TurboCAD Mac IS PunchCAD, change their file attachment and they open in VC and Shark, the other way too, and the thing about that that's interesting and useful to me is that model history and associations are carried; they're not dumb solids. I use Shark Pro and TurboCAD Platinum because they each do things the other won't. TurboCAD's owner, IMSI, bought PunchCAD and Tim is IMSI's Director of CAD. He's obviously been busy because TurboCAD has given up LightWorks, which it's used since before the turn of the century, in favour of open-source LuxCoreRender, which obviously saves them the license cost, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if the same is in store for PunchCAD. I'm also reminded of when Apple abandoned PowerPC RISC for Intel processors with Rosetta for translation, at the time Tim spoke of binaries that didn't have to be redeveloped between Mac and PC, but now there are Windows ARM PCs that can run rewritten X86/X64, and when you think of the translators and particular ACIS routines that won't run on MacOS that might or might not be applicable in the new environment, I think that Tim might be very busy. ACIS has also moved from version identification in numeric succession to annual identification, but for the moment, Shark Pro is using V26, TC Platinum 2022 will save to .sat V32, however that fits into Spatial's naming regime. Tim might also have new resources to call on - or not: TC was largely developed by SW development company in St. Petersburg, Russia, and that country's adventures might have had a bearing on their ability to contribute now. However, IMSI's new ownership has reputedly outsourced some or all of SW development work to Pakistan or India, and I was pleased and reassured that some of the suggestions posted over the past couple of years have been introduced. All of this is speculation pieced together from snippets that I've come across on TC forum and elsewhere, but I still work comfortably and profitably with Shark Pro V12 and TC together. We long-termers on this and TC forum are talking in an echo chamber, while the publishers and developers are faced with trying to find a viable commercial future in a changing marketplace, ie new features cost money. What new features are necessary, which are possible, won't cost too much to introduce but will attract enough new buyer or upgrade attention to justify the spend and keep faith with supporters.
I sampled Concepts in the early 2000s, was impressed but stayed with TC (which I moved into because I could buy it, AutoCAD was relatively stratospheric then, but companies and municipalities used it), then bought into VC at V5 when Punch! released it as a retail version. I worked with it for a year without using it commercially, learning the exotic things that 2D/3D could do that premium TC Pro and then Platinum couldn't. Then I moved up to VCP with V6 and to SharkFX (Pro) with V7 because it had exotic translators that TC didn't - and some of those are Win-only. Now I'm working with Rhino, too, but it's not a solid-modelling program, it's an immensely strong surface design/development program, with very good and improving sheet capabilities and rendering. I do sometimes move Shark projects into TC for TC's AutoCAD-like paper space, really a separate environment for paper sheet composition that is, to me, easier to navigate than Shark's reliance on layers. I like TC because I've worked with it for 25 years and I find its workspace is almost VR immersion to me, navigation, orientation and spatial perception is completely natural, especially in non-perspective wireframe, which might say something about diverse perception. It might also say something that I can switch between TC and Shark comfortably, but I also think about Burt Rutan's decision to design his retirement project using Shark. Scaled Composites must have access to giant-enterprise-level-money-no-object-everything. But the market is changing: the pay models for Fusion360 and OnShape, which I also get contracted to work with, are one reason, at the other end is FreeCAD, which has an interface which can confuse, but which is increasingly usable and powerful, and you can't argue with its price, if you've got the time to dig into it.
Edited by user Wednesday, June 29, 2022 7:21:07 AM(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified
