Brocd, please get a demo to see whether its worth it.
I have used Teksoft Procam as a cad and cam package for about five years, and the company I work for have had it about 7 or 8 years.
Personally I loathe it. It really grates on me that we still have to use it. It depends what your aim is, and what your needs are, but if youre after a cad design package with a bit of CAM - FORGET IT! The design capabilities are laughable to todays standard. The design features havent changed since the dos/windows3.1 version they started with at work.
Now, if you want to be designing your full job in another package and just machining the odd 2.5d profile or imported 3d model, yeah, if you have a load of legacy data its worth having a look into ProcamII. But dont part with the money before you realise what it can and (mostly cant) do.
Perhaps things are (if only slightly) a bit different in the newer ProcamII, but we got sent a demo from our new distributor (OUR ORIGINAL SELLER DROPPED IT LIKE THE PLAGUE TWO YEARS AGO) but we didnt really notice any changes on actual construction of geomnetry or 2d/3d drawing.
The machining was revamped a fair bit, with the new feature recognition and solid modelling importation abilties (WHICH WOULD BE AN EXTRA COST at the time we tried it).
We have nothing but hassle importing data into Procam2000, both 2d and 3d, and exporting our designs to customers is a royal pain in the arse, the translators are pityfull.
Currently we want to change to something else, but our 2d lagacy data is virtually useless once translated, and the 'dumb' non advanced 2d design capabilities have made it a real nightmare fot the designers in the office to grasp 'modern' technologies.
The printing is abismal, illegal operations (especially on imported data) right left and center and a general "ARRGGHHGHHGH" factor when you lose a whole job because it crashed on a save or 'illegal operation'ed on a simple trim.
If your after just a simple to use CAM only package thats easy to program and would like to upgrade to the new ProcamII and pay for solid compatibility (IMPORT ONLY - IT WONT DO SOLIDS) and Automatic Feature recognition, then by all means give it a go on a demo version.
I do like the ease of machining anything, but I dont like drawing 2d OR 3d geometry in it for cutter paths- its a nightmare, theres no 3d to 2d drwaing creation or any sort of intelligence in general design features.
We use it as our primary full job design tool, and machine things in 3d as when they come along......and for that purpose I cant recommend it (personally). AutoCad LT is FAR FAR more advanced for that at a vast price difference.
As I say, it depends on what the plan is for it and what scale of outfit you are, whether you rely on import/export to customers or not.
Procam200 as a design tool gets 2 out of 10 in my book and for CAM gets 5 or 6 out of ten (for the parts we do).
Please shop wisely and investigate the alternatives, also realise the pitfalls of its 'dumbness' - for example try asking it to calculate an area, cross hatch a complex set of lines, and moving dimensions once placed!!!!!!!. All data is always seperate - arrow heads included, you can only imagine the wasted time this system causes in general.
Anywayz, hope Im not too late for you. Im a newbie here.
See ya
Sirius.  |