"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" wrote:

jon_banquer fired this volley in news:2c291939-
:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSO0p0ebwWE

Jon,
As played in that light, Delcam has features that look pretty handy and
advanced, like the comparison check 'model to as-cut'. It also seems to
have MORE strategies for milling 3D surfaces than simpler packages. The
UI appears to be pretty smooth (can't say how 'intuitive').

All that said, much simpler, lower-cost 2.5D CAMs have much of that
capability. Again, I'll refer to CamBam, as being the one I'm most
familiar with.

One things for sure, you aren't cutting arbitrary 3d shapes to
0.0001" accuracy.




At $300 (including the price of a bundled 3D cut simulator), CamBam can
do almost all of what I saw DelCam do _in_that_demo_. It has region-fill
and waterline 3D methods, just as those shown in the DelCam vid. It has
the ability to see the finished cut in 3D, and freely rotate it. It can
use different roughing and finishing strategies.

It is NOT 'feature based', but relies on the whole 3D volume for its cues
about how to approach surfaces and cut strategies.

So: Although what I saw of DelCam makes it very attractive in terms of
capabilities, you're not entirely correct that there aren't lower-end
'hobby' softwares out there that can do good 3D surfacing.

I won't drag him into this discussion unless he wishes to join, but
there's a frequent CamBam user here on r.c.m. who uses it to design molds
for casting commercial fishbaits. He uses CamBam's 3D methods
extensively, and they really seem to turn out nicely... his molds AND his
finished baits are successful.

I suspect the fish don't much care how precisely or
efficiently their bait is made.

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