Should I pirate CAM software? (hypothetical question)

[macona]

I think something was lost in the picture when it was scaled. It looks like there might be cross points near the area where the ramp bottoms out.

For the price of cam-bam you cant really compare it to $10k cam packages with trichoid.

I have not played with it since it came out. I might have to look at it again. It has come a long way.

[beanbag]

Set for a spiral lead in at a 5 degree angle so no plunge problems, .020 finish offset and 40% stepover.

Looks like a ramped entry to me. Those loops aren't connected. How does it go from one loop to the next?

In any case, this looks like a typical low-budget toolpath. A higher end CAM program would do a helical entry, spiral outwards, and use trochoidal milling to finish off the corners. Then it would show a 3D simulation of the cutting. Just sayin'...

[lazlo]

I don't know what site you're thinking of, but The Pirate Bay was created in 2003 by Gottfrid Warg and Peter Sunde -- Swedish software pirates from a group called "Piratbyran": "The Piracy Bureau".

How The Pirate Bay Sailed Into Infamy

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7893223.stm

[Alistair Hosie]

I have no hesitation buying copied software I don't buy it but if I did I would not hesitate the companies should either make it non copiable or offer a better buy it now price.Most times these are totaly unafordable for the normal Joe so it's buy a copy or go without I used to buy my kids copies of games for their computers now they buy the real thing as it's not easy to get a copy any more,also the price of games is now quite a lot less than they were and the y like all the proper boxes and stuff. .I would not buy software and then refuse my wife or son's copies, who seriously would?
The same goes for copy clothing in Glasgow the sell fake jeans for £20+ and they are almost perfect down to the last detail.The real things cost six times that or more.I cannot see poor people doing wrong buying them either.Now before I get shot down in Flames I fully realise this is not legal but I am just telling the truth like it or not.In many ways I am saying this if the companies were not so greedy then this would not be a problem Levi gets jeans made in China charges us way over the realistic price knowing the kids want the label and the Chinese flood the markets for 20 bucks still making a profit on copies.Alistair

[JoeFin]

Some times kids should not listen to their parents.

Well ya - I guess

The kid was complaining because the site was bringing in over $6K per month

Thing is the kids that develop these sites are being solicited by people in the Movie industry to host the movies they help steal for a cut of the profits. Same goes for disgruntled software developers laid off at the end of the project. They provide the "movies" and the "key generators" for a cut of the money. The money is generated by the Ads on the site.

You got 90,000 unique visitors to your site everyday - you got web traffic you can sell

So lets ad up all who are actually complicit

Hollyweird Jerk Offs with access
Laid off software developers
unsavory website owners willing to advertise on waerz sites

and the 15 year old boy with a nack for code

No - I blame the "Cork Soakers" who entice kids into this activity

[lazlo]

Haha - I know the guy whose kid developed that site. He had no idea his 15 year old son has up stairs cracking code and developing websites dedicated to pirating software, video, and music until the Google Checks started showing up

Yep - door bell rang and FedEx courier had him sign for a $3200 check made out to his 15 yr old son - LOL

Story goes Dad made him get rid of the site so the kid SOLD it - $12K

I don't know what site you're thinking of, but The Pirate Bay was created in 2003 by Gottfrid Warg and Peter Sunde -- Swedish software pirates from a group called "Piratbyran": "The Piracy Bureau".

Haha - I know the guy whose kid developed that site. He had no idea his 15 year old son has up stairs cracking code and developing websites dedicated to pirating software, video, and music until the Google Checks started showing up

Yep - door bell rang and FedEx courier had him sign for a $3200 check made out to his 15 yr old son - LOL

Story goes Dad made him get rid of the site so the kid SOLD it - $12K

Some times kids should not listen to their parents.

[JoeFin]

Pirate Bay

Haha - I know the guy whose kid developed that site. He had no idea his 15 year old son has up stairs cracking code and developing websites dedicated to pirating software, video, and music until the Google Checks started showing up

Yep - door bell rang and FedEx courier had him sign for a $3200 check made out to his 15 yr old son - LOL

Story goes Dad made him get rid of the site so the kid SOLD it - $12K

[Evan]

Let's see the CAMBAM toolpaths for just a simple rectangular pocket.

Set for a spiral lead in at a 5 degree angle so no plunge problems, .020 finish offset and 40% stepover.

[macona]

that's what i thought he meant and it has become the colloquial use so DP's quite right to use it as such....however i think its incorrect and ambiguous. If you look at a learning curve, progress on Y, time/effort on X, the steeper the better. Knowledge/learning is happening quicker with less effort than if the curve was flat.....everyone would knows if you said you're on the flat part of the curve that you're struggling putting in lots of effort but not feeling much progress, right? I think the use, incorrect imo, comes from people not used to graphs equating steep to hills .....rather than slopes on graphs

Problem is though if the learning curve is too steep its like running into a brick wall. The UI is not intuitive at all and you really need books, classes, or tutorials to get going with it.

Solidworks is the opposite, easy to get going on and easy to learn. There is also a cam package to go with it as well.

[Mcgyver]

Which part bugs you? The dishonest part of using stolen property?

It might wrong, unethical, illegal, can get you in trouble and cost a bunch of money but it is most certainly not using stolen property. Read Dowling vs the US.

[Mcgyver]

Steep means hard to learn.

that's what i thought he meant and it has become the colloquial use so DP's quite right to use it as such....however i think its incorrect and ambiguous. If you look at a learning curve, progress on Y, time/effort on X, the steeper the better. Knowledge/learning is happening quicker with less effort than if the curve was flat.....everyone would knows if you said you're on the flat part of the curve that you're struggling putting in lots of effort but not feeling much progress, right? I think the use, incorrect imo, comes from people not used to graphs equating steep to hills .....rather than slopes on graphs

[Fastest1]

Which part bugs you? The dishonest part of using stolen property? Good it means you were taught right from wrong. A rare lesson nowadays. Now you have to make a decision. Since you know right from wrong, if you choose the wrong path it will bother you for your eternity. Sometimes decisions can be difficult. Btw I too have been offered MC and I am not even a machinist, just a hobbyist.

This has been bugging me for a while now. At the facility where I do my machining (which will go unnamed) I am surrounded by people who have pirated MasterCAM and are happily busy getting complex parts made, while I am toiling around writing g code by hand, or hand-patching the output of various other half-assed CAM programs together.

My problem is that I don't think there are any good CAM programs for under $1K or so. Where by good, I mean that it knows how to do proper 3D features like pocket and islands, without resorting to retarded tool paths like rasterizing. Perhaps I have been spoiled by the 30 day demo of SprutCAM, but I really think that is the level of program that is sophisticated enough to handle most features without pissing me off. I guess you could say I am a toolpath connoisseur.

The other thing is that when I ask those other people about it, they are totally carefree or shameless about getting it for free. Either they don't care, or they have an excuse like "MasterCAM is for industrial shops, and I'm not doing industrial work. Maybe someday after I make 100K from machining, I will buy their software for 10K." Apparently, their version don't have viruses or malware built in either. Just normal cracked software.

This really annoys me because I am trying to be good and legal about the whole thing, but all this means is that I can't make complicated parts, or I waste huge amounts of time coding by hand. I'm not seeing any benefits of holding the moral high ground here. This isn't a thread about "what's the best CAM software for..." anymore, it's a question about ethics.

[Fastest1]

Look right above your last post. Bittorrent, Pirate Bay or other dubiously named places. Enter at your own risk.

I feel as tempted as Jimmy Carter with his Playboy magazine. Where does one even find these pirated CAD programs?

[macona]

To clarify, steep means good, correct? As in easy and quick to learn? Its the flat part of learning curve that is miserable....lots effort and time little knowledge gain whereas the steep part you're quickly getting much better.

Steep means hard to learn. Mastercam has not changed a whole lot since ver 9. Which is good for old users but for new users its a pain in the rear compared to newer CAM packages like OneCNC.