CAM software

[mikedee42]

Hey all,

We are looking to purchase some CAM software at my workplace. We use solidworks 2007 sp5.1 as our design tool and are bringing some of our manufacturing in house. We've had demos from both Gibbs and MasterCAM. My initial impression is that there is more added value in the base package of MasterCAM than in the base package of Gibbs (we will be starting small). What are the general thoughts out there regarding the two?

Thanks

 

[sldwkmin]

Have you looked at SolidCam and Surfcam? I strongly suggest investigating these two options prior to making any decisions.

Cole M
CSWP, CSWST, CSWI, CPDM
Certified DriveWorks AE
HP XW4300, 3.4g proc, 2.5g RAM, ATI Fire GL 3100
Dell M90, Core 2 Duo, 4g RAM, Nvidia Quadra FX2500M
Equus (custom), P4, 3.4g proc, 3g RAM, Nvidia Quadro FX3400

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/products/search/results.htm

I have never used it personally, but a coupe of contacts highly recommend EdgeCAM.

 

[ctopher]

I worked at a company with MasterCAM. It worked well for us. Get proper training.

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08; CATIA V5
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion

 

[Bugie]

Essentally there are a few Pakages that run inside Solidworks that you should look at

- HSMworks
- Mastercam For Solidworks
- Solicam
- CAMworks

 

[MikeHalloran]

I have no experience with MasterCAM.

I used to take care of a Gibbs installation, around the time when they moved off the Mac to the PC. (I was the local PC guru, not the machinist, and not a CAM guy).

I was impressed by the Gibbs interface, but not in the way you expect.

To me, it made no sense at all... but my young machinist, with no CNC background and no known computer expertise, was able to grok it in a day or two, with no training, just by beating on it.

It made perfect sense _to_him_. Clearly, it wasn't designed for PC gurus; it was designed for machinists.






Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[sldwkmin]

Bugie has it right. Get something that is a SolidWorks partner! This will save you many long hours of imports and exports and completely reprogramming do to model changes and having to maintain your SolidWorks model and an exported model for your machinist or programmer. I know for sure SolidCam references the SolidWorks model directly so there's no need for exports/imports and maintaining extra files.

Cole M
CSWP, CSWST, CSWI, CPDM
Certified DriveWorks AE
HP XW4300, 3.4g proc, 2.5g RAM, ATI Fire GL 3100
Dell M90, Core 2 Duo, 4g RAM, Nvidia Quadra FX2500M
Equus (custom), P4, 3.4g proc, 3g RAM, Nvidia Quadro FX3400

 

[ctopher]

One think I liked about CAMWorks is that it keeps the CAM data with the part data. When the part model updates, the CAM operator can retrieve the previous CAM data and update it with the new part.
I have set up PDMWorks with my last company with a folder specific for the machine shop. They can pull parts at any time without having to send them to them each time.

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08; CATIA V5
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion

 

[fcsuper]

I've seen CAMWorks presentation. It does indeed store the CAM data right in the SolidWorks part file. They charge for additional posts (ones that are not provided by default with the product), but the fee is pretty small. I would recommend looking into CAMWorks.

Matt Lorono
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group
and Mechnical.Engineering Yahoo! Group

 

[Bugie]

All of the programs I mentioned get the CAM data in the solidworks file

 

[fcsuper]

Bugie, I know that surfcam does not. MasterCAM may have started doing this, but before they created their SW add-on, it didn't either.

Matt Lorono
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
Lorono's SolidWorks Resources
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group
and Mechnical.Engineering Yahoo! Group

 

[Bugie]

Matt,

Yes that is correct. Mastercam has only very recently released Mastercam for Solidworks. The others have been around for a while.

 

[daveparkinson]

In reference to CBL's comment. I used EdgeCAM while I was at University and I thought it was a great piece of software.

I would recommend looking into it.