I’d like to make a plea to the developers of Shapr3D to give us some sort of CAM solution. Pretty please?
You’ve done such a wonderful thing for us Apple users, and freed us from the tyranny of bad CAD options. Finally, software that works, as it should, on an Apple platform, leveraging its strengths. Not some half-baked cross-platform or cloud-based garbage that is barely usable. Great job, team Shapr3D. I’m so grateful that I purchased a year’s subscription, to support further development, even though I don’t plan to use it. And here’s why…
Many of us use CAD so that we can actually make objects in the real world using CNC machines. Many of us are not professional machinists, or large companies. Many of us are small business owners or craftsmen who need an affordable solution. As long as Shapr3D is CAD only, we have to use some other software for CAM. And, of course, the only software situation more miserable than CAD in the Apple universe is CAM in the Apple universe. The options are terrible. So, we are left in a situation like this: buy a subscription to Fusion 360, or a subscription to Fusion 360 and a subscription to Shapr3D. You see the problem, I’m sure. We really can’t afford both, and we HAVE to have CAM.
So, I would just like to make a plea to the Shapr3D team to give us some sort of CAM solution. You’ve freed some CAD users. Please free those of us that use CAD to make things too.
Totally agree the only reason to model an object is to realise it in the real world and Sharpr3D just falls short. Not everything in the world can be 3D printed and traditional CAM is far from dead and if you guys are serious at making this a true engineering tool you need to step into the dark side
Absolutely agree.
It’s being a nightmare to export STL to Meshcam and try to get less than mediocre toolpaths there.
Not to speak about Fusion360. It goes nuts with any imported file. Unable to do something that makes sense in CAM.
Please, CAM feature!!
My answer would be “none”. That was the point of my original post: they’re all equally awful. At least all the ones that I’ve tried. There are several that are priced only for industrial customers. As I am only a lowly woodworker, and not an auto manufacturer, I only have access to some. Among them are MeshCam, RhinoCam, Fusion 360, and the various Vectric products. They are all variously buggy, kludgy, slow, or problematic in some other way. None are native to the Mac or iPadOS platforms, of course, which makes them even worse, if usable at all.
Having said that, I use Fusion 360, as it is the least terrible, by a tiny margin, and is, for the moment, free for limited features.
I would challenge you or your staff to try using one of these to try to accomplish actual work (if you haven’t already) in order to demonstrate to yourselves just how truly terrible the CAM landscape is, particularly for non-industrial customers. I would say that there is wide-open opportunity here, given the proliferation of small CNC machines.
Of that, I have no doubt. As a small business owner, I think I can hear your pain. :). Still, you all did a tremendous job building a useful CAD app for the iPad. No one thought that was likely to happen until Shapr showed up. I suppose we’re all hoping you can pull another rabbit out of your hat.
I own cnc machines that I don’t use because i hate all CAM platforms………when i do use them i have people on upworks that program for me at a reasonable price, but even with that i still have to use cam in one fashion or another to build CNC parts. I have always hand drawn my parts because until i found Shapr3d i had looked at various legacy CAD platforms, and i only looked because i knew they would kill my thought process, workflow, and my imagination………they are counterintuitive to me. I see people getting degrees in mechanical, and they can use CAD, but aren’t very good at design………… When i found Shapr3d it was the same experience as hand drawing, but with huge advantages over hand drawn. That being said, if you could make CAM as workable as your CAD system it would be incredible, not just for the end user, but i think also for Shapr3d.
