Rick Dorrington

Now that we have the SpaceBall working with EdgeCAM I can tell you that it's pretty sweet. I find myself trying to get it to move in IC. It's going to be pretty nice to have both of our main software packages working in a consistent manner.

Server went down again over the weekend. Seems that there was a problem with the Voltage Regulator Module, again. 08:20 - Call IBM Support 09:05 - Tech Support Calls Back 09:45 - Service Technician Calls Back 11:42 - Service Technician Arrives 11:50 - Server Online Total time - 3.5 Hours It should be noted as well that our warranty covers "next business day". Not Bad. Apparently this problem is well known and they have since taken steps to alleviate the cause. They tell us that this problem is peculiar to our version of server and that it shouldn't happen again. Hope not.

Nice. This could be useful.

As any CAM user knows, the state of CAM software is quite abysmal. We use a well known and very popular (also very expensive) CAM package that can be extremely frustrating to use. We spent a lot of time looking at different packages and consider it to be the best of the lot which doesn't say very much for the CAM industry. It probably doesn't help that we use it hand-in-hand with IC and it just doesn't measure up, particularly in the support arena. Where the Irondudes always respond in a timely manner and with constructive solutions, the "other" guys respond with things like "Thats just the way it works but we understand your frustration." Ya, great answer when customers are breathing down your neck. There are lots of reasons for this state of affairs. Fortunately there are projects in the works (STEP-NC is one) to address some of the shortcomings in this area. Unfortunately there are other forces which make it unlikely that things will change much in the time frame that I might likely care about. Machine tools can last decades and their proprietary controllers are likely to stay with them. I don't think G-code is going to go away any time soon. So with this in mind I was thinking that if the developers were bored and looking for a project I would like to propose something called IronCAMid=red>. (So much the better if it ran on a Mac.) Hey, I can dream can't I? Just remember that you heard it here first.

Didn't see any T-shirts though.

Windows. Arrrgh!!! How stupid. Good find. You guys pass the test. On W2K we have a slightly different selection - Small Fonts/Large Fonts Of course we were set to large fonts- the eyes can't take the punishment otherwise. Back to large fonts and small previews for me. At least we know why it behaves this way now.

Thank you. With typical grace the Irondudes have come through again. You guys are truly amazing. (4 Smile Rating)

He started to walk away but then he came back.

Mike, It doesn't matter. It's always the same. Rick

Here it is folks. Thanks Chris.

Gentlemen, Not trying to ignore this thread. I have a screenshot (Alt-Print Screen-Imaging,New,Jpg,Paste-Save). However, there seems to be some difficulty here wherein any posting under the "6.0 Discussion" does not have an option to "Attach File" in the reply pane. I have been discussing this with Chris and he does see this problem. As for the preview pane they can see the problem in the jpg I sent them but cannot duplicate this at their end. Mysterious. Rick

We see the press release. Quit teasing. When can we download? P.S. You can remove the Spaceball polls and all the crying that went on before in the forums so we can clear some space for the relative merits (or not) of the new stuff. Cheers, Rick

MIke, Doesn't seem to matter here. I don't think that I've ever resized the window. I tried what you suggested but it is still the same. We are on W2KP. What are you using?

We would love to use Spinfire. I believe the Irondudes have talked to Actify but we haven't seen any fruit yet.

In the File-Open preview pane, the preview is only filling about 3/4 of the window. Resolution 1600 x 1200. I would try it at different resolution but I don't want to have to tweak the settings again. Is anyone else seeing this?

Beat, With the SpaceBall you get software to change the configuration of the buttons for the applications that support the SpaceBall on your system. I would guess that the IronDudes are trying to figure out a system for the default settings. I'm not a programmer so I could be off base here but it may be that the functions need to be made "available" to the SpaceBall configuration before they can be assigned.

What's a SpaceBall? On the serious side- Now that I've recovered from the sudden shock, here is our list. Obviously the camera controls go with the "ball". Most of the "right click" functions should be lower priority since they are easy to access. Triball- toggle on-off, position centre Zoom All Scene Browser- Toggle Perspective- Toggle Grid- Toggle Selection Filters- Assembly, Part, Intellishape, FEV Save, Open, New Scene, New Drawing Fillet, Chamfer Extrude, Spin, Sweep, Loft Eyedropper Smart Dimensions Rendering Configurations

Interesting discussion. Both Beat and Dave make some good arguments. In line with what Beat said, our "other" software vendors CEO recently told me that they have reverted from the "many engineers thrown at the problem" to "better engineers but less of them". They feel that this is better for their company and their product in the long run. We shall see how it pans out. Your comment about more resources flowing into administration is all too correct. We are struggling to adapt to that very situation. All that aside I will say this. Whenever I see media coverage about the "other guys" I invariably get a bit ticked off. Why? It bothers me that a bitchin' product like IronCad doesn't seem to get the respect it deserves. (Read-NO Mention) Frankly, I'm getting tired of "Is that AutoCad?" (Read-I want to scream like a madman you moron, your inane attempt to impress me has failed miserably) or "I've never heard of it." Ouch. Oh, almost forgot. I also like the fact that some of the suggestions that I have made seem to have made their way into V6.0. And Dave. I would love to rip your argument apart but alas, I can't. You are all too correct. Unfortunately too many people are unwilling to stick their neck out for something that they know is better but might not be as popular. How does that saying go? No-one ever got fired for buying IBM. (Of course, this coming from a guy who did buy a Beta and also loves his Macs. It must be a weakness or something.) --A couple of Canadian sense--

Ignore him. He might go away.

Chris, When we got our systems ATI was not the owner of the GL2, I think Diamond still had it.

Chris, I've checked out both of these situations and cannot find anything awry. It sure makes us glad that we went with the Fire GL2. We have yet to encounter a video problem described in these forums.

George is getting upset. Jimmy might start jumping soon.

T-SHIRTS??? What T-Shirts?

Anybody at the nerve centre care to comment?

Absolutely, but does that infer higher prices for the software? Someone has to pay - usually the customer.