As far as MV and the Thermwood we have noticed that the DXF generation in MV corresponds exactly(almost) to the G-Code generation.
As a result we see climb cuts in dadoes on one side of the cabinet and conventional cuts on the other side...we discovered this when parts from the same cabinet fit differently on the left side than on the right....
We also have to set our drill depth way beyond our material setting in order to get \"through drill applications\"
Personnaly (I said this before) when someone needs to get this done fast....I prefer e-cabs...
The parts editor in e-cabs is remarkable and simple (especially if you have tried doing this in MV)....
Currently we are running jobs that use MV for certain products and e-cabs for the \"out of norm\" cabinet...
The learning curve for both(MV/E-cab) is pretty rugged however parts cutting is seamless with e-cabs...the coolest thing I notice daily is the ability to adjust material thickness right before writing the file to the CNC without having to redraw etc...
I agree hole-heartedly about improvements to the LD editor. 90% of what we do is commercial and I really wish my shop drawings could look more professional.
One improvement to the LD editor would be to have a title block template that you could use on all your drawings. Now you have to create one manually and it's tough.
I'm glad I found this post because I have been looking into MV because of the shop drawing issue. At this point it doesn't appear to be the silver bullet and it's definetly not worth $30,000 just for shop drawings.
I would also like to see some improvements in custom layout. That is a slow process for me. For instance if I layout a room and need a filler in a corner, it's easier to go back to cabinet editor and add the filler to the specifc cabinet than to add a filler in CL. Also I've had problems with cabinets coming out the wrong height when they are resized in CL. I have to program every cabinet separately in CE and then add it to CL. I would also like to see a dimensioning function in CL.
Someone mentioned stablilty issues and I have had a lot of issues lately with ecabs crashing when I have room full of cabinets in CL.
Overall I am very happy with eCabs for standard cabinet production. When it comes to curved cabinets or pieces like a booth or a bar I use ACAD to produce my parts in DXF and then send them to my router. I have found this to be a very efficient process, especially if you're doing multiple parts.