I am watching all the hacking going on with Crooked Hillary’s evil empire and the Washington Swamp being exposed. One would think career criminals of her stature and decades of experience would be clever enough to hide the evidence or communicate in secure ways. But this got me to thinking of other things today. Before you go further though something completely entertaining. http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/11/02/bleachbit-mocks-hillary-clintons-cloth-or-something-server-gaffe/
Data that needs to be secure can only be kept secure when it does not go online. There is no doubt about this and anyone who is serious about it knows this to be true. Yes I know the human element can steal data as an inside job but that gets to be much harder to do and the perps run serious risks. Online is a shopping cart for bad guys and I would guess most never face any jail time or risk when doing so. There are a few things I want you to Google here. Try Googling “Chinese build stealth fighter with stolen info”. Now try “Dell made in China server boards have back doors”. Now try “Huawei backdoor proof”. Then go to “US military bans Lenovo”.
I know you have an inquiring mind or else you would not be here reading this post. So I want you to go and do some research for yourself to the best of your ability and tell me what you come up with regarding the jeopardy of online exposure to intellectual property. That silly stuff that just happens to make your livelihood and your companies profits possible.
I want to be on record as stating that I see no way for a company that forces you to work online with a CAD or CAM program as being interested in your security. It is impossible for them to guarantee this and indeed they will not. Read the T&C for anything that forces you online from server farms to your favorite software. Tell me what you see. Do it with your own eyes and don’t accept the words of marketing or corporate officials who have a vested interest in you not knowing how bad it really is.
If you are silly enough to be spoon fed “online is secure” falsehoods and subject your future to it you deserve what you get. For those with a bit more sense it is high time to start looking into doing things in a secure way and make the companies you deal with either keep you off the cloud to work or guarantee your safety and cover any provable damages you may well incur because of what they made you do as a condition of software usage.
If they don’t isn’t it high time you give your money and future to a company that understands your future is more valuable to you than their’s is?
Machined Audio Horn Lens 
Ever been visited by a ‘meter reader’ mistakenly looking for a neighbour who in passing mentions something that you realise afterward is related to design project on your computer that only you know would know about? I have… Ever noticed your internet connection and pc slow down and had the notion someone happened to be trying to access your files at the same time as you? I have…
I am behind a firewall and believe I have a clean pc that’s securely set up.
Does that mean anything? Probably not…
Hi Neil,
Yup the only safe thing is a cheapo internet box and all your stuff stays offline on your workstation that never goes online. I have a shop workstation that has been offline for about three years now and works just fine with my programs. No constant MS and other updates and it just keeps chugging along without breaking.Kind of hard to hack that now isn’t it.
Hi,
I see you have a lot to say about 3D CAD much of which is probably very accurate. However, the pages that ‘say goodbye’ to ZW3D are a bit out of date now and keep popping up in my web searches. I think the comments relating to the package are pretty much completely irrelevant now that time has passed.
Perhaps it might be time to take down those pages?
(no … I’m just a new guy looking to buy a 3D CAD program not an employee or have any interest whatsoever in ZW3D …)
Cheers,
Steve
After some thought the answer is no. For better or worse companies I have dealt with have made the bed they have to sleep in. My posts past and present are the real life dealings I have had as a customer with them and people who are considering these software programs should be aware of all sides, the history there and not just glossy current promos. What a company has done is an indication of what they will do in the future. ZW is an OK value for the money with long standing problems and not much advancement for years now.
There are legacy problems with ZW that were there when it was VX and still are to this day. You can do many things in ZW today but there are far more efficient CAD and CAM programs out there that will save you lots of money in increased efficiency compared to up front cost savings with ZW. In the case of sheet metal much is still impossible to do and Direct Editing is crude. Still no high speed machining tool paths and hardly any CAM advancement there since VX was bought out. So yes what I had to say then is still relevant the more I think about it. Four years later and what exactly has changed much besides new GUI’s to learn?
Hello again,
Is your opinion of ZW3D based on the relatively late build (say 2016 onwards) ? There is a promoter of ZW3D (technet) sort of saying there is no real alternative for small business and startups. It does do a lot. In the case of those with a restricted budget what alternatives are there that don’t go into the cloud or require a constant internet connection ?
Rgds,
Steve
I have used up to 2015 and no I don’t have any hands on 2016 experience. I did however read the what’s new and talk to people who are still using it and they say not much advancement. ZW does have one big plus for it and that is permanent seats. Big deal in this day of possible subs spreading outside Autodesk. To buy an actual integrated CAD and CAM program ZW is decent for the money. You can start and run a business with it. I left some years back because sheet metal was bad and the Direct Editing was rudimentary. This is based upon my experience with Solid Edge from ST1 to ST8 vs VX V9 to ZW 2015. A basic seat of SE is I believe around $3,600.00 and then of course you need CAM. Depending on your needs which you have not given here (I can’t believe I am going to say this) I have been told from people I respect that BobCad has made great strides for CAM. The two would probably be a bit more than ZW and not be integrated which is a hassle at times. So another plus for ZW which is but has tool paths which have not kept up with advances elsewhere. Autodesk offers Fusion360 and I have seen the work done there but have not been hands on myself. Suscription only which is bad but you can get everything for $1,500.00 a year when Ultimate is released. You don’t have to work on line with it but you do have to check in every two weeks to get an authorization. Inventor Pro HSM has a deal where if you make under $100,000.00 a year as a startup company you can use it for free and get tech support for it on the active Autodesk CAM forums. Inventor is really sucky compared to Solid Edge but once again I see the work many do with it and it is quite capable. They do expect you to pay for it once you exceed that income level and this is where it gets bad. Subscription only and it is north of $3,500.00 per year for Inventor Pro HSM. ZW you do a part and let your maintenance go you can still open a part and cut it ten years from now. Once in the subs world you pay to play forever.
ZW is a reasonably good program to start out with but over time you will find advantages elsewhere will make you more money by the end of the year even though you spent more on software.
You have not mentioned budget not what exactly are your design and machining requirements so my answers are probably a bit vague for your purposes. I don’t know what your needs are.
Hello again,
I’m an electronics engineer and a startup. My product is a plastic bodied thingy with electronics. I need to produce a 3D printed model or two. I would not need any CAM as far as I can see – I’d just offload it to get the molds made. Perhaps the best way forward in the future is to do the manufacture also but at this stage, the injection molding would be taken elsewhere. My aim is to produce a mock-up that is functional and attractive enough to let investors see the potential product. I realise ZW3D will be clunky but it’ll do everything I need I think – plus – maybe one day they’ll make it nice to use!
Rgds,
Steve
Oh…
They’re asking me for 2250 US $ for the standard version of ZW3D with a years subscription to Keyshot which would present my model nicely …
The std version is the full CAD version without CAM.
I figure get this and Simplify3D which does the slicing for 3D printing and that’d be all that’s required.
Any move to CAM is simply more dollars to unlock what I have already installed. Upgrades are quite cheap compared to others and I have a permanent license that will work to infinity and beyond without any internet … 🙂
You should be OK then with ZW. It was my first real CAD and CAM program and worked for about four years for many things. Good luck on your venture by the way.
Steve, since you say they mentioned there are no alternative for a startup company, I thought I would post a link to this:
https://designandmotion.net/siemens-plm/siemens-solid-edge/solid-edge-free-new-start-companies/
Siemens is giving out free copies of Solid Edge Premium for startups for a year, which I think is pretty awesome if you’re a startup, I know I would jump on that deal if I was starting my own company. The only thing I don’t understand is that I haven’t seen anybody else promoting this in any sort of ways other than that post. I haven’t even seen a mention of it on the Siemens Solid Edge blog.
Siemens marketing strikes again I guess. Great news about SE and I have never heard about it.