OK Guys, meaning you Surfcam code writers and owners and whomever is in charge of determining what is done. I have a super big bone to pick with you.
I am seriously looking into Surfcam again for the first time in years. My first choice for CAM would be whatever is integrated with SolidEdge assuming it is a good program. I have not had a chance to see this yet so I am hedging my bets by looking into other CAM programs to. I am going to end up getting what makes sense for my company afterall.
So I bring in a part thinking I will just rotate it 180 degrees around the X axis and then in Y and Z so I can reset the zero on the block to cut the bottom. This is in the demo version by the way. In rapid order I come to the conclusion that there is basically no improvement for this type of work here since version 2002.5 and that the only rational way to deal with this is to just create a new part in Solid Edge and bring it in positioned correctly for use.
Now on the way past this quaint bit of refusal from Surfcam to modernise I am reaqquainted with something whose truly and profoundly irritating qualities I had forgotten about. I remember the lack of this but had just forgotten how darned irritating it is to not have UNDO. No UNDO. UNDO does not exist here. The world leader in NO UNDO and only software in existence that does not have UNDO!!! I thought about adding a few more UNDOs in here but you all get my point by now I am sure.
I can’t even begin to tell you how disgusted I am that this part I bring in when the inevitable mistakes or learning glitches occur my only solution is to delete the part and start over because I CAN’T UNDO. WHY CAN’T I UNDO AFTER OVER TEN YEARS SINCE THE FIRST TIME I USED SURFCAM! ARE YOU GUYS DAFT!!
I am sitting here and thinking hard about the wisdom of the quotes I have asked for with Surfcam. Is it worth it to get onboard at the most minimal level possible so I can Use my Faroarm again? Your policy of allowing me to get back on board for a reasonable price will probably see me do so. I liked what I saw in many ways earlier this month. BUT this undo thing in and of itself may well be enough to preclude me getting anything like three and four axis stuff from you.
I am simply not going to inflict upon myself the stupidity of having to start over on a part because you guys made a bad decision to not include UNDO well over ten YEARS ago and now are too shortsighted to remediate this problem by fixing it. How myopic can you be to say that this will cause too much trouble with legacy problems and so we are not going to fix it. So now you will keep heaping more and more legacy things to eventually have to be fixed on top of this bad situation. You do know that if you intend to take advantage of opportunity in the CAM world for new sales that you are going to have to fix some big old problems you have been hanging onto don’t you?
Well let me reconsider that statement. You guys don’t have to fix a thing based on past actions do you. This truly epic effort to avoid advancing into the unknown world of UNDO can go on and it does show consistency and direction that can be anticipated and planned for. Why there are such good things with Surfcam in the tool libraries and tool paths and with the Faroarm and then these really egregious bits of past dumb decisions that never go away is beyond me. I would bet you that lack of undo if it was on a survey list sent to customers would be right at the top.
Lack of UNDO is enough by itself for me to seriously reconsider buying into Surfcam at this time above the barest minimum level needed for my Faroarm.
Machined Audio Horn Lens 
Dave,
It’s good that you bring this up.
While SURFCAM has done some great things with toolpaths, the lack of UNDO should be embarrassing to them.
Making a claim that there are legacy considerations won’t hold water for very long.
The last company I heard use that excuse was VX and we all know what happened to them.
You can’t be cutting edge in one area and holding on to the past with another.
All the good will be outweighed by the lack of improvement through product evolution.
In the end, no one will remember all the good that was there.
They will only remember why they chose not to buy your product any longer.
Hi Tim,
It is a maddening thing to look at really good stuff in Surfcam totaly shot down by these bad past decisions. Talking with a Surfcam trainer yesterday who is spending the week teaching Surfcam at a tool and die shop and his comments about undo were scathing. Probably the biggest complaint he hears and all he can say to them is delete the part and start over.
“All the good will be outweighed by the lack of improvement through product evolution.
In the end, no one will remember all the good that was there.
They will only remember why they chose not to buy your product any longer”
You are absolutely right as what is in my mind this morning is not the improvements but the lack of undo which if I might say it “undoes” all the good that has happened there.