OneCnc ?

I have been looking at OneCnc real hard, or I should say as hard as OneCnc allows me to look anyway when I search around the web I find almost all glowingly perfect reviews/positive user stories about it. Now, any other CAM package it is not to hard to find some negative minded users out there. Is OneCnc that good or are they shilling commentary all over the web to sell product. (In general this seems to be a growing problem with retailers of all sorts). Any commentary--especially on the weak points is most welcome. I plan to use this for two axis lathe and non-aerospace 3-axis mill, no contouring or profiling.

If you do a search on "OneCNC" in this forum you'll find several threads in which it is discussed. You aren't the only one that has concerns about the appearance of shilling.

cheers,
Michael

AFAIK, the current offering has no lathe capability. Supposedly its coming soon, but as everyone knows, no one should ever buy software based on what it promises to do at some future time.

I'm in total agreement with Michael on the appearance of shilling, and their claim of "no demo's because we don't want the hackers cracking it" doesn't hold water either. If someone desired to do that, all they'd have to do is get ahold of a legitimate copy, crack it, and start distributing (or selling) the entire code. Selling on blind faith and testimonials has historically been the realm of snake oil salesmen, and if they've got a legitimate product they'll have to move out of that box because far too many of their potential customers have already been bitten at least once in the pocketbook by cad-cam software, even after looking at a functional demo.

I should say that I've communicated with a couple of people who actually bought the software (bottom and middle level versions) and who sound happy with it, so it may very well be that it is a fine product that has been encumbered with a poor marketing scheme.

One reason I didn't buy it (other than their marketing) was I wanted all the tool path options, but those are only available in the Expert (top) level, and that level adds in a bunch of CAD features. I've already purchased my CAD software and I didn't see a need to duplicate that expenditure. If OneCNC had offered a full CAM version without all the extra modeling software I might have ended up buying it.

But it appeared that the Expert level of OneCNC would have cost me another $3K or so over the full version of Visual Mill, which is what I ended up buying. I could have spent the extra money on OneCNC if I'd been convinced it was really the way to go, but I'm still on a budget and it looked like I got more value for my money by saving the $3000, which will certainly buy a fair bit of tooling.

From what I've read OneCNC's 4th axis mill software is from a prior version as they haven't completed the XR software. The current version of VM has full 4th axis and indexable 5th axis.

cheers,
Michael

I looked at VM it doesn't appear to support lathe-----am I wrong?

No, VM is mill software only. I don't know if they are also working on lathe software, or just staying focused on mill software.

http://www.mecsoft.com/Mec/Products/products.shtml

cheers,
Michael

I paid $600 to a local dealer for my copy of Rhino. Here's a post from MecSoft in response to a question on the VM user forum (which unlike OneCNC is open to anyone to browse):

"RhinoCAM 1.0 is now only equivalent to the VM Basic functionality. We will be adding 4th axis and the other advanced features in 2005. The pricing for RhinoCAM 1.0 (without Rhino is $999) and with Rhino 3.0 is ($1499). We are doing a special right now with RhinoCAM 1.0 at $699 and RhinoCAM 1.0 + Rhino 3.0 at $999. This special is restricted to the English version and only for US customers.

BTW, existing VisualMill Basic users can upgrade their product dongle to enable them to work with RhinoCAM 1.0 for US $125. With this upgrade you can use both VisualMill Basic as well as the new RhinoCAM 1.0 using the same dongle. This feature will also be available for VM full users as the functionality becomes available in RhinoCAM 1.0."

Since I'd bought Rhino for my solids software, the close cooperation between McNeel and MecSoft was a significant factor in my decision to go with VM.

cheers,
Michael

what are the disadvantages of Bobcadcam ? It has 2-axis lathe and three-axis milling.

Thanks for any answers, pro or con

what are the disadvantages of Bobcadcam ?

Click to expand...

Richard,
The biggest problem with Bobcad is that they continue to release new versions of their product that are full of bugs. Once the product is on the market, they make little or no effort to correct known bugs. It's my opinion that they use this as a selling tool for their "support", but I can tell you from personal experience that their support is absolutely useless, unless one considers answers like "we've never had that problem before" or "we'll check that out and get back to you" (which they never do) as being a viable system of product support worth paying for. The vast majority of people who have dealt with Bobcad (myself included) find the organization to be neither credible nor honest in selling their products.

The head guy of Bobcad shills regularly at CNCZone, and I readily admit to having taken great pleasure more than once in thoroughly pissing him off by pointing out inaccurate information or outright lies he's posted regarding what he's selling. Since he's a paying advertiser there, he has, in every instance, requested the administrator to shut down the thread instead of making any attempt to defend what he has said. I would add that others have done the same thing and have gotten the same results. For that reason CNCZone, IMO, has no credibility whatsoever either, since it operates as a puppet front for its paying advertisers.

You've mentioned Bobcad 17 recently here. For a good example of how it screws up the most basic of operations, just try this.....create a set of points representing a bolt pattern. Sketched points are fine, and they don't have to be in any specific pattern. Also create a point at X-1,Y0 to be used as a point to move to later. Now open the cam side of the program and do a G81 drill routine, either by preselecting the points via edit or by clicking on them individually once G81 is invoked. Make sure the tooltip display button is on, as this tooltip is where the program thinks it is, and it generates its next move based on where it thinks it is. Run the drill cycle on some number of your points. Now click on the drill cycles and do a G80 to cancel the canned cycle. Watch when you click to enter the G80 into the code as the tooltip pops back to the origin, but look also at the code and you'll see no indication of a move taking you back to the origin. Now, click on the "move to point" button, and select the X-1Y0 point as your point to move to. Look now at the code, and you'll see a G0 X-1 has been added to the code, and the tooltip will be at this location. But, when you examine the code, you'll find that the tool is actually going to move to X-1, but the Y location is going to still be the same as the Y location of the last hole you drilled. Had this point been at some Y location other than zero, the code would have been correct, but that is immaterial as it would have been correct by accident. The program thinks it's at 0,0 once you invoke G80 even though its not. This is but one of a number of problems with Bobcad, and although 17 has been on the market for 5+ years, to my knowledge it has never been fixed even though they're still selling the software today. For that particular problem, the only work-around I know of is to go into the setup-custom box and create a menu item for G80 and use it to cancel canned cycles instead of using the G80 in the canned cycle box. Now for the worst news....for all its shortcomings, V17 is a much more reliable program than either V18 or V19. V19 is in at least its 8th release, with some of the releases actually having more new bugs than the number of old ones they fixed. Just got an email this morning announcing the release of V20, and I'd certainly have no reason to think it's anything but worse since it looks more complex. Lots of things in various internet venues would indicate Bobcad is on the ropes and won't be with us much longer. They certainly don't deserve to survive IMO.

thanks for the long and good answer. I am using their version 17 to get me back into the programming ballgame and will check out the details later on.

I used to program 30 years ago, no programming software out there at the time except APT which I studied three semesters in college. I methodized a job, programed it, punched my own tapes, set up the machine and ran the job myself many times. That was the most fun I ever had in a machineshop.

Now, being retired after decades pushing bottons on gantry, I need to catch up and see what you guys are doing. So, for me any cheap programming software will do.

Thanks again !

I purchased OneCNC and have been very,very happy with it. I use Solidworks for most of my design stuff so I OneCNC for just the CAM part but it does offer a pretty good suite of authoring tools too. I just bought the entry level Express version and you definately can't beat the performance for the dollar. One of the good things is you can upgrade later and only pay the difference between what level you have and the one you want. Having full technical help available at any time is pretty helpful too. I was sceptical at first and didn't like the fact that they don't provide demos. I also didn't like the fact that their forum is for owners only. But after buying it and using it, I'm glad they keep the forum closed. Even on the forums you practically get instant response. I use it on my Hurco VM1. The software is very visual and intuitive. It imports the step files extreemly well. If you have any other questions please feel free to ask or contact me. I'm not affiliated with them, just a happy owner willing to give an honest opinion.

Mark
[email protected]
www.hargettprecision.com

Hi Mark,

What would be the problem with letting only owners of the software post to the OneCNC forum, but letting everyone else read it? Doing that would keep it from getting cluttered up with random comments, but still let prospective buyers see what kinds of issues they might have to deal with, and what kind of responses they could expect to get.

It isn't a big deal to set up a forum to be read by anybody and writeable only by registered users.

Maybe I'm just getting suspicious in my old age, but when it comes to spending $4-7K I'm interested in more than just "buy it, it's wonderful" claims.

I did email OneCNC suggesting they set it up that way but they gave me a "oh, the owners of the software prefer it that way" answer. That still seems bogus to me.

But if they want to do it that way, and forgo the income from people who want more information than they are willing to provide, that's their choice.

I'm glad you are happy with your purchase.

cheers,
Michael

Michael, I think that would be a great idea for them to do. From a owner's prespective, I certainly wouldn't have any problem with it. I know what you mean about spending money on something before you can really see it in full. I know another thing they do (they did it for me) is to take an actual part you send them and then show you the program with your part. They take your part and you have an online meeting where you see the same screen together. And while you are talking with them they show you the program with your part so you can see exactly how it works. It's still not as good as a demo that you can play with for a longer period of time but they are always very patient and willing to listen and help. I'm not trying to say it's the best program ever written, it will slice your bread, and make your coffee too. bla bla bla But, I've used a ton of CAM software and I can say that this one fits "my brain waves" the best. I couldn't even begin to seriously consider buying a full legit version of the other major ones out there, they are crazy money. For me, this one is very visual, very powerfull, and unbeatable for the value.

Mark

I posted a thread in cnc zone about Bob Cad and they shut it down after I pissed him off.

Mark,
Do you use OneCnc for turning at all?

I have been looking at a number of different CAM options. We do two and four axis turning and plain jane three axis mill--no profiling. I don't need CAD- We have Solidworks, Pro-e and Autocad in engineering. This is what I am thinking. Mastercam is about the best but EVERYONE tells me the learning curve is a bitch, I have to pay (23k for two seats)a lot of money for features I will never use (don't do any aerospace). Gibbscam, same deal, steep learning curve-25K for ONE seat, pay for a lot of features I will never use. I see a lot of mid range packages that get bad PR, -Bobcam for one, that give me the willies. Other packages are not strong on turning or do no turning at all like Visual Mill. I do see positive commentary from users on OneCnc, the dog and pony show was o.k. but dog and pony shows usually are. The price for a couple of seats is about 8k which is real attractive. I guess the thing about the no demo and too many positive hits without any negatives is throwing me off on them.

That seems a bit high for Gibbs, I have turning and milling, no solids and price is way under what you mentioned. Is it the extra axis on the lathe that puts the cost over the top?

Anyway, I'm happy with Gibbs for now as I have plenty of room to grow with it. I just enter the stuff I need and it writes the program. Simpole and keeps the machines running, parts come off good. Sometimes I wish it had more bells and whistles to tinker with and impress the customers, but then again they just want good parts at a good price. Me too.

Ironmonger,

First the disclaimer. I have no experience with CAM other than Mastercam. However, just for fun I took a couple of quarters of cnc machining at the local community college. They use Mastercam and I found it very intuitive and easy to learn.

Stu Miller

I only use OneCNC for vertical milling, have no idea about the lathe part even if it does it. All I would recommend is that you send them a tricky part of yours and tell them you want a live demo to see how it could cut your part, ask plenty of questions, send them more than one part, whatever. At least it will give you a much better flavor for what the program is like and what its capabilities are. I'm not their salesman and I'm not trying to steer you in any direction, just sharing my experience. Their support is first rate too. I've used VisualMill, Gibbs, Surfcam, MasterCam, SolidCam, etc. Anyone who says MC is intuitive and has a good interface has obviously never seen or used a current generation windows interface CAM system!

Mark

Sim,
The last quote from Gibbs was loaded with stuff "I had to have" noteably extra axis, postprocessors and maintenance. These guys love to tack on the stuff.

Mark,
Mastercam is supposed to go widows interface with "mastercamX" .The dealer doesn't know when though....same thing with OneCnc lathe. The next lathe version is "almost" ready to release and it will "fix" the known shortcomings of the currrent OnceCnc lathe package. VaporWare..........leaves me feeling warm and fuzzy all over..........


Stu,
A couple of quarters at school? It took me a couple of quarters to get calculus........if I spend 20k on software I will be expected to be utilizing it in a couple of weeks.....such is the life of a mid level manager.