I gotta gripe. I am sick of Bobcad.

[snowshooze]

Look.
I have V32. And several other older versions.
It went tit's up about 3 weeks ago.
I called Bobcad, and they told me it was no longer supported.
The nice lady told me to un-install and re-install.
So, I did.
But then, I couldn't find my unlock codes and all that..

I called them
Only to be able to leave only a message.
" My ass is afire, and I need to get this working NOW!!!"
Nothing. 3 weeks.
I am sick of them, just sick of them, and will never spend another red cent on their junk.

 

[snowshooze]

Oh yeah, and " Nice Lady" steered me wrong.
It was an windows update that blew it all out.
Thanks for nothing.....

 

[snowshooze]

Oh yeah, and " Nice Lady" steered me wrong.
It was an windows update that blew it all out.
Thanks for nothing.....

I could have rolled that bac in 30seconds had I thought of it.

 

[rbregn]

Go through your old emails and look for your receipt. It will have your info on it. I just went through the same thing, kinda. An employee deleted programs he didn't think he needed.

 

[rjwalker1973]

Look.
I have V32. And several other older versions.
It went tit's up about 3 weeks ago.
I called Bobcad, and they told me it was no longer supported.
The nice lady told me to un-install and re-install.
So, I did.
But then, I couldn't find my unlock codes and all that..

I called them
Only to be able to leave only a message.
" My ass is afire, and I need to get this working NOW!!!"
Nothing. 3 weeks.
I am sick of them, just sick of them, and will never spend another red cent on their junk.

They are less than an hour from me and I can't get them to return a phone call.....

 

[Strostkovy]

Shit like this is why I use Atlas. Nothing changes in my system unless I specifically want it to.

 

[jhov]

Oh yeah, and " Nice Lady" steered me wrong.
It was an windows update that blew it all out.
Thanks for nothing.....

It's sad to hear the same story from so many people. There are solutions. Here's one.

Windows Update Blocker v1.8

In Windows There is no option to turn off Windows Updates. Windows Update Blocker is a tool that helps you to disable or enable Updates.

www.sordum.org

 

[Turbowerks]

Download a free trial, the phone will ring in no time. Seems like they are back to old habits, call al the time trying to sell more shit. Already on the upgrade plan for next version. Took almost a month to get a simple post updated.

 

[Donkey Hotey]

I'm genuinely curious: with Fusion 360 being free for hobbyists and I believe $500/year for a business, why is anyone still using BobCad? Twenty years ago, you could get BobCad or spend $15K+. Not true anymore. What's the draw if the product is so marginal and the support so bad?

 

[???]

I'm genuinely curious: with Fusion 360 being free for hobbyists and I believe $500/year for a business, why is anyone still using BobCad? Twenty years ago, you could get BobCad or spend $15K+. Not true anymore. What's the draw if the product is so marginal and the support so bad?

Refer to the part about updates. How many people have complained about the fact that Fusion doesn't release a stable version and have Beta releases that you can try if you want to and only upgrade once everything is 100% stable.

 

[EmGo]

I'm genuinely curious: with Fusion 360 being free for hobbyists and I believe $500/year for a business, why is anyone still using BobCad?

Bobcad vs Fusion, boy, let me think ... do I want to throw up all week or have the runs ? Decisions, decisions ....

 

[jhov]

I'm genuinely curious: with Fusion 360 being free for hobbyists and I believe $500/year for a business, why is anyone still using BobCad? Twenty years ago, you could get BobCad or spend $15K+. Not true anymore. What's the draw if the product is so marginal and the support so bad?

It's the only CAM software that's any good that you can own for a decent price. I've demoed a lot of CAM software and find their CAM plugin for Rhino to be pretty good for my application. I'd imagine the Solidworks plugin is the same. Their CAD was painful to use though, but Rhino is fantastic. I'd prefer a seat of NX CAD and CAM but a license with similar capabilities to what I currently own would probably cost about as much as all the machinery in my entire shop, if they even offer permanent licenses any more.

 

[Waakzaamheid]

Last time I used it, Fusion's Wire EDM module really sucked. I quite like BobCAD for wire.

Edit: I'm a dummy, there isn't even a Wire EDM option in Fusion. I'm not even sure what I'm thinking of now.

 

[rjwalker1973]

I'm genuinely curious: with Fusion 360 being free for hobbyists and I believe $500/year for a business, why is anyone still using BobCad? Twenty years ago, you could get BobCad or spend $15K+. Not true anymore. What's the draw if the product is so marginal and the support so bad?

My boss owns a permanent license and is unwilling to change.

 

[e30ryan]

Sorry to hijack...

I am contemplating a BobCAD/CAM purchase (plug-in for Solidworks), for mostly 2.5D and some 3D. I currently use HSMWorks but I want to migrate away from Autodesk on my own terms before AD forces me to...

The price seems very reasonable for a permanent license. The workflow seems straightforward and the post-processor editing is also fairly easy. It lacks some features of HSMWorks that I will miss, but maybe it's worth it in the long run.

Any reasons I should be second-guessing this move?

 

[Dan B]

It's the only CAM software that's any good that you can own for a decent price.

The folks at MecSoft might disagree with that statement.

 

[EmGo]

Any reasons I should be second-guessing this move?

Yes, you should be second-guessing.

Maybe you will still like it but you should look at a few others first. There's some people still using Powerstation, there's a Dolphin guy who posts here sometimes, Zw3d is not that expensive, there's rumours about Smartcam, I'm sure several more. This subject has been beat to death but there are definitely several other choices in the sort-of-simple category that work just as well or better. At least look at them.

 

[jhov]

The folks at MecSoft might disagree with that statement.

They were at the top of my list when I was shopping, as was SprutCAM and ZW3D, and I trialed them all. MecSoft products are certainly not bad, and are quite reasonably priced, but I found BobCAM to be equal or superior in every way and similarly priced. SprutCAM and ZW3D were significantly more expensive and their post processors were a poorly documented, convoluted mess.

 

[e30ryan]

Yes, you should be second-guessing.

Maybe you will still like it but you should look at a few others first. There's some people still using Powerstation, there's a Dolphin guy who posts here sometimes, Zw3d is not that expensive, there's rumours about Smartcam, I'm sure several more. This subject has been beat to death but there are definitely several other choices in the sort-of-simple category that work just as well or better. At least look at them.

At this point in my life I need integration into Solidworks, so unfortunately that does rule out a lot of other CAM options out there. I tried the Solidworks built-in CAM (Camworks?) but it is too convoluted and much slower for me to pump out a quick toolpath (the post processor editing is also very ugly).

 

[MaxPrairie]

They were at the top of my list when I was shopping, as was SprutCAM and ZW3D, and I trialed them all. MecSoft products are certainly not bad, and are quite reasonably priced, but I found BobCAM to be equal or superior in every way and similarly priced. SprutCAM and ZW3D were significantly more expensive and their post processors were a poorly documented, convoluted mess.

How much is Sprutcam these days?