Fate of G-Wizard?

[neurosis]

Anyone know what the fate of G-Wizard is going to be now that Bob Warfield has passed? 

[Jeff]

Anyone know what the fate of G-Wizard is going to be now that Bob Warfield has passed? 

This is all I see:


"We regret to say that Bob Warfield, the CEO, Programmer, Marketer and Customer Service provider for CNC Cookbook has passed away suddenly. As a result, CNCCookbook will no longer be able to provide these services at the same level, at least in the short to medium time frame. Given our current uncertainty, we have suspended accepting new orders.
We apologize to all our loyal customers for any inconvenience that this has caused or may cause. CNCCookbook will endeavor to keep the current versions of the GWizard products available to you for as long as reasonably possible.

We will keep you notified on this page as we determine the future of the GWizard products. Thank you for your understanding at this difficult time for us."

https://www.cnccookbook.com

[JParis]

SOunds like either someone buys it to keep it going or it's going to "wither on the vine"

[neurosis]

They still have links to purchase the software but what would be the point of purchasing software that is no longer supported or updated. I don't know of that is still up because they haven't had the time to take it down or if they plan on continuing to sell old versions of the software.

[gcode]

Unless the estate can find someone with sufficient talents to take it over, it's probably gone.

Hooking your horses to one man bands is always risky in the long run.

Speaking of one man bands Is John Billings still alive?

I can't tell from his web site.

We had a bunch of his posts here when I started on 2007.... and we ran his NIT PC controller on our Cincinatti
gantry for a few years. That was a really slick control, but we didn't have anyone who knew how to make is sing
and no oone who wwas willing to learn.

[JParis]

Hooking your horses to one man bands is always risky in the long run.

It's one of the reasons I mostly avoid "3rd party" plugins....over the years there is so much carange left over from people who bought things only to have it die on the vine..

Varco Reports is the only thing I Have made an exception on to this point.

[neurosis]

It's one of the reasons I mostly avoid "3rd party" plugins....over the years there is so much carange left over from people who bought things only to have it die on the vine..

Varco Reports is the only thing I Have made an exception on to this point.

We got burned with volumill and never went down that road again. No more 3rd party plugins for us either.

I probably wouldn't have been bitter over volumill if MC had waited until dynamic was a little more polished before shit canning volumill.     

[RobertELee]

Byte? Calling BabyByte? You got a copy little buddy? Target is acquired and in sight.

[Jeff]

if MC had waited until dynamic was a little more polished before shit canning volumill.     

What do you mean?

[neurosis]

What do you mean?

When they dumped Volumill, dynamic milling hadn't been around long.  There were some things that you could do with Volumill that you couldn't with dynamic and dynamic still had some bugs.

As an example, one feature in particular, volumill was capable of slot milling in tight areas if you wanted. It would reduce the depth of cut, rpm, and feed, to what ever you specified for those tight areas. It was way more efficient and convenient.

[Jeff]

they dumped Volumill

I don't remember volumill being in Mastercam. I think I skipped a couple of versions when X or X5 came out.
That must have happened during that time.

[gcode]

I don't remember volumill being in Mastercam. I think I skipped a couple of versions when X or X5 came out.
That must have happened during that time.

It was a third party add-on you could buy.
Quite a few people did buy it.. and after a couple of years CNC Software
locked it out. There were a lot of unhappy people over that one.
I don't know what it cost, but their investment went up in smoke when it was locked out.

[Newbeeee™]

Byte? Calling BabyByte? You got a copy little buddy? Target is acquired and in sight.

I'll message him

[Jon@NOWHERE]

It was a third party add-on you could buy.
Quite a few people did buy it.. and after a couple of years CNC Software
locked it out. There were a lot of unhappy people over that one.
I don't know what it cost, but their investment went up in smoke when it was locked out.

Yep, I worked for a company who purchased volumill for Mastercam only to have them kicked out a year later.  Although they did offer there stand alone version to anyone who had a license.  You can still get it for the other softwares out there as the company I work for now has it for NX, luckily Siemens hasn't locked it out even though they have their dynamic toolpaths as well.

[gcode]

I work for now has it for NX,

How good is Volumill now?
I'm still on their sales email list and occasionally get a sales email from them.
From the tone of the emails and such I'd guess they are struggling... or at least not thriving.