I think the concept of the NWA product line is a good one. Tim and company have put a CNC into a lot of folks hands that would not have otherwise afforded one. Myself included. Even with all the showstopper issues and heartburn I went thru to finally make good parts, I would buy one again.
"given the track record"
It seems to me, looking thru the knothole in the fence, the software development and testing at NWA tends to be Crisis Based, not timely, thoroughly designed/written/tested releases. Either internally, or externally tested.
Software is something I know something about. If the original version was built for X Y Z axis only, after achieving cruising altitude and a fair amount of customers using various versions, it may be almost impossible to modify it for that 4th Axis. I believe that is the case.
Imho, it would be best to start with a fresh design and the software architecture for that design to accommodate four axis. Based on the plethora of releases for v2.0? A fresh rewrite would be a nightmare for the developers and testers at NWA. Not to mention the consumers. I believe Tim has not allocated the appropriate level of staff/skills for the ideas he/they come up with. Just look back on all the fixes and issues in v2.0 alone. Just the fiasco of "Registration" was aggravating enough. Is it not questionable in the past to have had such a complicated scheme to register their software that can only be used with their hardware? Why is Registration necessary at all?
For my use, v1.5.23i has been largely rock solid. If demand warrants, I will continue developing my own translation code based on this thread. And continue to use v1.5.
http://www.cncsharktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3410
I agree with rungemach. Don't buy based on promises.
Jon ...
Woodbury Mn