Ashlar Vellum - any users? Comparisons?

[msc]

I can't seem to find many users of Ashlar Vellum Xenon / Cobalt that work with CNC mills. Any users would like to share their opinion of the software and support? How does it compare to something like Rhino, Bob Cad? TYIA

[bgriggs]

Originally Posted by msc I can't seem to find many users of Ashlar Vellum Xenon / Cobalt that work with CNC mills. Any users would like to share their opinion of the software and support? How does it compare to something like Rhino, Bob Cad? TYIA

I use an older program that Ashlar made called drawingboard. It is still (15 years later) the best (easiest to use) 2D software I know. The Newer programs are even better but way beyond my price range.... Good support though.

Bill

[NC Cams]

If you like Drawingboard, you'd LOVE an older 2D CAD program that was sold by ComputerVision called DesignView.

ONE REASON: DV was parametric and needed less key strokes to change a dimension and/or feature than Drawingboard and I have BOTH.

To change a feature length in DV, you simply click on the dimension, change it and the dimension AND the drawing change as soon as you hit ENTER. In Drawingboard, you had to highlight the dimension to change it, then enter then go to a drop down and then find/hit "APPLY" to do the same thing. Real PITA.

Designview kernel to some extent got absorbed/assimilated into ProE when ProE absorbed ComputerVision some god knows how many acquistions ago.

ProE doesn't support DV anymore which is sad becasue the software is better than a lot of the new stuff today. Does neat stuff like polar moments, area calcs, and other PITA engineering dynamic and statics stuff that is not typically found in CAD software. NO dongle or copy protection makes it readily transportable from box to box.

Version 3 won't run above win 3.11. Version 5 of DV runs fine on Win 3.11, Win 95/98/ME. It is quirky on Win2k and forget XP. Can be gotten for free if you look hard on the internet.