Upgrade Motivation from V24 to V28 or V5 for Solidworks

Please refrain from the snarky personal attacks that obfuscate the content we all are looking for about the tools. The last thread I saw around this subject was just too much ego-crap to filter through to find the actual reasons.

I'd like to generate a good concise list of

• Features that actually work well for my use case
• Bugs that will make things difficult -> time consuming

From a users standpoint (not some sales person)

I'm looking to decide whether to upgrade or just move on to another CAM solution (devil I don't know)

I'm not running a production shop and my machining needs are usually about making <10 units of prototype parts for electro-mechanical implementations.
Run time is not my highest priority.
My motivations for machining on my own are typically about lead time and occasionally cost.

Typically I'll work in plastic and wood with metal based items farmed out to machine shops.
I use Solidworks 2012.
I have a Mach based 2030 router in my shop and have access to a couple different ShopBots

My main motivation for upgrading is about the time I spend dealing with Bobcam bugs and the general organization of the libraries. I moved away from the V2 for Solidworks after finding that there was just too much effort being spent working around bugs and egregious amounts (IMO) of machining specific sketches cluttering up the solidworks designs.

My main high level questions are:

1. Will I be able to set up tools and materials in libraries with feed and cutter speeds so I don;t have to enter them every time I configure a milling operation?
2. Will simulation actually work without crashing most of the time?
3. Does the V5 for Solidworks actually pick up Solidworks features in X-Y-and Z without adding toolpath sketches into the solidworks design?
4. Does the V5 simulation work without crashing?

V24 and v28 are vastly different animals. There is no comparison.

"""""No salesman response""""""

Al is a very qualified machinist that has experience with alot of the other CAM systems. I wouldnt discount outright what he has to say. He could also be the one to speak to the capabilities of the newest tool/material libraries...

"""""Crash/stability""""""

Maybe demo it. If you buy it, maybe you want to look at having some type of suppprt with it. Alot of us use it without those issues, so having some help to be sure all the bases are covered is not bad for you? Computer, workflow and methods, particular setups can all play a part in how things go.

Duplicate........

To answer your questions:

1. Will I be able to set up tools and materials in libraries with feed and cutter speeds so I don't have to enter them every time I configure a milling operation?

Yes and no, sorry it's that hard to answer. Yes, you can configure the tool tables for each tool and each material and the software should generally provide what you are after. The reality of the situation is that no matter how perfectly you configure this, you will nearly always run into the "exception" where the rules you applied are not the feed/speeds you think are ideal for the current situations. The further reality of the situation is that the exception is the rule, and the rule is the exception! (see video link below, this is what I think I'm sounding like right now and Burr will get a kick out of it) I'm going to guess that while I have set up my feeds/speeds to be what I want for the tooling I use, only 10-25% of the time does it apply the way I'd like. Why? because the material thickness/depth of cut varies, the method of hold down may vary, or the finish quality I'm after may vary. All that means that only 10-25% of the time are the settings something that are "standard", while the rest of the time they are not only different from standard, but also all over the map. In the end, you can only set the tools up to be the most commonly used settings for a material, but there can be no delusions that it will work all the time. This is not a software issue, but more of a reality of the unique situation issue. At least for me, I run into more unique situations than standard situations and find that I need to change those settings most of the time.

2: Will simulation actually work without crashing most of the time?

Yes, I would say so. I can probably count with 1 hand the number of simulation crashes I've experienced in the last 2 years. I used to get them all the time with V24. The two systems share nothing in common since V25 went to the Module Works based simulation. My only recommendation would be to spend the extra few $ on the "Machine Simulation Pro" level of simulation to get more out of it since you can create a full kinematic model of your machine to verify the toolpath on. There is one caveat to the "crashing" issue, which is to say that I also don't run a box store consumer desktop that you can buy for $500-$1000. I run a moderately priced enthusiast desktop which has something closer to a workstation motherboard and memory configuration, as well as a GTX970 graphics card which is less of a workstation style card and more of a gaming card. On my computer, I rarely get any crashing of any kind in Bobcad. You wouldn't put a 700 hp Hellcat engine into a stock Ford Escort, it would collapse! Same thing is true of CAD/CAM software. Installing a demanding product like Solidworks or Bobcad, or any other CAD/CAM into a sub par desktop is just asking for trouble. These applications do perform their best on more capable computers, so plan that if you want to get the most from it, you may need to invest in one if you don't already have one.

3: Does the V5 for Solidworks actuallly pick up Solidworks Features in X-Y and Z without adding toolpath sketches into the solidworks design?

I don't really know since I use the stand alone Bobcad. If I had Solidworks, I could see the enticement to put Bobcad in as an additions to it, but at the same time I think I would prefer to keep Bobcad standalone. I use a lot of different sources for my geometry, including as supplied by clients, so I think a stand alone version just makes sense. I don't use Bobcad to do much in the way of modeling, and it works fine in my workflow without being integrated with anything else.

4: Does the V5 simulation work without crashing?

I would have to guess so, but again I don't have the solid works version. I know it works in the standalone, and would guess it works just as well in the Solidworks version.


Would I recommend an upgrade to V28? Without a doubt I would. I use V27 for now, but I've done a lot of testing of V28 on my system in the form of the demo (since it came out really). It does pretty much everything it says it does and with the SP1 update, I suspect it's even better (I've had minimal issues that appear to have all been addressed). V27 is good enough that I'm trying to weigh a very nice V28 upgrade against rolling the dice on what V29 might be in the future. I typically don't upgrade every release, so this is not unusual for me to contemplate waiting one more version. It's definitely not a reflection of the performance of V28.

What about V5? I'm not sure using V5 with Solidworks 2012 would be as bug free as you are hoping for since it seems a bit like mixing two different generations of software together. I'm assuming there are newer versions of Solidworks and Bobcad from 2015 may not be as compatible with Solidworks from 2012 as it would be with Solidworks from 2014?. Maybe it would be fine, but I can also envision issues. I'd have to test it out extensively before I'd be sold on that.

I should also mention that I own other CAM products, but use Bobcad for the majority of my work because it produces some of the best toolpaths. In my experience, the tool library is not any better in the vast majority of CAM systems and you will find many of the same frustrations no matter what route you go. Not all toolpaths are the same and I can safely say that Bobcad does produce a very high quality motion that is smoother than some of the other systems I've used or own. I think it fair to say that you probably won't do better than Bobcad for the money, and you'll certainly open yourself up to doing worse. If you have more specific questions about certain strategies, I'm happy to try to help out. Hope that helps!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOJwTUANQjU

I have been using V5 for about a week now, started on V3. So far V5 has been the most stable build yet, I have yet to crash it? Maybe the lack of crashes is now considered a bug?

You can use solid body edges as geometry selections, as well as faces, and whole bodys. I tend to only create sketches when I need a boundary for a toolpath.

I have not experianced simulation crashing bobcad in any of the versions I have used. (V26, V27, V3, V4, V5) And I use simulation just about every day.

JSYK,,,I work with metal exclusively.......so especially what mmoe said about the variables for each machine job,render the speed and feed data base as only a ballpark figure.
I have a lot of machining experience (not with wood) so I do not bother with setting up a database,,,I just manually enter the numbers per each job.This is where experience is king,,,there are just too many variables to set a 1 time number to work all the time optimally.
If I was new,I would be conservative on feeds and speeds until you gain experience.

3: Does the V5 for Solidworks actuallly pick up Solidworks Features in X-Y and Z without adding toolpath sketches into the solidworks design?

You need additional sketches to define boundaries I find in many cases but I do a lot of 3D toolpaths so I add sketches when needed.

4: Does the V5 simulation work without crashing?

I find it a good all round package. I have been considering an upgrade to V5 but its not for me as there are no new features that will improve what we do currently.

I have been using V4 since its release and it works v well/ Once your PC / Workstation / Laptop with the power it does not crash.