First an overview of SmartCAM is in order:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SmartCAM
Cut To The Announcement Of SmartCAM V15:
http://www.smartcamcnc.com/press_029.asp
“Our goals with each development cycle is to release a new version that advances SmartCAM on two main fronts,” said Doug Oliver, SmartCAMcnc’s Senior Product Manager. “First, capability improvements such as better CAD data handling and new toolpath generation; secondly, fundamental enhancements to the way users interact with SmartCAM, such as user interface improvements and new capabilities to learn the extensive power the product provides. SmartCAM Version 15 clearly delivers on both these goals.”
Here is what this bullshit really means:
Smartcam V15 toolpaths are still no where close to what they need to be but they have made improvements.
The Smartcam V15 user interface is still way too dated and tedious for new users who expect much more than is offered in Smartcam V15. This especially true if a new user has used a modern cam interface. The user interface in Smartcam V15 is now better for those that are still using Smartcam.
Here are the facts on what is really needed for Smartcam:
A completely new user interface rewritten from the ground up rather than incremental updates to fix Smartcam’s very dated and tedious to use user interface.
Smartcam no longer has a U.S. VAR network and most shops still think the product is dead. Their marketing to new customers is just as horrible as their old dated user interface.
Smartcam could again be a market leader if the right steps are taken to create a new user interface for the product that will streamline what it already does and give it a modern look and feel.
A quality marketing plan to get new users to start using SmartCAM doesn’t exist right now and must be established by SmartCAMcnc if SmartCAM is going to have any real chance of being taken seriously again. SmartCAM’s advanced grahpical toolpath editing capabilities currently far exceed what is in Mastercam, Gibbscam, Surfcam, Featurecam and Esprit all of which have very limited point based toolpath editing rather than graphical geometry element editing.
