After battling problems all day trying to help guys using that old software I used to use, it is such a sweet relief to come home to Onecnc again: software that works and does what it is supposed to do.

I can hardly believe what I used to accept as the "normal, everyday CADCAM battle" ! :)

Hu,
I have customers who want to send Autocad 2002 .DWG files to me. I have downloaded the Demo Professional onto my P.C. to see how it works before I purchase their product. I can't get the .DWG file to open correctly. I then asked my customer to send me a .DXF file and again it wouldn't open correctly. A note came up on the screen mentioning that is should be saved as Autocad release 12 & exploded. The customer said that their AC2002 would strip info from the drawing if they saved it back to that old AC12 release, and wouldn't do it. I believe Bobcad will only open up to AC12.DXF's also. What would you suggest. Thank you.

SRT,
We use Onecncxp without a problem on dxf but really we always ask for iges as that brings in the whlole solid model plus geometry and all. DXF is really outdated these days unless you are just doing simple 2d stuff as it really only handles lines and arcs. OneCNC we notice also imports Autocad sat files and that is real good for models. We have been caught out in the past using DXF an prefer to never use it as lines and arcs are pretty useless especially where 3d is concerned in CAM.

Cruncher,
Thanks for your reply. The demo is not XP, so I assume that is why I didn't see .SAT files listed. Do you know if Autocad uses .SAT files as a standard, along with .DWG, or if that is an add on for them? Also are you using XP Professional, or XP Expert. I'm asking this to see if there is a posibility that XP Expert would have .SAT but possibly XP Professional would not have .SAT capability, because I'm thinking of purchasing XP Professional at this time. I also want to contact 2 new customers, one is using Pro E, & the other is using Solidworks. Do you know if .SAT or .IGES will work ok with those.
Thank you for your help.

SRT,
We recently got Onecncxp professional it comes with iges sat vda step and Rhino included for the price we did not pay for any translators extra. We use Solidworks with Onecnc and the translators translators are the best we have ever used. We also have another type cam and the translators are not as good as Onecnc. We take files from Solidworks into OneCNC and they are solid exactly the same as they are in Solidworks. Sometimes we bring models back from Onecnc to Solidworks and that is good as well and are still solid. We have customers that use Autocad that send iges files but I think that is a separate thing that they have to buy. We also have access to Autocad 2002 and that does not have iges but it does have sat that comes included which must mean that iges is an extra cost module. Solidworks also has iges step vda and sat and more already included. We get files from Pro-e with iges and we never have a problem. We have used sat and step as well from Solidworks to Onecnc also. I hope this helps

Cruncher,
You have been very helpful. Everything that you have mentioned in both of your responses is good news.
Thank you for your help!

What would be nice now is if OneCnc would make it possible to export IGS with solids and wireframe geometry so we could quit using DXF. I find it quite confining to have to ship 2 files to my customer for his verification. He uses Surfcam and could easily read a file with both.

One note about opening files: make sure you use import to open other types of files, not simply file/open.

Note 2: do not confuse Autocad's dgn with Auscad's dgn (Onecnc's older format). They both use the same file extension but are "not so obviously" not the same type of file. Sorry for the double negative :D

Originally posted by HuFlungDung
After battling problems all day trying to help guys using that old software I used to use, it is such a sweet relief to come home to Onecnc again: software that works and does what it is supposed to do.

I can hardly believe what I used to accept as the "normal, everyday CADCAM battle" ! :)

Hu,
Boy you got that right. How did we ever put up with the other stuff?
I have to "beat" myself to use the old stuff. I find as you do that once you have gotten used to the features and ease of use of OneCNC, it is torture to go "back" to that other stuff.
Tool paths are are a breeze. As is modeling and even 2d stuff is super easy. And rendering is one of the best things about it. Easy to do and good looking result. I especially like the fact that you can "section" your rendered model and zoom in on an area to really inspect the cut model.:D
Life is GOOD .

Originally posted by Mortek
What would be nice now is if OneCnc would make it possible to export IGS with solids and wireframe geometry so we could quit using DXF. I find it quite confining to have to ship 2 files to my customer for his verification. He uses Surfcam and could easily read a file with both.

Ken,

Could you elaborate more on the statment above. I rarely send models to customers, Usually it the other way around.
Do you mean that you can't send wire frame and solids in the same drawing?
Do you use the export or save as ?
Tell me more.
Both mill2000 and xp have export IGES funtions.