[Joe T]

Al,

I own 'BobCAD-CAM for Solidworks V2.' I have been exploring its capabilities for the last week or so. I am a reasonably good CATIA driver and current on 'Advanced Surface Machining.'

My question:

Look at the image I attached and you will see I need to be able to use a stock which is not a simple extrusion. I need to be able to utilize a stock that is made of multiple pieces. I am NOT proficient in SolidWorks, but I am learning. How do I use this type of stock in BobCAD-CAM for Solidworks, V2?

Regards,
Joe T.

[jrmach]

Well,you need to draw your stock,then save as a .,STL
Now when you do the stock wizard pick your .STL file.
At least this works in V 26 Bobcad

[Joe T]

Thank you! I will try that. I have a TRIAL version of V26 on my laptop. I will do that now and report back.

Regards,
Joe T.

[Joe T]

OK, the .stl worked. I have my stock.

Now, next question (please be patient): I can't get the part to load? I am going through the on-line HELP but still don't see how to overlay the stock and the part.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Joe T.

[Joe T]

Never mind!! I figured it out!!

Thanks,
Joe T.

OK, the .stl worked. I have my stock.

Now, next question (please be patient): I can't get the part to load? I am going through the on-line HELP but still don't see how to overlay the stock and the part.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Joe T.

[Joe T]

OK, I brought in the part as an .stl file, also. Now when I select "Mill 3-Axis" and get the wizard, it will not let me select the geometry or boundary. I am using V26. What did I do wrong?

Regards,
Joe T.

[Joe T]

I used a .stp for the part. It sort of worked.

Man, the simulation "movement' is SLOW!!!!

Not impressed yet.

Joe T.

[jrmach]

DO NOT bring your part in as an .STL
You open your.bbcd file which has your part drawing in it (not.stl)
To set up your Milling Stock (not your part) R Click on milling stock/stock wizard/check .STL/next browse to where you have the file and select it


On edit,you open your solidworks file,not .bbcd,,,,sorry forgot which software you using,,,but I believe you get the idea ?

[Joe T]

I am using a V26 TRIAL version on my laptop. I do not have SolidWorks on my laptop.

Tomorrow, I will be at the shop where I have SolidWorks and BobCAD-CAM for SolidWorks V2.

Using the V26 Trial version, I managed to get the stock in via .stl. I finally tried using the .stp to bring in the part (V 26), and that seemed to work. But, when I started the milling wizard the software did not seem to 'recognize' the model geometry or boundary. After screwing around with the model and the wizard, I finally got the software to pick up some of the geometry (not all, just some - it would not select the WHOLE part), but it never seemed to 'select' a boundary. I got the software to mill a small portion of the part, but not much.

I will try tomorrow at the shop using my V2 (SW). I will post my progress tomorrow evening.

Thanks for your patience.

Joe T.

[jrmach]

Got to send you here Depoalo - YouTube and and Documents & Manuals | Software documentation BobCAD-CAM | BobCAD-CAM for some good video's.A lot of the video's for V 25,pertain to .V26.

I would think V 27 would be the trial version ??

[jrmach]

.................................

[mmoe]

I used a .stp for the part. It sort of worked.

Man, the simulation "movement' is SLOW!!!!

Not impressed yet.

Joe T.

The simulation is slow because you're on a laptop. That and the similation only uses one core while inside of Bobcad as far as I can tell. If you want a more streamlined simulation for smoother playback, and you have a multicore (2 real cores or more not counting hyperthreading), save the simulation as a "presentation" and run the presentation .exe file. This brings the simulation into a self contained executable, which will use more of your system resources than the simulation can within Bobcad. On my workstation desktop (3.7ghz 4 actual core LGA 2011, 16gb of quadchannel RAM and a higher end video card), I can run the simulation inside of Bobcad smoothly without issue, and can run it at about 4x-8x speed smoothly as well as long as the accuracy level is moderate. If I create a presentation file, I can run the simulation in it's own container with smooth motion (no stalling/skipping) at perhaps 16x speed while cranking the accuracy up to the highest setting. I also do this with the full machine simulation where I've modeled it down to the chrome handles. Frankly, most people are more than a little impressed when they see it on my desktop. With the number of calculations necessary to create this visual, and the fact that it's a dynamic simulation where you can rotate or zoom in/out on the machine in real time, it shouldn't be surprising that you need some juice to make it go.

[Joe T]

OK, I am at the shop using BobCAD-CAM for Solidworks. More problems - - - -

1.) I can load a part or "stock", but not both. When I load the part into solidworks, no problem. But, when I launch BCC, and I try to load the stock, I get the usual screen but no method to load an existing stock. Using V26 TRIAL I could at least load part and stock.

2.) I create a coordinate system per the video tutorial, but it doesn't save the system and it does not let me rename it!!!!

I am very frustrated. I have watched all of the tutorial videos that were purchased for this product. Any suggestions?

Regards,
Joe T.