Larry,
I have both a Torchmate2 5x10 and 4x4 Plasmacam with there designededge software. They are both are good systems. But they are definitely two different animals. Most of the stuff that you hear on the net can make your head spin. There are people talking crap about everything. It doesn’t matter if they can’t figure out how to use a phone or if they had a bad lunch at a hotdog stand. I you are angry for some reason you can get motivated to act like a loud-mouthed on the Internet. Many times it might be a person’s job to spread lies. Before I purchased my system, I flew to Colorado and checked out the machine myself. The $250 flight was cheap compared to what could have happened and it gave me good piece of mind.
The new Plasmacam 'Designedge' software, which comes standard on all new machines, is definitely more user friendly than Torchmate’s. It will allow you to do more complex things and cutout with a click of a mouse vs having to jump between at the very minimum two different programs (a CAD program, and Torchmates driver software). When I first got the Torchmate, their $900 CAD program was not the best, so I had to purchase a program called Aspire for approx $2,000, which allowed me cut my editing time down significantly when I was dealing with photos.
The plasmacam software however, has very advanced features that are only found in very expensive programs like aspire, photoshop, coreell etc.. it also will drive your machine. So you are only dealing with one program. I like the fact that you do not need to know G-CODE (I don't care what sales people say about how simple it is---can be a major disaster if you do not know g-code). In essence, plasmacam software you get to cut out what you want with a touch of a button; whether it is a picture (the program has tons of automatic editing capabilities), scanned hand drawing, imported DXF drawing or something that was drawn into the program. Hit it cut button and that it! The designedge program, will also export out into G-CODE, DXF, JPG and other formats so that I can program my Torchmate. From, what I hear, people use Plasmacam's software to do this all the time.
I am not slamming the Torchmate, because it is a good solid machine and the guys over there are great guys if you ever hit problems.
I was looking at getting 2nd machine, a 4x4 unit, to better control some of our workload. I looked into all sorts of machines, and It wore me out. A couple of different factors lead me to like plasmacam a lot. This being: price, warranty, ease of use, and quality of machine components and support. Plasmacam ended up being attractive because their overall price was better, their warranty was excellent ( plasmacam 3 years vs torchmates' 90 days on their growth series) and the software was incredible (which I had to see for myself to believe). For an economy machine, the plasmacam is a great option. There are features on that machine, that are only found on very expensive CNC machines, like the Komatsu cutting system that one of my acquaintances purchased for $110,000. I also enjoy the servo motor system, because of its speed and accuracy. It allows me to put a rotary saw on the machine and it will cut as accurate as a milling machine. Their height control also has major advantage. It works a lot better on thinner materials and will avoid costly collisions with material as opposed to your average arc voltage height control, which is found on other most machines. An often-overlooked concept of CNC height control is the ability to avoid collisions with material. Another consideration that I looked into was cost: Apples to apples, Plasmacam's economy (not their advanced) height control uses the same industry standard arc voltage feed back concept that Torchmates' system uses. However torchmate's was $3,000. Plasmacam's comparable height control was 1/3 of that and their more advanced (which uses a different type of resistance and material sensing mechanism) was $1,000 less and more capable than torichmates’ run of the mill industry standard arc voltage height control. Torchmate does not offer anything that compares to plasmacam’s more advanced height control.
I will say, that plasmacam's more advanced height control machines is automation at its finest. By simply check a box on the program, it makes it so you do not have to mess with settings and will automatically sense your material, no mater what you are cutting out.
In the end, when I first bought my torchmate, they where not very many CNC companies around and it was a good choice. Now days, there is a new CNC company that pops up ever hour. Essentially, I realized that the majority of all these economy machines are virtually the same stepper motor systems, with the same style of software and the same height control. Plasmacam on the other hand seems to stay on the cutting edge of things (no pun intended) and seems to continue to innovate their machines and software to better suit the industry.
Carl
:D
