Would you recommend Bobcad/cam to a newbie?

[Legion99999]

Its been almost 10 years since i took cad courses in college. I am about to upgrade all my shop equipment and incorperate a cad program.

How easy is bob cam to learn?

Legion99999

[solgood]

Bob is not a cad program, it is a cad/cam program. Easy to learn? What do you what it to do?

[thkoutsidthebox]

I dont use BobCad myself but the guy who owns this site:

[ http://cadcamtrainer.com/forums/index.php ]

is an instructor for BobCad/Cam and has some excellent free videos online that you can look at to get an idea of learning the program. You should register there and get the password to look at the videos. Might be of some help.

http://cadcamtrainer.com/links.html

[erase42]

I do use bobcad evey day and never really found it to be difficult. Once you
figure out the basic concept of it its quite straight forward although I have heard people complain that its too different from ( insert favorite cad program ) I mostly do simple stuff with it, but ive found that i can easily create more complex 3d objects with the knowledge ive gained from simpler things.

[tobyaxis]

Originally Posted by Legion99999 Its been almost 10 years since i took cad courses in college. I am about to upgrade all my shop equipment and incorperate a cad program. How easy is bob cam to learn? Legion99999

BobCAD/CAM is a great start if it has been a while for you. The best CAD would have to be SolidWorks and the Best CAM Mastercam. Of coarse these have a different UI and are a lot more EXPENSIVE.

I've done some wacky things with BCC and it prooves to be one of the easiest to learn. Just remember that it isn't Parametric and IMO only Recomended for 3 Axis Machining.

What things really depend on is what type of work you want to do with it.

[Gandalf]

The best is based on opinion. I have used Bobcacam with Turbocad for nearly a decade. Throughout this time I have used other software as well. I always go back to my most trusted applications.
Bobcadcam was a great starter in Cam. It still is my favourite. I keep on learning new tricks and sometimes push the envelope. I have done jobs that even seasoned MC users had trouble doing in Mastercam.
Remember this: It does not have to cost an arm and a leg(nowadays even more) to get your job done. You will have a learning curve on every application you use. Tailor your Software to your needs and income.

[Legion99999]

I build custom paintball guns and I am about to start mass producing parts, as well as update a few of my designs. I am ordering the syril cnc with bobcadcam i have solidworks.

[tobyaxis]

Originally Posted by Legion99999 I build custom paintball guns and I am about to start mass producing parts, as well as update a few of my designs. I am ordering the syril cnc with bobcadcam i have solidworks.

Use the SW for your Designs and BCC to Machine (CAM) what you need.

Here are some places to get help with using BCC

http://216.117.147.20/bobcadsupport/forums/

http://cadcamtrainer.com/forums/index.php

Also BCC is now an SW Partner in the Software World.

[Jim Estes]

I have been using BCC for about 6 years I think, I do mold work, and some of it gets pretty complicated. If you ask me, BCC is as easy to learn as any other program. I think that BCC gets a bad rap because they have always been the "most bang for the buck" guys, so newbies and cheapskates get this software and expect it to be just as good as software that their competitors spent $5000-$20,000 on.

I had to learn Mastercam after I had been using BCC for a few years, learning MC was just as difficult as leaning BCC. There was no magic formula that made learning MC super easy. It takes time, the only advantage I had when learning MC, was that I had already been programming in BCC for years.

I made plenty of mistakes in MC, but I had enough experience with BCC to figure out more quickly what I had done wrong and correct it. Leaning to use BCC or any other program mean you got to make mistakes and then go back a figure out what you did wrong.

As someone pointed out in another thread, the manual only covers the "right" way to do things, it doesn't cover what to do when you make a mistake. For that you have to have experience, and experience comes from using BCC and making mistakes.

Jim