Has anybody toyed with the NEW Ezcam?

With all the late discussions on Fusion and the video someone put on here about fusion and Haas G187 I decided to pull out my old 1998 version of Ezcam and see how easy it was to incorporate G187 into this antique software. As I suspected it took less than 5 minutes to Add the G187 P1 into the roughing cycles and P3 into the finishing post with Xbuild. So yeah, Fusion shouldn't act like that is the latest greatest thing since my 20 year old cam can do it.

Since I had it out I decided to go and check out their website since I probably haven't looked in 10 years. To my surprise they now have Feature based machining! I always kind of viewed them as Featurecams little brother since the UI was so similar but without the FBR. Now, What I can see it looks very similar with some other cool features such as modifying programs right on your phone or tablet and it updates the program automatically on the PC.

They advertise EZcam pro for $3500 and when you click the trial download you get a popup for 30% discount. I keep trying the trial download but it times out at the 30% mark, thus the reason for questioning here.

Finally, I guess as a gig at Autodesk they have a picture of a hand holding a physical USB dongle apparently reassuring everyone they will not go cloud.

Thoughts?

g-coder05 said:

With all the late discussions on Fusion and the video someone put on here about fusion and Haas G187 I decided to pull out my old 1998 version of Ezcam and see how easy it was to incorporate G187 into this antique software. As I suspected it took less than 5 minutes to Add the G187 P1 into the roughing cycles and P3 into the finishing post with Xbuild. So yeah, Fusion shouldn't act like that is the latest greatest thing since my 20 year old cam can do it.

Since I had it out I decided to go and check out their website since I probably haven't looked in 10 years. To my surprise they now have Feature based machining! I always kind of viewed them as Featurecams little brother since the UI was so similar but without the FBR. Now, What I can see it looks very similar with some other cool features such as modifying programs right on your phone or tablet and it updates the program automatically on the PC.

They advertise EZcam pro for $3500 and when you click the trial download you get a popup for 30% discount. I keep trying the trial download but it times out at the 30% mark, thus the reason for questioning here.

Finally, I guess as a gig at Autodesk they have a picture of a hand holding a physical USB dongle apparently reassuring everyone they will not go cloud.

Thoughts?

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If the spokes person has a man bun and a beard and uses industry buzz words, what was old becomes new. I actually find it comical watching some of their videos. Its like they grab the person at the first peek in a Dunning-Kruger effect graph, Fresh out of college/univ and 6 months work experience, if they only knew what they didn't know (not that I'm trying to shit on enthusiasm, I think that is a great thing and should not be discouraged)

But back to the main question...I can't offer anything. I like to try different software all the time, I will admit I've steered clear of this product because of the name. Anything with EZ in its name is an instant no from me. Maybe I should give it a fair shake....nah...can't get past the name lol

g-coder05 said:

With all the late discussions on Fusion and the video someone put on here about fusion and Haas G187 I decided to pull out my old 1998 version of Ezcam and see how easy it was to incorporate G187 into this antique software. As I suspected it took less than 5 minutes to Add the G187 P1 into the roughing cycles and P3 into the finishing post with Xbuild. So yeah, Fusion shouldn't act like that is the latest greatest thing since my 20 year old cam can do it.

Since I had it out I decided to go and check out their website since I probably haven't looked in 10 years. To my surprise they now have Feature based machining! I always kind of viewed them as Featurecams little brother since the UI was so similar but without the FBR. Now, What I can see it looks very similar with some other cool features such as modifying programs right on your phone or tablet and it updates the program automatically on the PC.

They advertise EZcam pro for $3500 and when you click the trial download you get a popup for 30% discount. I keep trying the trial download but it times out at the 30% mark, thus the reason for questioning here.

Finally, I guess as a gig at Autodesk they have a picture of a hand holding a physical USB dongle apparently reassuring everyone they will not go cloud.

Thoughts?

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That's awesome / really applaud your attitude and approach here (without sounding like a patronizing git lol).

I'll check it out, sounds nice / forward thinking. In some cases I'm interested in Software we can get development kits for / SDKs / knock a hole into a more generalized platform cost effectively for much more specialized application's development.

I think you mean "Dig" not "Gig" :-)

g-coder05 said:

With all the late discussions on Fusion and the video someone put on here about fusion and Haas <Snip>

Finally, I guess as a gig at Autodesk they have a picture of a hand holding a physical USB dongle apparently reassuring everyone they will not go cloud.

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

AND

goooose said:

If the spokes person has a man bun and a beard and uses industry buzz words, what was old becomes new. I actually find it comical watching some of their videos. Its like they grab the person at the first peek in a Dunning-Kruger effect graph, Fresh out of college/univ and 6 months work experience, if they only knew what they didn't know (not that I'm trying to shit on enthusiasm, I think that is a great thing and should not be discouraged)

<schneeep> View attachment 260331

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Here's the thing I find a little eerie, "Observing " the product manager at from Fusion 360 at a distance... (in said video), and riffing off what the goooose-man throws out there...


IS, I kinda get the impression that the "Product" i.e. Fusion 360 is only the tip of the ice burg.


It's like what's also important to Autodesk is what's on the other side of the "Wall" / cloud server environment.


Jeff Bezos made his fortune with AMAZON, not through just putting sh*t on-line for folks to buy, but the key was the basic ability to data mine their customer's accounts and other data to sufficiently synthesize customer profiles + correlations to what else they would be likely to buy, and tailor advertising and 'Customers who bought this also bought"... Probably comes out of the fact he ran an online bookstore.

I saw firsthand parts of the retail sector completely tank, because of certain organizations having the inability to "Data mine" their already loyal customer base adequately in a useful way. They refuse to take that seriously and Bezos basically completely sank their ships.

Maybe not Mr Man-bun, but shaved head Bezos types / millennial steeped in deep data analysis tools leaning towards the other "Buzzword" AI (groan), means "They", Fusion 360 can develop 'Meta tools" on the other side of the wall to determine what and how their software should be developed through USER-METRICS and large scale correlations and analysis of specific user scenarios.

^^^ It's developing those models and tools behind the wall that may set the stage for more generalized approaches to software development and market share... Just like Bezos, but for Autodesk (with a very large user base for Fusion 360/ large sample size.).


But IMO good design and really understanding what people want (coupled with near uncompromising engineering) can in some instances trump any cloud mined metrics for product development road maps, but … For how long ? [Price point is going to always be challenging for smaller software development teams trying to gain market share.].


I agree with Goooose from a marketing perspective EZ anything sounds like something that should be avoided (at least for CAD/CAM even though it might be quite good). But at least it's EZ to remember ;-)

I think you mean "Dig" not "Gig" :-)

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I'm originally from Tennessee so we tend to use "gig" as in reference when we go frog gigging. Thus poking fun at someone with a little sting.



I managed to get to there FTP and back door the trial version. Wow, they have come a long way in 20 years from some software that was just above hobby grade. The Cad bit is still mostly the same, fairly simple to use and gets the 2d sketches knocked out. The graphics are still horrible, If I had to use it I would switch it back to the classic black background.

The cam side of it,,,I was impressed. They still have the same "Cycle" features from the 90's but the 3D wizard is super nice and fast. I fumbled around with it for a few minutes "Instructions are for woman right"? Then I decided to watch the 6 minute video on how to use the wizard and that was literally all the training I needed.

Solidworks or Alibre are required for the feature to work and the model has to be opened, (that's kind of a PITA) but I found EZcam was actually smart enough to know a change in the model with it opened. I had a model of a tool block for a Haas lathe I had modified to hold multiple ID holders. Its actually a complicated part and when I clicked the wizard I was pretty much done within 15 or 20 minutes on 5 sides.

It still lacks in a lot of areas such as not being able to handle 5X but all in all for just over $3k I would recommend for someone just starting out on a budget doing 3X work.

But with all the advances they have made they are still years away with catching up with Esprit or Featurecam with FBM.

I guess I answered my own post. But, It was kinda nice seeing if I still knew how to use my first Cam system. Brought back a lot of memories in a hot shop running a Sony mill station NU-20 CNC (If anyone can remember those)....

I am really considering this software. Like gcoder I used this about 20yr ago in machinist school. I was pretty decent with it as a kid learning machining. I have poked at mastercam and fusion with lots of frustration.
I am not really a job shop but I make my own products and I think it would be real helpful now that I have a Mazak mill. The mill has decent conversational software but I think I could do allot better especially with the high speed machining ability to set the stock to whatever size and control how many radially step overs I want to do.
About all my products are going to be 2d on the mill maybe some minor 3d in the future. So opinions welcome and appreciated. Thanks for any imput.

Any current users, feedback?

edge22 said:

Any current users, feedback?

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I've been using the trial for a while and am getting the hang of it. I'm not much of a CADCAM guy yet so the serious aspects of them escape me. Really can't get lined out on fusion, and freecad messes with my mind in the same way. Mastercam was the same, just isn't the way I think maybe. Featurecam I could go with years ago when I tried it's trial.

I bought it back in January. I have only posted and ran some engraving with it so far. Chris has been a great help with it so far with emails and calls. I have been hung up a in a couple spots and explained to him what I was trying to do and he even made a step by step video. So I say great support so far.

edge22 said:

I bought it back in January. I have only posted and ran some engraving with it so far. Chris has been a great help with it so far with emails and calls. I have been hung up a in a couple spots and explained to him what I was trying to do and he even made a step by step video. So I say great support so far.

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I agree about Chris, he's even been good help for me with the trial version

I have to add my thumbs up for EZ-CAM as well. I keep reading the complaints on this board about cloud based, subscriptions, Autodesk, ETC. Every time I read one, I think to myself, 'man, I'm glad I don't have these issues!'

Our code posts out and runs with zero hand edits. You can edit your own post if you get a new machine and need to change something specifically for it. I even made a post to do 3+2 on our 5x machines. It's great software for the money. If you need more CAD-CAM, get Hyper Mill. Everything else is a compromise of cost and features.