I have been using CamSoft for a while and I now say I have a real appreciation for what they have done. I agree that their AS3000 drawing system is out of date, when compared to some of the solid modeling systems I have seen. They do have different levels of the AS3000 CAD/CAM system, even one with solids and 5 axis, but they are very expensive. When talking about their CNC Controllers, I think only that the CNC Professional version comes with Level-1, the 3D basic level. Their CNC Lite and CNC Plus version only offer G code input.
Their CNC Professional is very powerful, it far exceeded by expectations. It can control just about anything that moves. CNC or not. The standard package works fine and is pretty easy to setup and ready use right away. They even have complete diagnostics for automatic servo tuning built in. But since it's so open and flexible you can get your self in over your head if you start customizing things. The whole operator screen is customizable using bitmap images, their G and M codes are customizable and things like digital I/O programming are built right into the software. It's also very fast too.
I would say that in the beginning I had some trouble wiring my machine and I didn't get much help from CamSoft, but they did offer me a local guy that knew both their stuff and electrically wiring that offered to get me going. I ended up figuring out the wiring my self with their help. To be fair I have to say though that they are a nice group of guys on the phone. The people I speak with over there are very knowledgably and have helped me out when ever I needed them.
I would like to see them come out with a newer looking CAD/CAM interface, but their CNC controller is awesome and things like being able to write your own customer spindle threading routine isn't even possible in other systems.
I like it and would recommend it to others that really want to do it their own installation. |