ArtCam is the most popular program in the field of programming and designing woodwork and CNC crafts.
Autodesk has announced that it will halt development on ArtCam and there will be no ArtCAM 2019 release like the rest of its products.
As it announced that it will not sell any subscription to the program, starting from the beginning of this year, provided that technical support for current subscribers will continue until the end of this year. It will permanently remove it from its stores.
This news was disturbing for me personally, as I consider this program and DelCAM programs a success story and leadership, and its programs are characterized by intelligence, flexibility, and providing out-of-the-box solutions.
It is noteworthy that Autodesk acquired all of Delcam’s software in 2014.
Here’s the story from the beginning.
Del-Cam’s career goes back more than fifty years. In 1965 the British company Del-Cam was founded and it introduced many programs, including the Art Cam program, whose main idea was to produce three-dimensional shapes based on two-dimensional images. In 2003 the program was awarded the Queen’s Shield for Creativity. In 2014, Autodesk purchased the company in a deal amounting to $286 million, so that Delcam’s programs, which include ArtCAM, PowerMill, PowerShape, and FeatureCAM, become Autodesk products.
We used to be happy about Autodesk’s acquisition of a program because it meant accelerating improvements and making radical improvements to the software. But this time it failed us with ArtCAM, the favorite program of most CNC users.
So what is the alternative?
Old versions of the program will remain there for quite some time
If you want to bet on more stable and supported products and the future for them, I advise
you to try to adapt to the Vectric Aspire program … as this program has a very close interface and functions almost identical to what is in the ArtCAM program
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