Kdoney, I would recommend it just because of the support that Don mentioned. I'm in Australia, and have found it easier to speak with Don than someone in my own country. Originally I was put onto it by a friend in Canada. I found it a little hard at first, however now I am happy with it 100%.
If you get the mill package, you will also find the post processors excellent as well. You can change the macros to suit the way you like the programs to read, and I find this excellent.
As I mentioned, Don is a first class guy to deal with and will assist you with what ever you need. It's great to be able to talk with the guy who knows the answers. And even when you ask dumb questions(I've asked a couple) he just points you in the right direction.
Put it this way. I have a friend who uses another well known package on his Brideport with a heidenhain controller. He always has to modify his code. He asked how good the Excalibur package was and I printed out a heidenhain code for the same job. He looked at it and was impressed straight away as his machine would have run with it straight away. There were a couple of things he would have changed, I showed him the post processors and how to change the macros and he was VERY impressed.
Maybe the only points against it are picky ones that I would like as a personal preference. I like the Osnap in AutoCAD and would like to have that, as well as a dynamic zoom and pan that worked off the wheel on my mouse.
I like it I guess because I can also bounce ideas or problems off my friend in Jerry in Canada as well as Don. Just this week I was doing a 3D model of some Rocker covers for a Drag race Harley and I had a bit of a concern with a couple of Radiuses. We sent the drawing back and forth a couple of times and it was fixed.
But I have also sent Don drawings with problems, he would look at them and tell me how to do it better. Again it was with complex radiuses joining other radiuses.
I guess you can tell from this that I am a happy customer.......I believe you would be too
Greig
Motorcycle Performance Engineering
Brisbane Australia  |