surface with no punching or trimming(with mesh density settings in a pop up menu too). Save and export that puppy into Freeform and generate your toolpath. Freeform had only scratched the surface of it's potential when the plug was pulled. In Freeform I would spend hours and hours filleting, trimming, converting from wire frame to surfaces etc, Rhino skips every bit of that for fillets, variable fillets and tons more. If Rhino sells for $795.00 how much could it have cost SDRC to add all that NURBS functionality? Can we have a wish list anymore? Smartcam Freeform NURBS Modeling, that's the ticket. I can still wish can't I? Michael
disclaimer: I do not sell Rhino or any other software. John Wright wrote: > Thank you I am still looking for that killer package similar to smart cam or > should I say > (smart cam 2 the resurrection ) ha! wishful thinking. > John > > -----Original Message----- > From: Manhart, Martin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: 'John Wright' <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; [MFG-SMARTCAM] > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Murdoch, Christoph > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Irwin, John <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; > Sawickyj, Teofil <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Thursday, February 17, 2000 2:20 PM > Subject: RE: [mfg-smartcam] MASTER CAM > > >John, > > > >We just had a 1-1/2 hour demo of Master cam milling level 2 V7 & V8 beta > >(2-1/2 axis) the modeler is very nice solid extruding/subtracting unlimited > >construction lines nice trimming dimensioning, all the toys. It drilled > >holes quite well, didn't face mill very well and the work planes for > >indexing around a Horizontal machine's index table were not as easily > >created, there is also no automatic resequencing of tool path or tool > >sorting once tool path is created other than grabbing each machining > >operation off a list and repositioning the whole operation as a unit in a > >different order. It's one main flaw is you can't edit he tool path > elements > >that are generated. The demo guy did a pocketing cut which had a lot of > >repetitious passes through the a valley which you could have doctored up in > >SmartCam but would have been nightmare to deal with weeding out of the > >actual G-code. > >The translator from AutoCAD would only get the wire frame elements for the > >.dwg file so you still had to write out a .sat file from AutoCAD and import > >the .sat into MasterCam to get the solid model. > >The mold/die making package (available for another $1,400) looked good > >though, it had a lot more gouge checking in it than SmartCam. > > > >I guess we may need it to keep up with the changing versions of translators > >to still be able to import Cad files, but It still needs more development. > > > >P.S. They did say in one of the next versions tool path editing is going to > >be added! > > > >Marty > > > > > > > >> -----Original Message----- > >> From: John Wright [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > >> Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2000 12:25 PM > >> To: [MFG-SMARTCAM] > >> Subject: [mfg-smartcam] MASTER CAM > >> > >> > >> Anybody ever tried MasterCam? > >> If so how did it compare to smartcam. > >> Thank's John > >> > >> ====================================================================== > >> To find out more about this mailing list including how to unsubscribe, > >> send the message "info mfg-smartcam" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >> ====================================================================== > >> > > > > ====================================================================== > To find out more about this mailing list including how to unsubscribe, > send the message "info mfg-smartcam" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ====================================================================== -- Visit us at http://www.microsystemsgeorgia.com/toc.htm Smartcam Support Repository and Rhino Modeling for CNC Milling ====================================================================== To find out more about this mailing list including how to unsubscribe, send the message "info mfg-smartcam" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ======================================================================
