I am evaluating Excalibur and OneCNC software to purchase.
I was wondering if anyone had any input on technical support, or recomendations as to which is more user friendly. I use Cimatron currently and want to put one of these on the shop floor to aliviate G-Code programming at the machine control.

John F,

I don't know anything about Excalibur, so I can't speak to their customer service or ease of use.

But if I do know about OneCNC and all I can say is they are outstanding in both customer service and ease of use.

They have always been very helpful with any problems or questions. Both which have been few and far between.

They are also very open to suggestions for improvements and new features.

Their people are well informed to answer any questions that might come up. Mike Reyes has been there every step of the way to help in anyway.

As you might have seen in the older post about OneCNC, they have incorporated ideas into their updates that have been suggested by users. And from what I've seen they are continually making improvements to the product.

The product is in my opinion very user friendly. Every thing is layed out in a easy to understand format. And it is fully customizable to your liking. No scrolling thru multiple layer or menus to get to the funtions you need. And the nc side is very powerful and very easy to use. It's also very easy to edit your tool paths or parameters.

I would suggest that you look thru the post at the forum and see what other user have to say about the program. Maybe you already have.

One thing I really liked about Excalibur.
For tapped and or 2+ operation holes they have a function that you can set up, for lets say a 1/4-20 tapped hole.
You only need to pick it once and under the hole cycle function has all you operations. Center drill drill and tap.
This would eliminate picking the all tapped hole three times each.

Ya, its too bad we can't "copy and paste" in the NC manager (yet). Sounds like it would be simple, but I bet it's not :)

Are you a One CNC user?

You bet, John :)

There's a lot more things that I like about it than I dislike. There is always the possibility that they might add in features, since the software is still in a fairly moldable state right now, what with the news I've heard of what is coming "free" in future patches, not releases but patches :)

It would be nice if there were enough time in life to try out everyone's software, but that's the risk we take. For 3 axis work, I'd say you couldn't go wrong with Onecnc as an economical choice for a powerful app. They do have a 30 day money back warranty on the Xp series, so you could always give it a whirl, return it, try excalibur (if they will match the 30 day warranty) and so on.

I firmly believe that Onecnc is intuitive enough to use, that you won't experience a serious learning curve trying to get some code out of it, and that is the main thing.

John, with the Excalibur 2+ holes, it is easy.
When the holes box comes up, just tick which operations you would like. For example, tick centre drill, drill and tap.
Then choose the tools for each. When it posts it will centre drill, then drill, then tap the holes you chose.
It really is that easy.

Greig

One function in Onecnc that is really neat is the circle clean function. Even though my Shadow controller has it's own spiral pocket milling Gcode, I find the circle clean function in Onecnc has superseded my mill's built in function, because I can be sure that Onecnc's code will give me the correct hole depth and diameter and this will also show up correctly in the simulation, whereas a special custom machine cycle like that will not.

Onecnc does do a good job of simulating both its own automatic drill cycles, as well as your own machine's drilling cycles.

That clean circle function does sound good.
Greig

John,
I can't comment on Excalibur, but I can comment on OneCNC.
I have found their software very powerful and easy to use.
Their tech support is very responsive AND helpful.

I really like their XP series, you can easily modify a parameter on a path and re-post it.
I have also found it easy to tailor the post to my style.
-James

I had some spare time today, so I downloaded the Excalibur demo.

I wanted to see the associativity thing in action, and I did see that it does what they say.

I'm a poor judge of the difference in the learning curve between the two programs since I am already experienced with Onecnc, but I think Onecnc will have you making parts way before Excalibur will. Maybe if you are the "Autocad type", Excalibur would come easier to you than to me :)

(I cannot stand Autocad, but its good for opening dxf files ;) )