Old SmartCAM Versions

Hi Again from All here at SmartCAMcnc 

Good

Old

SmartCAM

This post is based upon observations from our daily experience:
not a day goes by without our being contacted by a customer who is running an old ( sometimes ancient ) version of SmartCAM CAM Software.

That’s great:

We’re impressed, every time.

It’s always a pleasure to be in touch with users of old versions of our software. We are simply amazed that our customer continues to use such an aged piece of software on what is often similarly-aged PC equipment.

We’re usually contacted because of failure of the old PC or the replacement of it. Those old versions simply weren’t intended to be run on later operating systems.

The prize for continuing to use the oldest version in my own experience - I work in International business – has been a SmartCAM Version 9 user. Version 9 was last supplied in late 1996!

But I bet that within the SmartCAM community there is an example of an even older system that was - still is - in daily use.

We hear from more users of Version 11 than any other. Version 11 was released in mid-1997.

Museum piece: SmartCAM Version 11

Tough sales:

We want to sell an update to our old-version customers. Of course we do.

But, man, is that sometimes difficult. That old SmartCAM software continues to do a great job and sometimes our customer is reluctant to update. I guess it’s a case of if it isn’t broken then don’t fix it.

Just think of the impressive return on investment that those old versions have delivered. It’s truly admirable. And probably unique in our industry.

But now an update will ultimately be necessary:

We’ve done our very best to ensure that those old versions could be kept on running. But we had to admit defeat because of the technological challenges of enabling old software and product licensing systems on modern PC equipment and operating systems.

We tried to let our users know:

We tried really hard to inform every customer affected by this change. But we unfortunately don’t have up to date contact details for every single user of old SmartCAM software, of whom there were – and possibly still are - many, many thousands.

Many of those customers who do make contact with us are ‘new’ to us; we simply weren’t aware that they were our SmartCAM customers. Which is a little embarrassing for us but is the way that it is.

Further, we are surprised to hear that some customers didn’t even realise that SmartCAM is still alive and doing very well. That's even after our continuous efforts to promote SmartCAM awareness over many years. This little blog item is a further attempt at doing just that, but we’ll go and re-read our little book of marketing to make sure we remain on the case.

You can do it:

Updating old versions of SmartCAM to the current release is easy. You just have to pay for it.

Technically, all SmartCAM Process Model files from previous versions can be used in the current release. And your existing Code Generators and CTK / macro customizations will also work with the latest version albeit that there might be a need some small modification due to developments and syntax changes. It’s not difficult work and we can likely help with that.

We’d guess that not many CAM providers could make that claim of old-version compatibility that we are able to make for SmartCAM. We’re pretty impressed with that ourselves!

Users of old versions already know SmartCAM. We haven’t changed our fundamental concept of Toolpath Modeling, The SmartCAM Difference still very much applies.

Users of old SmartCAM versions already know how to use our software, but there is of course a small learning curve to understand the great new user interface and to understand the new functionality that has been added during years of continuous development.

The List View in Version 2016 

Our updating customers are usually also interested in upgrading entry-level to advanced-level products in order to benefit from added functionality. Generating toolpath using solid model data for example.

SmartCAM Solid Model Toolpath Process

Get in touch:

We’re here to help.

Whether you are a SmartCAM customer with whom we have not yet spoken even after all these years, or we already know each other and you are interested in discussing your update & upgrade options, or you are a new SmartCAM customer seeking a new or alternative CAM system then do contact us, it would be great to hear from you.

Telephone: +1 (541) 344-4563

sales@smartcamcnc.com

www.smartcamcnc.com

Old SmartCAM is Good. But perhaps it's time to think about moving on up.

Have Really Great Days,

The SmartCAMcnc Team