I don’t intend to ever post many things like this but I got a letter from VX/ZW today talking about a PCR turned in and rated high priority in 2005 [ yes 2005, I did not screw up on the digit] and still not fixed. But they give me an update to let me know it has been moved from VX to ZW. If I knew how I would put one of those really angry red faces here. Or put in purple letters how I love VX. Sheet metal was the straw that broke the camels back for me where VX was concerned. There were lots of other issues but I could work around them even though I resented having to do so.
When I talk about having sympathy for anyone who is unhappy with their CAD or CAM program I am not kidding. I have been down that path and I have really resented putting time and money into a cad program that had problems like VX did. When I talk about the pain of staying was worse than the pain of leaving this attached copy of the letter I got today is a fine demonstration of why it was time to go.
SIX YEARS AND THEY STILL CAN’T CLOSE A CORNER IN SHEET METAL THAT IS NOT A 90 DEGREE ANGLE!!!!
End of rant and imagine purple all over the preceeding paragraph.
—– Original Message —–
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 2:25 PM
Subject: VXQA Report 17553
> Version – 11.31
> Platform – Windows
> OS Version – XP
> Severity – E – Enhancement / Suggestion
> Priority – A – High Priority
> Module – Sheet Metal
> Submodule – corners
> Status – OK – Not a problem
> Keywords – mjl 11.0 sheetmetal
> Assigned – VX
> Estimated Resolution – ZW
> Short Description: Need to make the Close Corner command more robust
> Diary:
> ===== Diary Created By VX on Tue Sep 6 10:40:50 2005 =====
>
> When adjacent flanges of a sheet metal part are not both at 90 degrees, the close corner command fails.
> See the attached part. We could eliminate 10 commands from the history if the close corner command would
work here.
> ===== Diary Updated By VX on Tue Sep 6 12:35:22 2005 =====
> Estimated Resolution changed from NYS – Not Yet Scheduled to Future Release
> Assigned to VX Development
> ===== Diary Updated By VX on Wed Jun 11 11:50:24 2008 =====
> ===== Diary Updated By VX on Wed Aug 4 13:38:13 2010 =====
> Assigned to VX Development
> Email Tracking List changed from
> ===== Diary Updated By VX on Fri Aug 13 14:55:50 2010 =====
> ===== Diary Updated By VX on Tue Jun 7 03:31:19 2011 =====
> Status changed from Open to OK – Not a problem
> Estimated Resolution changed from Future Release to ZW
> Assigned to VX Development
> ===== Diary Updated By VX on Tue Jun 7 03:32:10 2011 =====
> Assigned to VX Development
Machined Audio Horn Lens 
Close non-90 degree corner is quite important. I got the chance to see their new coming version when I visit their booth during EuroMold in Frankfurt last week. There are a lot of nice stuff for sheetmetal, bending along a line is also working. There are more, I couldn’t remember it well, and the new Ribbon interface is very very nice. Anyway, Just FYI. They also did multiple-thread computing for CAM, looking forward to that.
Even though they forced me to have to move on after years of struggling with lack of capabilities, I hope they do well. I remember when Solid Edge went to the ribbon and I am not so crazy about it. VX had the same GUI for many years and we all knew where the commands were and the icons meaning. If it will be for ZW like it was for SE it will be time spent learning how to do the same exact things over again and you don’t earn any money learning how to get back to where you once were. I still use the cam side of VX for milling as I am familiar with it, know where the gotchas are, and I own it. If they add lots of things to sheet metal that would be nice. What they had was just barely enough to say they had it.
Will ZW now be 64 bit to? Did they have Lathe in the Cam side? Did you have a chance to see how robust the direct editing has become? I wont rule out renewing if they fix a BUNCH of stuff and I will have a look at V2012 for sure. The Cam side was fairly powerfull even if it did take lots of time to come up with Cam plans and there were tool paths with problems for many years unresolved. I will wait to see. VX/ZW however unless they have done a staggering amount of work is not an MCAD program and I just don’t see them ever even being more than half as good as SE in this area.
What program are you currently using so I have a basis to see what you are comparing ZW to?