I'm taking a look at TopSolid and curious if anyone can share insight....
I have a ten man cabinet shop doing mostly mid to upper end residential. Currently draw 2D AutoCAD, floor plans & elevations (using a lot of seed cabinets) then use eCabinets (with basically same seed library) to produce cutlist and G-code for Thermwood router. Looking to have better custom capability AND smoother, less redundant work flow.
TopSolid seems like it can handle serious custom. Is that correct?
How would it handle the normal stuff? Can a solid seed library be developed and then easily modified? Can it produce quality shop drawings and customer renderings in a reasonable time?
I want something that can handle the majority of product that we do everyday with slight modifications AND not be limited to modifying base products for custom stuff. I don't want the typical cabinet package that requires me to be creative with "work-arounds" or writing complicated, lengthy formulas to do a one off piece.
My other idea is improving my AutoCAD 3D skills and using Smartlister for production output. I've actually made some headway in that direction and am surprised by what can be done. Though I'm thinking TopSolid would be quicker and produce better results for the custom work.
Also, I'm told that TopSolid Wood is sold with separate modules, design, CAM, nesting... Anyone care to weigh in on their experience with what they are using and what it cost em? (Yes I'm talking to salesman but would like to hear from users)
Thanks,
From contributor Ma
We use Topsolid to do our layout & shop drawing submittals. Topsolid helps us provide good, accurate, well documented shop drawings that are not only important to us, but to architects, contractors and clients we work for as well. We previously did our shop drawings in Autocad as well. I think in a lot of ways our drawings have improved in Topsolid.
As far as normal or custom stuff? There is no limitation on what you want to build or how you want to fabricate it. You create it how you want, with terminology you use, and control it how you want. I too hated having to take some other product, that someone else created, figure out what they did, and then "tweak it", so you can use it. Don't have to deal with that anymore. Very happy Topsolid users!
Mark
From contributor Le
Not a user, but as a general rule when contemplating a software purchase, make sure that the software can do what you need it to do, today. Forget the sales talk. Have them create a project, ideally one similar to (or using your data) what you currently make and/or want to make. Have them run the job start to finish in their program and generate code to run your Thermwood. Run it. Did it work? Did you find the experience working with their staff to be a positive one? Will they back up your purchase with a money-back guarantee? There are far too many shops with far too much software costing thousands of dollars not being used because in the end it didn't do what was needed and didn't perform as promised.
