Another CAD&CAM comparison question

[coldkryten]

Sorry to put another one of these out there, but my question wasn't answered well looking back through similar questions.

I'm starting up a small university workshop to support research in robotics. The work will mostly be done in house from design to assembly, and a lot of this is likely to be one-offs or very small part runs with lots of small pieces.

Most of my previous experience is with SolidWorks/CAMWorks, which was satisfactory but caused a lot headaches especially with complex assemblies and CAMWorks. I worked briefly with Wildfire and was reasonably happy with the modeling aspects, although I never used the CAM processor.

Since I'm starting from scratch here, I'm wondering if there's anything worth switching away from Solidworks for, especially with a mind towards keeping workflow for 3-axis solids parts and assemblies simple and quick.

 

[MikeHalloran]

If you can make it happen, your students would benefit from formal training in both Wildfire and Solidworks, because ...

many employers who have adopted either package are demanding specific experience or training as a "must have" in their employment advertising. Apparently the learning curve is steep, and no one budgeted money to train replacements.

No one is demanding that engineers or designers be able to program or run CNC machines or use CAM packages. Yes, experience with actual manufacturing makes engineers capable of better designs, but lack of it does not seem to affect their employability.




Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[cadcamguy]

Pro/Manufacture isn't the most user friendly of softwares

If you are pretty sure.. what you design is what you want then you might look elsewhere... but if it something that will be change a great deal there are certain benefits to pro/man.

I go along with what Mike says.. although it's not required, with some shop experience designers have a better idea of the steps involved with making something if they get their feet wet in the shop.

now some questions for you.. are you going to qualify for edu software, will you have some cncs in house

one thing about the cad2cam transfer... if you know what your cam package likes, it's generally easier to flavor it up in the cad side than the cam end....layers go a long ways in making life easier

 

[PSE]

I would agree with MikeHalloran in that ideally, you would want to expose the students to multiple software programs (if you can get the seats). This would enable them to have an easier transition to whatever software their employer uses. You might also look at either some 2D or PCB layout software for the robotics as well as FEA.

For example, (legacy software aside), we use regularly 3 different CAD programs (including ProE and Solidworks), at least one FEA package, MasterCam, 3 different optical design/analysis programs, and a couple of programs for PCB layout and design.

This would be overkill for anyone trying to teach or use in a workshop. It is however, a sample of the reality that the graduates may need to face. I would recommend contacting various vendors, and looking at as many packages and suites as possible to see how they mesh with your needs.

Regards and good luck,

 

[coldkryten]

Thank you for the feedback. This isn't so much for a class as it is for an open lab that will be producing students and faculties designs, thus the need for CAM. If things go well I'll probably expand in the future, budget requirements means I need to stick with one package for now.

We have Eagle, it definitely has its quirks but for the generally small projects that will be done here it works just fine.

Since this is primarily being set up as a resource available for students and less (although definitely somewhat) as an educational lab I was aiming for something with a short learning curve. I sat down with a couple of Mechanical students to look at ProE and MasterCAM a bit but I think Solidworks still fits what we're looking for best right now.