[korntheuer]

Hi,

This is my first post.

I'm half a newbie to machining. Up to now I had a local shop make a few
parts for me. I have send them my "technical drawings" which are pencil
drawings made to scale with dimensions ( I learned this from a little book
"Teach yourself technical drawing", D. Maguire ) and I talked to the
machinist on the phone. This always worked out OK.

But things are getting different. I have to change the way I work
because:
- pencil drawings take too much time and I'm always afraid of making
a blunder
- I will have to draw much more parts
- my local shop does not have all the machines I need, I need to
go more international
- I need to send my plans by email ( does not work very nicely
with pencil drawings )
- I have to learn others how to draw parts...

So the conclusion is clear. I'll have to upgrade from pencil to software.
This is not a real problem as I have been programming computers
for more then 20 years. So why did I start out with a pencil? From
experience I know that advanced software can have a very steep
learning curve. It can be a tremendous time sink. I needed quick
results and a pencil will never complain "illegal operation, can not
extent line outside predefined active boundary".

So I had to find software that was easy to use and learn and that would
generate files that a machinist loves and at the same time generate
dimensioned plans for my documentation.

I had a look at a few programs but they all had the steep learning curve
problem. I know I can learn but I do not look forward to teaching
others to use this. I will be full time helping others to battle the
software.

Then I found emachineshop.

Wow! Perfect! Very simple software. Only the things you really
need. Forces you to think like a machinist as you actually are
virtually milling and drilling a part, not drawing some general drawing
( You can draw your house with AutoCAD but you can't with
emachineshop, which is exactly right because you can't machine
your house ). I followed their tutorials and 2 hours later I felt
like an expert. a few hours after that I designed all the parts I had
made up to then. Days of pencil drawings copied in a few hours.
What a high! And I could check the 3D view for any blunders. Wow!

But then... I click on 'price'. After a long wait it came up with a
price. Ugghhh! That's astronomical! My local shop is a lot cheaper!
And that's in Belgium, a country with high wages. And I can not
speak on the phone with the machinist! I get a result from my
local shop in a week but emachineshop needs more 30 working days!

Why would I pay way too much for a part, wait for way too long,
have not a chance to talk to the machinist and in the end receive
a crummy part ( emachineshop does not get good comments
on quality on internet forums )?

Because the software is great... ( and free )

I have only a few negative points about the software:
- sometimes it very slow to generate a 3D view on only
moderately complex parts.
- it is limited in some ways, you can not give a simple profile for
lathe to turn ( a rather basic operation in the CNC world ) etc...
- IT DOES NOT GIVE DIMENSIONS...

I tried if I could open their .ems file format in other software. I checked
if other shops accepted their files. Mhhh...

That seems to be their trick. Lure you with great soft and then
you are chained to them to buy the overpriced part they outsource
to an other shop.

I don't like that. That's the reason that there are no dimensions
on the drawings. That's why the DXF export function produces
such a crummy result. It's to stop you going to an (any) other shop
that is cheaper and faster and better. This is the opposite of what
they claim on their site. They say they are fast and cheap because
they cut out the middle, but actually they are the fat middle that did
not exist before!

So what is the solution?

We need software that:
a) is simple to learn and use as emachineshop
b) generates files that a shop can use
c) generates technical drawings ( with dimensions ) for documentation
purposes


I see two options here:

option 1:
Continue to use emachineshop software but somebody makes converter
software to transform the files into something useful

option 2:
Find a CAD program that is as easy as emachineshop


So my question on this forum is actually double:

1) Does anybody know something about this .ems file format, how
to convert it into something useful? This convert soft must exist
as emachineshop seems to outsource all their jobs. Has anybody
out there ( shops ) worked for them? How does it work? What kind
of files do you get?

2) What is the most easy CAD soft to learn and use ( does not have
to be free, but a low price is a plus ) and that the shops also like ( makes it
easy for them to generate g-code etc... ). I know this is also
a question of taste but there are so many programs out there. I
can't check them all. I need some expert opinion on this. Please
only reply to this question if you have already worked with the
emachineshop software and made at least one part with ( I mean
drawn a part, not bought a part ;-) ). You have to know how
easy emachineshop soft is to answer properly to this question,
you have to get into the head of a newbie.


Thanks,