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I have been asked to look into this software and learn if it is going to be a fit for the company that I work at. I thought that I would come here and ask all of you if you like it and if you don't please tell. I am currently using featurecam and I love the software but my boss wants to look into solidcam because we design in solidworks. I do a lot of hard milling holding .0002 tolerance. Is this software good enough to handle this tolerance or not?
Thank You for your help
typically most of these cam packages are the same,,, solidcam is not a bad package ,,,,,the magic is in the post,,,i wouldnt upgrade if you dont have to featurecam is pretty sweet and if you have an accurate post ,,your good,,,
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Your machining skills are more important than the software .0002 is tight all depending on the parts.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nite2099
I agree with both of you. My general manager wants a software that can take care of the whole shop not just one area. We have featurecam, mastercam, ffcam and others in the shop right now and that is not sitting well with the general manager. We design in solidworks and now solidworks gives you the cam package with solidworks. We would not have to make parisolds anymore. If the design department changes something then the software will let us know. That is way I am looking into this software. I use featurecam and it will let me know if that model has changed but we have to create parisolids. that is what my general manager wants to stop.
Jimmy, GM has the right idea, can you pull it off?Quote:
Originally Posted by JIMMY
List the all machines, their current programming method, control, postprocessors, pc's etc.
This should determine the software of choice. and the budget...........
Then go shopping for a cam system. One system cannot do everything and every machine.
Be cautious of $ales types that promise everything to an unsuspecting GM to make a $ale.
The GM is searching for something maybe not possible with the variety of machines.
Then you are the programmer stuck with attempting to make something happen.
We had once in the past 127 machines on one type control, Vega, on one file format, BCL with one programming language , APTAC
Now there are too many CNC types making too many learning misteaks, re-inventing the past.
I am pretty lucky. Most of the machines in my shop are fanuc controlled so it should be doable for one software. We are just looking right now but i have a lot questions for them. My GM will take my assessment of the software very seriously. I was just wondering what other people thoughts were on it before i started down this road.
Im using it since 2010 version.
I find it best on the market for my needs. Tried almost all worth mentioning on the market, but solicam is my favorite.
We do feature changes a decent amount, and Solidcam handles them fairly well. I have solidcam run "external" to the part, so that the solidworks parts just have solidworks data. When there's a change to the part file, Solidcam gives you a popup asking if you want to update the model. If you click "no", it continues with the last version. If you click "yes", it takes a minute to replace the model.
If an existing feature has the dimensions modified, Running "synchronize" on Solidcam will update your tool paths for you. If the feature is replaced, you'll have to pick the geometry for that operation over again, but you'll keep all the other settings for the operation.