How is bob card working for you I was thinking of getting it
Thanks bill1021
I’ve been using bob cad since version 21 and Haven’t had any issues, support is decent and they run training sessions for $500 for 3 days.
The only thing you need to know is Bob cad has allot of sales staff and they will call you year after year and the prices are not fixed. Just tell them over and over you are using for hobby.
I used bobcad at home on my CNC mill for a few years, also used it at work for several years.
I found it very buggy, it had some major flaws that could cause tool crashes in a mill as it would change tool numbers on its own at times.
Once I tried Fusion at home, I never used bobcad at home again. A few years later at work I switched us over to HSMworks, and later to Fusion.
I still get sales calls for both my home license and work license, begging for me to come back. They are worse then a used car salesmen, once you inquire about their software they will hound you constantly for years to come.
If this is for Hobby use, do your self a favor and learn Fusion.
If its a business, and $500 a year is to much for you, than buy sheetcam. And use inkscape, or affinity design to create your files.
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thank you for your advice
@Bill1021 If you can wait a bit, Langmuir plans to release “FireCam” as part of their “FireControl” software which replaces Mach3. FireCAM will take your .dxf and produce the GCode required by FireControl. To produce the CAD/dxf (your drawings) files you can look at Solid Edge 2D. It’s free (you will get a phone call from a sales guy trying to sell you on their pricey 3D software) and pretty easy to use for 2D stuff. If you plan on doing more art and text type cutting it’s probably not what you are looking for, use Inkscape for that. If you need to generate GCode and can’t wait for FireCam there is SheetCam, about $145 I think. It’s one of the better CAM out there. Lots of support for plasma.
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It took me over a year to finally give up on 360 thinking it was something I was doing wrong. Sheetcam took an hour or two out of my time to understand setup and know the ins and outs. Inkscape (design) took a little longer but is worth learning. (use svg instead of dxf files) Since then… I love my mackine and designing again. I wish I would have just bought it in the first place. Think it was around 180 Canadian…
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Your designing in sheetCam?
Sorry I didn’t fully explain. I design in inkscape. (free with many many videos online) and gcode + check in sheetcam.
I tell you, I’ve got to tell you my level of frustration with fusion 360 is off the charts… And it’s not just me, my cousin has a four-year degree in welding from Ohio State and he has the same opinion of fusion 360 and we hadn’t even spoken to each other about it until I called him out of frustration for a recommendation on on a non-fusion program for plasma.
He runs a full machine shop and fabrication shop and does contract work for dcsc here in Columbus Ohio. He has mostly machining centers and CNC lathes but he does have a Lincoln torchmate 5x5 plasma table and when I asked him about it he said oh I got a free seat of fusion 360 but his opinion is the same as mine… They couldn’t pay me to use it LOL.
A little background on me, I have a mechanical engineering degree and have been working since 1982 programming cncs of various types. Back when I first started it was on an amada cnc turret press and when that got too boring I progressed to five axis machining of glass molds for a subcontractor to anheuser-busch’s beer bottle making operation. Next I went back into fabrication and programmed a model 3,000 w cutting lasers in 2D and worked for a dealer of CNC industrial plasmas and lasers demoing machines including cadcam software packages that we sold. I’ve used Metalix, Radan, sigmanest, ap100 from amada, and bobcad… 40 years of experience and I can tell you with 100% enthusiasm, Fusion 360 is by far and away the biggest piece of crap I’ve ever seen.
The fact that I’ve watched videos both Autodesk and langmuir for the better part of one week trying to get this one simple part to work is testament to how difficult it is to use. It seems to have a real problem recognizing complex boundaries for the extrusion process. The other software packages I’ve used above while working for large companies had no problem with this kind of thing… But I’ve been fighting fusion for 3 days trying to make sure the outline of the barn and the tree are contiguous with all elements connected and I had it close only to have it run a calculation and revert back to an unchained outside boundary. Complete crap. Interior features like the barn doors and the window in the attic and the side windows on the barns are no problem but the outside boundary including the chicken and the trees are days and days of frustration until 2:00 a.m. in the morning on several occasions
If you post the dxf file I am sure one of us can help.
Coincidentally, using F360 I just made a farm scene hanging sign for someone’s driveway entrance. It was my largest sign yet at about 4’ x 4’
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Thanks, that really looks nice 
. In your honest opinion would I be better off just importing the dxf? Or is the SVG and the tracing over a canvas the better option? Give me a second and I’ll post the dxf
That’s often case by case. Sometimes dxfs you get from on-line/others are pretty good, but other times they are really heavy with points, full of duplicate lines, have open contours,…
I will say I have better luck importing SVGs than JPGs. Like many people here, I use converio.com to change JPEGs to SVGs.
Only time I use canvas is when I have a cardboard template to trace. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great tool.
Edit: I just read your post in the other thread. I would try first just Inserting the SVG into a blank sketch, not bringing it into a canvas and tracing it.
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Thanks, yep that’s what I ended up doing starting out with a jpeg, taking it in and converting it to an SVG, then then just inserting it into the drawing.
I think I was just frustrated as I had been up a couple days until 2:30 a.m. trying to figure it out LOL.
Like anything, I think once you find a procedure that works for you then just stick with it and it’ll become second nature I just wasn’t giving it enough time. You don’t know how close I was to pulling the trigger on that sheet cam shopping cart haha.
Anyway the finished product is mounted on the mailbox so all turned out okay . Thanks for the words of encouragement
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Just did this one tonight a Yorkie kennel in the neighborhood needed a sign that needed to be legible from both directions so it was a little challenging in that I had to mirror text and then a couple of sign backwards so we could make a sandwich of it with white foam board between the two metal components. My first paying job lol
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Nice! I would recommend fixing a photo shoot table that will let all us car nuts drool on the rest of you toys! Oh sorry just kidding.
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I am guilty of being a certified car nut… Some people invest in 401ks and stock markets but I prefer to have “things” that will hopefully keep Pace with inflation. My brother’s a banker and he always reminds me that’s wishful thinking but he’s the guy that always wants to take rides in the cars lol
Anyway, if my garage was bigger I would surely have more but with the plasma table, a couple of tractors, and I’m and an obsession with building big RC airplanes, I’m down to just two of my favorite cars.
One is a 1928 Ford Model A Phaeton standard. Story is that I bought it from the restorer’s family after he passed away. It was restored in 1990 and the receipts tallied 29k and luckily I got the whole book from the family. This man named Frank Edwards in Noblesville Indiana passed away after putting only 490 mi on the restoration. And boy was at a restoration the underside looks as nice as the top but from 2005 when he passed away to 2020 when I bought the car it’s at in a darkened garage with cardboard and tarps all over for protection. All four tires were dry rotted and flat but when they pulled the covers back it was a diamond in the rough. Short of the few surface scratches that I was able to buff out of the clear coat, it was spectacular. And they sold it to me for 10.5k. I wouldn’t part with that car for double LOL that’s the only one of the two cars that I have now that the family says they absolutely will fight over when my carcass is planted.
Second car is one that the family loves to hate on LOL. A 2014 Shelby GT500. Bone stock other than an upgrade to the tires… The original Goodyear f1s were useless and guaranteed the rear tires would go up in smoke at the tiniest tap of the throttle. The theory in buying it was that it was the last one Shelby had any hand in spec’g. The last one to have a manual transmission, the last one to claim a top speed over 200 mph although the convertible I have was electronically limited to 155. And the last of the mustang cars with a solid rear axle. It is a constant struggle when I get in this car to resist that little devil talking in my ear every time I pull up to a stoplight LOL. I love driving the car but since it is supposed to be an investment I have to force myself to resist the urge to pull it out on a sunny day and go for a spin and not act like a hoodlum 
And the last few are of my favorite giant scale RCs. The shop with is a balsa USA kit and I believe is about 126-in wingspan, my favorite plane the quarter scale super Cub on floats which is an absolute hoot to fly, and the easiest big plane I have to fly is the 1914 Fokker eindecker is like flying a big baby. I tried flying the real thing but I was just too big of a chicken to be in that plane alone and if I put one of these in the ground, sure it’s a bad day but at least I’m alive haha
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I like the cars!! My boss has a GT500. Fun car! I have always wanted a Cobra. Obviously an original isn’t going to be a reality. I had a chance at a 90% complete kit 10 years ago… still kicking myself that I didn’t buy it. If I live long enough I hope to do a kit when the kids get older.
Thanks, I have always had a car affliction lol. Those cobras are wicked cars I would love to have one too. A couple of Canadian guys with a channel on YouTube called “throttle house” did a review of a 427 Cobra and it looked hilariously fun to drive! I think it would be impossible not to want one of those after watching that review!
I thought about trading the GT500 on a really nice silver Ferrari California and then I started researching the maintenance involved on the Ferrari and the cost of the maintenance more importantly… That quickly put a nix to it. Even if you could do the work yourself, the parts would eat you alive on the crazy prices they charge for something as simple as a brake rotor or caliper.
I think I’ve just got to stick with the GT500 LOL
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