bobcad/cam vs ???

[CASTLEVILLE]

I am just a hobbiest and was looking at buying bobcad/cam just wanted to know what other cad/cams i should look at for a comparison as far as price and ease of use. i have never used a cad/cam before just have been doing everything with conversional software at the control but i think it is time to take a step up.

Thanks
Eric

[CNCdude]

As a hobbyist, do you have any specific requirements in a CAD-CAM product? What type of CNC machinery will you be using? i.e Mill, Lathe etc. BobCAD/CAM vs. What?? Google "cad-cam software" or "cadcam software." There are a lot of CAD-CAM systems out there but what do you want and then what do you want to pay? Do you have CAD experience or CAM experience?. As far as BobCAD-CAM vs. price I can tell you that there are a small handful of CAD-CAM systems under $3000 that have some great functionality. We just happen to be one of them. My advice is download a free demo, get into it and download a free training exercise from the site as well to get you started. It's a 5 day working demo. Just click on the Lessons link in the support menu of the website.
CNC Dude

[awerby]

It's a step up from Bob, and not hugely expensive. You can download Rhino from Modeling tools for designers and use it until you save (I think it is) 15 times. The RhinoCAM demo available from Mecsoft.com won't post code, but you can try out the interface anyway and see how you get along with it.

Andrew Werby
ComputerSculpture.com — Home Page for Discount Hardware & Software

[CNCdude]

No offence but go ahead and move this discussion to the General CAM Discussion section. This is the BobCAD-CAM section. Thanks.