I have several cam packages. Sheet cam seemed to be the perfect fit for the plasma however, it’s glitchy, brings stuff in on weird layers, has a really hard time importing dxf’s to the right scale. I’ve developing a laundry list of complaints.
It does generate code for more complex metal art that would choke fusion to death as a plus.
So far, I’d buy vectric software and don’t waste time with sheet cam.
I never bought into Sheetcam still use FUSION360.
I also have ASPIRE and it does wonders with dxf and other files!
That is the one thing it does well and the only thing I use it for. I’m sure it would do everything that I cut but haven’t invested the time to get the workflow down or figure out the layers thing but for the odd sign or whatever I do it was well worth the $150 bucks.
Love it, have no issues with it. AutoCAD 2007, SheetCam and Mach3 …
my everyday Plasma CAD/CAM workflow
If any one new to this reads this thread, don’t let it weigh too heavily on your decision. Sheetcam works very well.
I’ve had no layer or scaling issues, once I figured out what DPI my SVG files needed to be.
In your case that was a particularly unique problem transferring files from Affinity Designer to SheetCam. AD uses old SVG headers so SheetCam assumed that meant 90DPI even if you had told AD to export at 96DPI.
The same is true for DXF files. It’s a crappy format and (in addition to its poor handling of curves) DXF doesn’t always maintain the unit measurements from the source program. Usually all you have to do is try either 25:1 or 1:1 on the file open when it asks about the scale. (25:1 is for converting mm to inches)
I stand by my comment, yea learning scaling is not intuitive but can be done. Mine crashed several times nesting sheets to different layers today alone. It works, but isn’t nearly as intuitive as vectric products.
If you have a laundry list of issues I’d like to see it. I’m always trying to improve SheetCam and welcome bug reports. I must admit the recent major upgrade has not gone as smoothly as I’d like but I’m fixing bugs as soon as I come across them.
@LesNewell
welcome…are you a programmer for SheetCam?
I for one find it pretty easy to use and understand…and I am a total noob even though I started a year ago…learning everyday.
great software as far as I am concerned
I bow to you Sir…nice work…
I have to chime in here as well… @LesNewell …
Can’t even begin to tell you how much easier my life has become since switching from F360 to SheetCam… Definitely one piece of software I’d hate to see go!!
Thanks for all the updates and fixes that go along with them too Les… So far, none of which have been a “deal breaker” for me!!
Cheers!
So Les, I bought the software and use it and I’m not Pooh pooping it. But it isn’t as intuitive as vectric software.
It seems dxf’s bring themselves in on a layer that they were created on. I noticed this today while using Vcarve pro, my dxf’s remembered the layer that I created them on. From videos it’s says once a layer is created it can’t be deleted, well sort of, all layer should show, but they don’t. A problem I was having was with a downloaded dxf, they would come in on layer “black” or “colored” or some random number. I had a hell of a time figuring what was going on. My goal was to take a sheet, label it say 2001#1, cut out some stuff, the be able to go back to that remnant sheet at a later date, to better use the material. I might bring in 5 separate files. Anyway, these files should either have a “do you want to add to layer x” I expected—new file, add dxf, add 2nd dxf, these should be on same layer.
Long winded I guess, I don’t know if these layers from different source cause the crashes, I think it is, but yesterday sheet cam crashed 3 separate times.
S scaling is also an issue, dxf’s from vcarve are fine, but if I modify a dxf from some source in Inkscape the scaling is always off. Not sure if the output is metric or some other issue.
BG
@greener121 What feels intuitive depends a lot on previous experience and personal preference. I do my best but it is impossible to write a program that everyone finds easy to use. That is why I’m a great believer of try before you buy. I’d rather miss out on a sale than have a customer unhappy because they don’t like the way it works.
When importing dxf files you can either go by layer name or by colour. By the looks of it you have it set to use colours. After choosing the file to open a box appears with a number of options. If you turn off ‘Use colours as layer names’ it will use the layer names.
Scaling is dxf files is a bit of a lottery. DXF files themselves don’t include the units used but generally selecting ‘inch’ or ‘metric’ will work. If your drawing comes in far too big, try again as metric. If it comes in far too small, try again as inch. I just found an isse with scling of SVG files which will be fixed in the next release which will hopefully be out today or tomorrow.
With your crashing does it ask if you want to create a support file? If so could you create a file and email it to me. Support files really help me find out what is going on.
Great response. I’m happy to have supported you by buying a copy of Sheetcam when I ordered my table.
I’m the guy that can’t get the development version to recognize my license file. Fortunately the recent updates brought the stable release close enough to the development version its not much of a worry anymore.
Yes it did, but just closed the window. I’ll send a report next time. As far as layers, I’m not sure I saw or was looking for that option. Thanks for the support. 
+100
I’m in the software development business and bump into this all the time. Usability is very much based on the user’s experience with other software. We can win awards for ease of use, usability design and intuitive operations and still have people complain that don’t have an intuitive user experience 
Apple OS and Microsoft Windows have been arguing that for years. Here we argue about Fusion 360 vs Inkscape or a dozen other alternatives. We see new software through the lens of our experience with other software.
I’m not CERTAIN who said it but, I believe it was John Dvorak at the height of the Mac/PC wars when both sides were touting their preferred platform interface as “intuitive”. He said, “there is only one single interface on the planet that is truly intuitive and that is a mother’s breast. Everything else must be learned”. Les does a pretty darned good job and I STILL discover a " Oh! So THAT’S how you do it!" every week.