To all SmartCAM users: I have been following the lament that SmartCAM is dead; SmartCAM is the best thing since sliced bread; and why can't SDRC do something to support it, with increasing annoyance. To all of you I say, "Grow up!! SmartCAM is dead - move on!!"
If you all want to collectively go crawl into a corner and cry about how SmartCAM is dead and no one wants to support it then go ahead. The ones who understand life, will leave you in the dust to rot. There have been many good things in life that have died only to be replaced by something better. Such is the case with SmartCAM. The '39 Ford coupe was a good car, but it was replaced by newer technology. The B-17 was a good war plane but it was replaced by newer technology. COMPACT-II was a very good lathe package - it died and was replaced by newer technology. APT was (and still is) a good product, but there are a hell of a lot of products that are better. SmartCAM was good but it too will be replaced. None of you have a clue to life about technology. SDRC made a very sound business decision to stop supporting that particular technology. And to me it was for a very good reason. More and more customers are wanting things SmartCAM and other 'hobby cam packages can never offer - associativity of NC programs to engineering geometry. If engineering changes the NC automatically updates. Your hobby cam packages simply don't have the horse power to build, support, and handle the intense engineering data being created these days. That is why SDRC, Dassualt/IBM, Unigraphics, and PTC are investing millions to create associated data bases from design to manufacturing. That is why they are building NC packages that allow users to capture frequently used data and reuse it on other jobs. None of your hobby cam packages have a snow balls chance in hell of doing that. Having to pass data from a major system to hobby cam looses all of that. The statement made recently about being able to learn SmartCAM in three days is absolutely ridiculous. My company inherited several hundred SmartCAM programs, and decided to try to train someone to use the SmartCAM seat we also inherited. After two weeks of hands on training by a local user, we are no farther along with SmartCAM than we were before. Yes we can make some programs. Yes we can generate some code. But no we are not proficient enough after two weeks to be able to handle all of the programming situations that arise on a daily basis. I have been in this business since 1966, and have never seen any programming system that could be learned in 3 days. It hasn't existed in 34 years, and I don't see it in the near horizon. And that goes for APT, UCC-APT, Westinghouse CIN-TURN macro package, LATHESEQ, CADAM NC, and CATIA NC. Each package had/has it's strengths and weaknesses. You don't sit in a corner and cry about not being able to do your job because it doesn't run like I want it to. You get your ass in gear and make it work to the best of it's ability, and learn how to work around the faults. And that philosophy will never change my friends. If you put any well trained, seasoned operator (such as Mr. Lazarus) on any system, he/she will be able to make it dance an Irish jig and whistle Dixie at the same time. The complaints about long training on new systems are unfounded and basically "crying in your beer." You had to invest time in SmartCAM - so will you on a new system. As far as those programs we inherited goes - they are absolute junk. And this guy supposedly had three years experience in programming. Every program is being converted to CATIA as they come up for re-run. So it goes to say, it's not totally the package being good or bad. It's the experience of the people, and how willing they are to invest the time in learning new skills and making things work to the best advantage possible. Something you SmartCAM folks seem dead set against doing. Instead of complaining about the lack of support and how much you are going to miss SmartCAM, why don't you form a for real users group, or some other type of organization, and go to SDRC and say, "Look folks, we like what SmartCAM could do. We understand your decision to kill SmartCAM, but we would like to work with you in trying to implement some of the SmartCAM features into your new product, if possible." And you know what, with SDRC being reasonable most of the time, they probably would be receptive to that idea. At least they would be more receptive to that than everyone throwing rocks at their windows, and telling them how arrogant you think they are. Your recent attacks and attitudes are similar to the NRA who doesn't have a clue as to how to win friends and influence enemies. Or maybe better yet, if there is an entrepreneur among you, why don't you put together a group of investors and buy the code from SDRC? Then you can do any damn thing you want with it. The bottom line is - SmartCAM truly is dead. Get a life and move on. If you want to stay in the Mom and Pop shop mode where hobby cam products are the only ones you can afford, then go buy a new one, learn how to use it and shut up. You would be suprised what you can do if you just try. Larry M. Hoke ====================================================================== To find out more about this mailing list including how to unsubscribe, send the message "info mfg-smartcam" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ======================================================================
