Rhino and RAMs?

[joe]

Jim,

I really enjoyed and appreciate your post about Rams.

We bought Rams back when David was owner and it was very unstable. Couldn't tell if that was a function of Windows 98 or Rams but, as I got further into more complex designs, there were just too many lock-ups.

I have upgraded it to the latest version, don't know why, as we have ArtCam Insignia.

Do you think there is anything Rams will do better than Insignia?

J
www.normansignco.com

[jthelen]

Joe,
I have a lot of programs but ArtCam Insignia is not one of them so I can't comment on the differences in the programs.

I still have very occasional lock ups. One annoying thing for me is editing the posts within Rams. If I do a big V groove file and want to scroll to the bottom in Rams edit window it takes several minutes or just locks up. I just don't use Rams for this. Note Pad works great, if the file is too big I use word pad and fight it about wanting to save as a .txt.

The other drawback for me is the simulation. It is slow and not much control. Visual mill on the other hand has an excellent simulation. Rams tells me VM uses an expensive 3rd party simulation engine, and they choose not to in an effort to keep the cost of Rams down. I guess they will be offering an add on simulator sometime in the future for people who need it.

There are some improvement I would like to see. Once you have laid the tool paths you can go back in and look at the perimeters for any given path. (in Gold at least) I think you should be able to change these perimeters and re-calculate the path. It would be useful if you made a part and decided a smaller bit would have been better, if you could open the file, go to perimeters, and just change the bit size and re-calculate. Now I have to look up the perimeters, delete the path, and start over.

All in all I like Rams. It is a snap for 2D work and very fast. I am learning to see the finished part by looking at the tool paths and not simulation as much. The gold version is good for working with 3D models too. The manual could be better. The Email help response time is good, even night and weekends. (they have an emergency E-mail help for Rams owner too) I think the responses could be a little more in-depth. It seams they don't give out much in the way of tips and trick even when you ask. Maybe that is because they sell training CD's.

I bought their trace program. It works well. I can trace and clean up a file 10 times faster then with CAD and there are no open contour problems. If I get a DXF out of Solidworks sometimes it has stacked line from the bottom of the model. You can't see these in the front or side views of CAD. With trace you click on the corner and just pull it to the side. If the lines are stacked you will see the other lines underneath. Pull the top layer away and delete it. Stacked line sometime mess up tool paths.
I know there are programs with trace built in and some free ones. I needed something right now when I bought it, no time for research. But it seams like a good program.

Jim

[andyBorowski@att.net]

What happened to ArtCAM Forum at Delcam? Seems to be locked...Do they charge subscription fee or something ? It used to be free.

[paco]

I guess it will be fixed soon... I'm pretty sure it will still be free access to all.