My V28 BobCad-Cam came in today!! What are your user experiences?

Very excited to have received my V28 BobCad-Cam today.

I have been using V25 for a while now and really enjoyed how quickly I could go from opening the box, view the training video's, and get making parts out at the machine with the V25.

The post processor editing on V25 I found to be super easy to use as well and I find that now I can post a program and hardly ever have to make any edits what so ever after the fact......huge time saver there!

I did take a quick tour of the V28 demo a couple weeks ago, and really liked the improvements I saw in the programming side, so made the decision to upgrade. I am also curious to see how the set up sheets work, as we currently use sheets I made a template for in Excel. Works great, but very time consuming on my part, and that's something I want to get away from.........spending time doing something that can easily be automated!

I can't wait to get knee deep into this and see what else it can do, but in the mean time, to all of you out there who are using this version..........feel free to point out your best known tips and tricks on the new (V28) versus the old (V25).

Also........what do you feel is the BEST addition to the upgraded package?

Best Regards,
Russ

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Let's see some Bob HSM there, Russ! What's your VF-2SS memory limit and PLEASE tell me you jumped on the High Speed Machining option!

No experience with the software, just curious to see it cut.

wrustle, if you have 3 axis pro, be careful with the advanced rough. i and another shop have had gouging problems that does not show up in simulation. as far as i know, advanced rough, is the only one i have had this problem with.
had a alum. part i was roughing about 2 inches deep, somewhere around 1.7 deep tool raised up still Z minus .15 and rapided across top of my part.. that i could tell there was only one instance of this in the program.
anyway, to avoid this, i had to set my rapid plane and clearance plane to 2.1 above part.
bob's tech support says its a post issue. i was using their haas oem post.
was told to submit a post request but never followed up.
just a heads up

dave

Atomkinder said:

Let's see some Bob HSM there, Russ! What's your VF-2SS memory limit and PLEASE tell me you jumped on the High Speed Machining option!

No experience with the software, just curious to see it cut.

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I am sooooo trying to get into it, but just can't right now. Still jumping into V25 to get things done quickly.

I hope to be spending some time at home working on V28 during the Thanksgiving time off.

Looking forward to 5 peaceful days of nothing to do....................

The memory on the machine is 1 meg. I believe, and no, I did not pony up for the HSM at the time of purchase. It just wasn't something we really had a strong need for versus the cost of the option, plus being an almost all aluminum shop, it was not pushed by the salesman.

Later,
Russ

chineshop_guy said:

wrustle, if you have 3 axis pro, be careful with the advanced rough. i and another shop have had gouging problems that does not show up in simulation. as far as i know, advanced rough, is the only one i have had this problem with.
had a alum. part i was roughing about 2 inches deep, somewhere around 1.7 deep tool raised up still Z minus .15 and rapided across top of my part.. that i could tell there was only one instance of this in the program.
anyway, to avoid this, i had to set my rapid plane and clearance plane to 2.1 above part.
bob's tech support says its a post issue. i was using their haas oem post.
was told to submit a post request but never followed up.
just a heads up

dave

Click to expand...

Wow, that will get your attention in a hurry!!

I'll keep an eye open on that for sure.

Gotta tell ya though.......my operator is SUPER cautious out there, and on 1st piece runs, he checks everything out, and I have 100% confidence in him not to crash the machine.

When that tool retracted and was ready to move, he'd have been on the button, stopped it, opened the door, and visually checked for clearance. I've seen him do it all the time.

His setups may take a little longer, but man he saves me a lot of time and money by not crashing or breaking tools!

I will check it for sure though in my post when I get the chance to do so.

Best Regards,
Russ

wrustle said:

I am sooooo trying to get into it, but just can't right now. Still jumping into V25 to get things done quickly.

I hope to be spending some time at home working on V28 during the Thanksgiving time off.

Looking forward to 5 peaceful days of nothing to do....................

The memory on the machine is 1 meg. I believe, and no, I did not pony up for the HSM at the time of purchase. It just wasn't something we really had a strong need for versus the cost of the option, plus being an almost all aluminum shop, it was not pushed by the salesman.

Later,
Russ

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Wasn't for us either but I've knocked 15 minutes off of one large (well, two in a cycle) part we do regularly using HSM in aluminum.

It also just plain makes the machine move better.

We're still on the trial

Atomkinder said:

Wasn't for us either but I've knocked 15 minutes off of one large (well, two in a cycle) part we do regularly using HSM in aluminum.

It also just plain makes the machine move better.

We're still on the trial

Click to expand...

Atomkinder Did they ever get back to you on your lathe demo questions?

Wruss
I have not tried BobCAM in a long time, but it seems like they are developing at a pretty fast pace. Do you use it for any lathe work of do you just program lathes at the machine?

csharp said:

I have not tried BobCAM in a long time, but it seems like they are developing at a pretty fast pace. Do you use it for any lathe work of do you just program lathes at the machine?

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I did, but it was v27 and limited. Additionally, I have to add the disclaimer that I was not using it solely at the time as I have other software as well. There are bugs, in turning as well as milling. All packages have bugs. The frustrating part was that it is incredibly difficult to get some of the players to believe or cop to it. As well, I found it difficult to maintain using it from a standpoint of user flaws. I have come to work with a number of different CAMs over the last number of years and BC caused me some grief due to doing things a bit differently from a thought process standpoint. Frankly it seemed a bit outdated to me in as much as it was still very much differentiating between not just 2D and 3D tool paths, but features as well. This caused some grief in the form of not being able to accomplish some things in some cases and crashes in others. As well, I did also experience the blaming of the post issue. Maddening to be sure, but inconsequential compared to the other stuff.

BobCAM has come a long way in the last few years. Mostly for the better, too. I was very happy to see that. It is very very capable of doing very good work that can suit and appeal to a nicely diverse crowd.

In the last time that I tried using it ( solely, and full-on ) though, it was simply not stable enough and had just a few too many quirks ( and bugs ) for me to be able to really put it through its paces and accept it as a serious full time contender.

Last I spoke with Al, a part of the group was honestly trying to get it to a more mature point and develop into something better, and some bigger changes were in the works. I really and truly hope that they have gotten things worked out with v28 and it finally lives up to the potential that it has. Part of the problem is that while Al was always amazing in his support, the actual technical support people were hit and miss with theirs.

I still use it for WEDM work and some very intermittent occasions when I want to very quickly knock out some quickie drilling or 2D odd jobs, but do not use it for anything complex any more and never for multi-axis stuff. I had some real scares with the rotary programming. I wouldn't mind giving it another shot at some point down the road if they accomplish that goal.

If they could just get it tightened up a bit, it has the potential to be really good.

csharp said:

Atomkinder Did they ever get back to you on your lathe demo questions?

Wruss
I have not tried BobCAM in a long time, but it seems like they are developing at a pretty fast pace. Do you use it for any lathe work of do you just program lathes at the machine?

Click to expand...

For all lathe work, I simply program from my office. The job and the program go out to the shop with the program on a memory stick. the operator loads the program into the machine, and when completed, edits in the cycle time, and their initials along with the date, then the program is left in the machine, but also loaded back onto the memory stick and returned to the office where it is loaded back onto my computer for safe keeping.

If there are times where I need to blend a radius into an angle or anything like that, I simply draw it in Bobcad and use the "start", "end points" of the entities for my lathe program code, and use cutter comp to cut the tool path. Works great.

I've never really felt a need for cadcam for the lathe. Parts are simple 2 axis moves, and with the Haas control, the canned cycles make life pretty simple........for me anyways.

Later,
Russ

Me and my dad have been using V23 well him more then me.. they emailed me to upgrade both seats plus art and lathe very cheap.. I'm thinking I will jump on it..

I have found a bug in adding a toolpath Pattern, it does not auto adjust, and it like to shove the tool to zero between ops. Work around for me has been to go to the main machine op and compute all tool paths. Cant do it individually.