I just bought and installed BobCad 22, the pro version with Z-axis routines.

The first issue I've run into is that I can't use 2D operations or drill operations on 3D parts. This doesn't make any sense... For example, I have a simple 3D part I designed in SolidWorks and imported (I've had this same behavior importing parts as .sldprt and .step).

If I add a drill operation I can't select the hole geometry. I tried making it a contour, but the contour command doesn't succeed (no error, it just fails silently).

So the only option is to lay out 2D geometry to select it for the holes -- not good.

Also, on the Z-Axis rough and finish operations, even if I tell it to "ignore holes" it plunges into the three screw holes in this part...

Anyone have some guidance here? Is this just buggy software? (it crashes fairly often, I have a fast CPU and 4GB of ram)

Joe

Go to utilites >> and extract edges and you can select holes.

In 3D select outer most only.

And yes it is buggy in some 2D.

You can also use the project to surface using a plane after extracting the edges. Then cleanup and optimize and erase doubles.