[arich]

Can anyone speak to the stability of SprutCAM 8? It sounds like they added a lot of new features, my biggest question is whether the software is less buggy than SC 7.

Also has the documentation gotten any better? SC7 help files are very hit or miss, many sections are plain unusable.

[MichaelHenry]

Can anyone speak to the stability of SprutCAM 8? It sounds like they added a lot of new features, my biggest question is whether the software is less buggy than SC 7.

Also has the documentation gotten any better? SC7 help files are very hit or miss, many sections are plain unusable.

And does it handle Imperial units any better?

[mecheng10]

This has to be the biggest area needing improvement for me. Some sections of SprutCAM 7 make it nearly impossible to work efficiently with Imperial units. It seems like no matter what settings I change, at some point, the software tries to force me back into metric along the way.

And does it handle Imperial units any better?

[MichaelHenry]

This has to be the biggest area needing improvement for me. Some sections of SprutCAM 7 make it nearly impossible to work efficiently with Imperial units. It seems like no matter what settings I change, at some point, the software tries to force me back into metric along the way.

Guess I'll find out this week. I ordered the upgrade to SC8 late Friday. If no one beats me to it, I'll report back here with my SC8 impressions.

For those that don't know the protection used with SC8 has changed from that used with SC7 and upgraders will get a new dongle with SC8 and will need to return their SC7 dongle or get charged for a completely new SC license. I'm told that SC7 will work withthe new dongle, which was important to me.

Mike

[arich]

Cool, thanks Mike.

[RTP_Burnsville]

Mike,

Will be interested to hear your review comments on SC8.

I received a quote for the all-post upgrade but not sure at the moment if I am going to upgrade beyond SC7. Not sure there is any huge advantage in needed features and have grown a bit tired of now a feature works, and then in the next version it doesn't routine. As mentioned above, the imperial units as well as the default values are still are not as they should be.

Thanks,
Robert

[MichaelHenry]

It should be here tomorrow and I'll give it a look by the weekend. The mill ops have been working pretty well for me lately, even in Imperial, but the lathe dimensions, tool tables, and turning toolpaths are really hosed up in SC 7, so I'm hoping for some improvements there.

Mike

Mike,

Will be interested to hear your review comments on SC8.

I received a quote for the all-post upgrade but not sure at the moment if I am going to upgrade beyond SC7. Not sure there is any huge advantage in needed features and have grown a bit tired of now a feature works, and then in the next version it doesn't routine. As mentioned above, the imperial units as well as the default values are still are not as they should be.

Thanks,
Robert

[Michigan Ed]

Hi guy.
New to this forum.I did up grade to sc8 and at this time I can't get the old sc7 to work with either dongle now.sc8 works ok,but I do have a few ?,I'm not sure on what post to use..I guess I'll wait till Monday before I try to cut anything.....

[Live]

Mike,

Will be interested to hear your review comments on SC8.

I received a quote for the all-post upgrade but not sure at the moment if I am going to upgrade beyond SC7. Not sure there is any huge advantage in needed features and have grown a bit tired of now a feature works, and then in the next version it doesn't routine. As mentioned above, the imperial units as well as the default values are still are not as they should be.

Thanks,
Robert

Hello guys.
Could you please describe the imperial units problems more precisely. We will try to fix them.

[RTP_Burnsville]

Hello guys.
Could you please describe the imperial units problems more precisely. We will try to fix them.

One very annoying feature are the values displayed for options within a job appear not to be initially set to a valid or safe default. The option values appear to be mostly random and if you forget to set one something bad usually results. I had this conversation in the past with SC and we concluded that in the west, people assume that if a value appears in an option box it is a valid or safe default value. In the east, people don't associate with default values, everything is initially assumed wrong even if a value is displayed. If a value is not safe or valid it really should not be displayed.

One of the imperial things that comes to mind are feed rate settings in some job option menues. Imperial inch per minute vs distance per revolution. In the past the software would allow either to be selected but then used the value entered as inch per minute disreguarding the displayed units.

Bugs fixed in one version and then reappear in a later version broke in the original way. Very frustrating and much time wasted in debugging issues that would reappear broken that had been fixed in a prior version.

There were other issues with drilling and contour operations just don't recall the details at the moment.

Overall I like the program when it works..... However, the validation testing of released versions has been hit or miss, or so my experience.

Thanks,
Robert

[arich]

I have never had any issues with imperial units in SC7, the issue with IPR being inserted into Gcode without conversion to IPM is probably a posprocessor issue and unrelated to imperial vs. metric units. I have seen this issue as well with my Tormach post but never reported it, I probably should have. I just use the workaround of always entering feeds in IPM.

Sprutcam could definitely a better job of preventing human error.

While we're making suggestions - would be great if it had some basic analysis on the feeds/speeds tab. Would not be hard to display recommended surface speed based on workpiece material and cutter type. Would also make sense to display tool deflection which is just a function of the F&S along with cut depth/width. Why not display a warning if chip load gets low and could cause rubbing? All of these would increase chances of success for the user. Even an experienced machinist might make a mistake and leave a zero off the RPM or something.

[MichaelHenry]

The problem I've had most often lately with imperial units is with turning operations and the lathe tool table. For some entries in the tool table, the units revert to metric no matter how many times imperial is selected.

The feed rates in turn operations often get called out as metric, though they seem to get implemented as imperial in the posted G-code so long as Imperial units have been selected in the operation. It also seems to me that a minor change in an operation will revert the spindle speed back to CSS (instead of fixed rpm speed) and units from Imperial back to metric.

So long as we have your ear - could you please set up the dialog box input so that the focus changes logically when the tab key is pressed? As it is now, each time Tab is pressed the cursor jumps backwards and forwards in the dialog box.

I'm at work with no access to SprutCAM right now, but I can put together a more detailed list if that would help.

Mike

[dbrija]

There were other issues with drilling and contour operations just don't recall the details at the moment.

Thanks,
Robert

I have noticed that I never get the hole depth I ask for, but rather the clearance plane instead. This is true for all drill cycles. It gets the peck and retract right though...

It may be a post issue, but I have not had a chance to dig into it. I just have a habit now of hitting the "External Editor" button in the post window and fixing it...

[Live]

Hello Michael.
It would be great if you provide complete descriptions of particular bugs.
In our internal work we use Trac for bug management. Please contact me and we grant you with access to Trac. You will be able to create bug tickets, attach projects and other files to them and get quick response from developers.
My email is [email protected].

[RTP_Burnsville]

I have noticed that I never get the hole depth I ask for, but rather the clearance plane instead. This is true for all drill cycles. It gets the peck and retract right though...

It may be a post issue, but I have not had a chance to dig into it. I just have a habit now of hitting the "External Editor" button in the post window and fixing it...

I have had this type of issue come and go with different versions. Drilling bugs have been my biggest headache with SC. Come to think of it the last series of holes I drilled I needed to enter the data for each hole into the table manually as the wizard tool did not work right.

Robert

[pejaer]

Hi all,

I see Sprut 8 is made for 64 bit; does anyone know if will run on 32 bit XP?

Thanks.

[Live]

Hi all,

I see Sprut 8 is made for 64 bit; does anyone know if will run on 32 bit XP?

Thanks.

Yes, there are two versions of SprutCAM8: 32 and 64. The setup utility intalls the appropriate version automatically.

[RndmNmbr]

I received my upgrade disc from Tormach last week. I've been using SC7 for several years now and know it pretty well. I'm running the 64 bit version of SC8. I use imperial units. Here's some initial impressions:

GUI: There was a bit of polish and some reorganization but really the interface for SC8 looks and works about the same. Which is a good thing. Some things are moved around (the new "ribbon" style GUI everyone seems to be moving to) but it all works pretty much the same.

Speed: SC8 is a LOT slower than SC7. I was not expecting this. SC8 stops to "think" (i.e. freezes) a lot more than 7 did. (I keep thinking it's going to crash but so far it always comes back.) I'm on a 6 core machine - I thought this version was supposed to leverage that but it doesn't seem to even during long path generation runs it only seems to be loading a single core.

Install: Lots of trouble here. Complaints about missing BAT files during install. Not sure what was supposed to be present but wasn't. SC8 made my SC7 install non-functional with either dongle. This is something I need to take up with Tormach as I'm not sure I can trust 8 for paying jobs yet and they promised this would not happen. Additionally some of the defaults are really messed up and if you know Sprutcam you know that these things can REALLY screw you. They have a setting buried under Tools->System->Import->Curve Approx Tolerance that was defaulted to 0.01, which might be sane in metric, but causes curves to be really coarse in imperial. Changing this to 0.0001 (which displays as 0!!) seems to fix things. (Thanks to Dave on the Sprut forum for help on this one.)

Other stuff: Curve projection seems to be a lot less intelligent that SC7. I would swear the SC7 projected joined curves to the plane - SC8 only projects fragments and doesn't seems to do as good of a job in this area. The default approximation tolerance for curve projection is 0.00001, which must be manually changed EACH TIME or the system won't recognize ANY curves.

Good stuff: The new control on lead in / lead out for contouring is the bomb. (Of course I'm having some other trouble with lead in/out for contouring, but that's a bug that I think I saw in 7 as well and needs to be another post.)

Backward compatibility: It seems to open SC7 files and use SC7 posts just fine.

Simulation: Voxel 3D doesn't work anymore?? Solid still works fine. Voxel 5D seems to work better and faster than it used to.

Stability: Have not crashed it yet.

[arich]

thanks for the review. this is more or less what I expected. I have heard through the grape vine that they are working to fix a few kinks right now. I am going to hold on an upgrade to SC8 for at least a few months until a service pack comes out.

[d003]

Hello all
About installation problem.
<< SC8 made my SC7 install non-functional with either dongle.
I told with Eric Andersen, Tormach, about this problem yesterday. He said me that it is fix already.
Other installation problem we will try fix ASAP.