{"id":2438,"date":"2012-09-09T17:56:11","date_gmt":"2012-09-09T23:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thmsblog.com\/?p=2438"},"modified":"2021-10-19T13:57:26","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T18:57:26","slug":"rhino-crazy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/?p=2438","title":{"rendered":"Rhino Crazy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I have spent the last couple of weeks deciding what I was going to do to upgrade my CAD\/CAM software. Not the software I use for Over Head Routing. I have one of the best for my purposes and cost restraints in the form of Vectric  Aspire<\/a>.  I use it a lot and always find new things I can make or design using it. Aspire is not going to go away for something better in its class for a long time.<\/p>\n

As the title suggests my struggle has been what do I do with my aging (over six years old) McNeel\u2019s Rhinoceros<\/a> and its CAM plugin, MecSoft\u2019s RhinoCAM<\/a>. I use this combination to do the things that Aspire was never designed to do in CAD\/CAM, A few example projects are the stepper motor heat sinks on HB2, a complicated replacement gun part in aluminum, and the detailed A3 locomotive driver wheels I machined from stainless steel.<\/p>\n

Rhino really rocks in the drawing department. Well, that is what it is, a 3D drawing program. I started with Version 3 and somewhere along the line I upgraded to version 4. It\u2019s been in Version 4 for quite some time, but there have been updates on a regular basis. Version 3 was fun but when V4 arrived, I knew it was a real pro users program. I am now running the Beta for version 5 and it is another major leap.<\/p>\n

Rhino sells for around $1000 new and about half that for upgrades. So I have probably $1500 invested in Rhino over 6 \u2013 8 years. I don\u2019t know where V5 upgrade will be priced, but I will be there.<\/p>\n

MecSoft RhinoCAM is a special edition of Visual Mill that runs inside Rhino as a plug in. It is NOT a McNeel product. There are probably 50 companies making add-ins for Rhino.<\/p>\n

I am still on Version 1.0 of the standard edition RhinoCAM plus 4th<\/sup> axis. I just now after 6 years upgraded to version 2012. I also purchased the yearly support package. They have not yet arrived . I jumped several versions and the newer version of RhinoCAM is much more enhanced to what I have been using.  It was time for the change.<\/p>\n

The version 1 with 4th<\/sup> axis cost me $2000 new. The upgrade today (4th<\/sup> axis) is slightly more than half that amount.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s this decision of what to do before spending that kind of money that led me into a re-evaluation of many of the other options available. I looked at tested and dissected four other competitors. One was in the five figure range. I want to see what kind of fish that bait would land, actually far more complexity than I could ever manage.<\/p>\n

Sorry, I am not going to get into a blow by blow comparison. In reality all of the considerations were good CAD\/CAM programs. My decision and purchase is a personal one. No fan boy ranting and trolling other products involved in my choices or what I say in this blog.<\/p>\n

After all the hard work (Yes there was a lot of mental anguish.) I had a new appreciation of where I was and what I have. Having many years of experience with two programs that are still improving and staying cutting edge slapped me back from wonder lust.<\/p>\n

Updates are less expensive than new programs. I don\u2019t have to learn a new way of doing things. But then there IS a LOT of new things to learn in the updates. Well, that\u2019s good and what new versions should be all about.<\/p>\n

Has my investment in CAD\/CAM paid for itself? The answer is, \u201cNot even close\u201d if you consider an investment as making profit from selling things I have designed. However, the answer is a resounding, \u201cHell Yes!\u201d as an investment in my personal education and skills. Sometimes you just have to pay for hands on education in an avocation.<\/p>\n

I plan to turn a few bucks for all this investment in training and education when I am in retirement, if that ever happens. Right now CAD\/CAM is wonderful entertainment. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have spent the last couple of weeks deciding what I was going to do to upgrade my CAD\/CAM software. Not the software I use for Over Head Routing. I have one of the best for my purposes and cost restraints in the form of Vectric  Aspire.  I use it a lot and always find […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77778,"featured_media":2439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[91,104,138,92,90],"class_list":["post-2438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cadcamcnc","tag-3d","tag-cam","tag-cnc","tag-drawing","tag-rhino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/77778"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3843,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2438\/revisions\/3843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.thehobbyistmachineshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}