CAD software

[MICHAEL MORVAN]

Terry,
    We use Mastercam Pro for our CNC machine. It is heavy duty CAD and CAM (computer aided manufacture), anything you can dream up, you can make. My feelings are it is the way of the future and I see a lot of areas of piano restoration that can benefit from it.    Good luck,    Mike

Michael A. Morvan
Blackstone Valley Piano
Dedicated To Advancing The Art Of Keyboard Restoration
76 Sutton Street
Uxbridge, Ma. 01569
(508) 278-9762
Keymaestro at verizon.net
www.pianoandorgankeys.com                                                                                              
www.thepianorebuilders.com
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Terence Miller 
  To: pianotech list 
  Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 4:01 PM
  Subject: CAD software


  Hello List:

  Does anyone have any feelings about the CAD software they use?

  I just attended an all-day seminar that emphasized the value of precision in our work and reminded me that much of what we do is really based on geometry. 

  Put those together and there seems to be a real use for CAD software in the shop.


  I hate spending money, and I especially hate spending money on a pig-in-a-poke**. If you haven't already noticed, the software industry has forced the P-I-A-P market model upon us. Not only can you not try the product to see if it fits, many 'License Agreements' remind you that you do not own what you have just purchased. (and NO you can not return it if you have broken the seal the envelope!) Imagine yourfavoriteclothingstore without dressing rooms...and as soon as you touch a product you have to buy it.

  Even if software is availabe as 'freeware' it often takes 20 hours or more of mucking around in the program to get a sense of whether it will be useful to your project. And then there is the issue of actually working efficiently inside the program...was it written by a human being who actually has to face the problems the software is supposed to resolve, or by the youngest programmer chained to a bench in some programming galley off the coast of wherever? Oh, and does the original language for the programming, menus and documentation happen to be English? (always a nice but unexpected touch.)

  So, any leads for useful CAD software?

  thanks

  Terry


  **Wikipedia has a cute article on 'a pig in a poke'.





  ** see Wikipedia for a cute description





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