[pixburghenat]

That's great.

You must have one with the newer duel core chips. When those were first released they were returning times like you are getting...on a desktop work station. My fast one is my home system, it's a P4 3.0 2 gigs ram and the old 8x agp graphics with a Nvidia FX1000. I bought the FX card new on ebay for $100 US, it was a IBM PNY leftover. I had a 3Dlabs card, forget the model, but I popped the video's processer messin around with overclocking it.
...who says you can't hurt anything by changing the settings in your CMOS.
:O

My work system is a Dell 330 2 gigs ram, powerleap P4 2.8, 533, 5 years old.
It's showing it's age, 2 18 gig SCSI drives, Gforce card, works okay for what I'm doing now, starts to slow down whenever it has to do surfacing or patterns.


***added***
I only have SWX 08 on my home system. Haven't used it too much other than to test CamWorks 08 for SWX 08.
I'm trying to tweak the post processers for 2 CNC mills and write a -safe- post for a CNC lathe. I really don't have the time at work, nor any uninterrupted time there to devote to the post. I work for a university and there is never a peaceful moment.
Plus, my work computer needs upgraded again with a DVD and another HD before I can install SWX 08. I have the parts...I may upgrade this week.



Scott

[JerryFlyGuy]

Ya its pretty much the latest greatest from Dell. 2 core dual w/ 7700 processor. 4Gb of Ram and the Nvidia Fx 1600M [512mb I think?] I've got an Asus quad core desktop [I believe it's running Xeon processors] and 4GB w/ a ATI FireGL V7350 [at work] and I seriously think this laptop would spank it.. I've never run them head to head [and I should just for kicks ] but either way it doesn't really matter to much.. I regularly take files off the desktop and run them at home on the laptop.. makes projects go faster

How do you like CAMworks? I'm shopping for a 5 axis CAM and keep jumping back and forth between CAMworks [not the current favorite] and SolidCAM and FeatureCAM.

Maybe we should move to a new thread.. we kinda Hijacked Bartp's thread here.. [sorry Bartp ]

[bartp]

wow, this really turned into a discussion, I'm glad.

Well anyway here is an update. I upgraded the Windows to Ultimate... no change! Intel released a new version of Graphic Driver, so I did a clean installation (used Driver Cleaner pro) of the driver... no change! I installed SolidWorks 2007... no openGL support!

so I give up for a while, I will try to make it a dual boot and install XP, I'll see how that goes.

I would be fine to work on software OpenGL but as soon as I make a bigger assembly the software comes to a screeching halt.

From my understanding intel did the Intel thing and AGAIN! jumped the gun and released hardware with buggy/crappy/none functional/slow driver. It might take another few months before the card is even anywhere near supporting full OpenGL, like their older cards!

[daedalus]

im joining this conversation a bit late, so if i repeat anything thats already been mentioned i apologise. The X3100 is the newer intel integrated graphics chipset, which has been advertised as the next best thing for 3d since sliced bread. Unfortunately in reality intel are at the bottom of the league with regard to 3d accelerators. They are well known for buggy drivers and abysmal performance. Also this is built into your motherboard, its not an upgradable one like some of the other ones are.

Solidworks does work with vista ultimate, thats the setup i have at work, and there are no problems with it on both ati (X1950) and nvidia (8800gts) home market cards. That said we specifically avoid intel based graphics stuff, so i cant comment on that. That said i would seriously suggest dual booting to XP, as even on my quad rig there is a noticable performance hit for using it under vista.

With the intel based integrated graphics i have had experience with (pre x3100) intel regularly release products sold as "3D accelerators" which are only good for basic 2D work, and will just about run games released 5 years before the chipset launches.

[DareBee]

Just finished upgrading to 08 SP2.
Ran the bottle test
New computer is AMD 4800X2, 2G RAM, Quadro FX 1700 on XPP (nothing special here but nice (and affordable)).
Ran 32.1

I will try the new Dell Laptop with the gaming card next time I get it out.

[tnik]

well DB, time to upgrade again.. they released SP2.1 the other day.. lol

[DareBee]

For F&^%%-sakes. I held off going to 08 because of all the *****in. Then waited 3 weeks for SP2EV to turn to a real service pack.
Now 1 week later SP2 is bad enough to need an immediate upgrade!

[JerryFlyGuy]

I wouldn't do the upgrade to 2.1 if I was you. I've got it and since I did.. I've had a fair few reference issues. I'm not sure if it's 2.1 or just happened to occur after I loaded it. I didn't have any issues until I did.. other than the BOM issue 2.1 was released to fix.

FWIW

[tnik]

yea, don't bother with upgrading to sp2.1.. only thing they fixed was:

2008 SP 2.1
SPR #
411423 Instability using Flip mate alignment in Czech version of 2008 Sp2 SolidWorks
411631 Missing user interface information in SolidWorks 2008 SP2 Czech SolidWorks

[DareBee]

These fixes are relevant to me

SPR 408294 - Unsuppress folders in assembly does not work using design tables

SPR 411253 - Every lightweight component get resolved when using rebuild lights (CTRL+B)

SPR 408540 - Unknown error when opening assembly in 2008 (opens without error in 2007)

[DareBee]

Ran ship on the laptop.
C2D T7250, 2 gb RAM, GeForce 8600M GT
It did better than I expected @ 38.3

[tnik]

oops, I was only viewing the general SPR's.. my bad.. I'll try the ship out.. I was getting pretty crappy speeds but I changed my system a lil bit..

----

well, its a bit better now that I dropped my extra gig of ram so its running in dual channel now..

Processor : Intel D 840 - 3.2 Ghz - running in dual core mode
RAM : 2GB DDR2 667 Mhz running in dual mode
Video Card: ATI FireGL V5600 - 512MB (dual monitor - Resolution 1600x1200 32bit and 1024x768 32bit)

50 rebuilds
40.6 - with edge lines
37.7 - w/out edge lines

[DareBee]

You've got a big vid card and DDR2 bus.
The P4 3.2D is the holdback for sure. Still really good #s.
My upgrade was from a P4 2.4C and DDR bus.

[tnik]

yea, I con'd the boss into getting me a new vid card.. I couldn't handle the other one I had.. had all types of ghosting and part disappearing happening to me.

[pixburghenat]

oops...just installed sp2.1. Ship in a bottle is at 44 seconds.

Jerry,

I like Camworks, I've used it for >5 years. I do mainly prototype work, 1 or 2 parts in many cases, very little production work. I havn't tweaked the Tech Database very much at all other than to add some tooling and custom profile tooling, so I am no expert on the database. I use it for 3 axis work on a Milltronics VMC MB19. The 4th axis we have is on a Remedy with a Centroid controller and we have just begun using Camworks with it in 3 axis. We also use Surfcam and it's configured for the 4th axis.

I've used FeatureCam for about 8 years or so before using Camworks and found it very easy to use, again 3 axis. I know for Camworks the 5 axis posts are custom written for your use, so I'd say getting the right VAR, who has experience with the 5 axis and the willingness to help will be just as important. Delcam has another CAM system too, I don't remember the name.

For Camworks, check out the forum at www.teksoft.com
username: cwuser
password: coolstuff

There's a few people , Jeff Lange for one, that post here in the Camworks forum and he posts on the teksoft forum. They have answered many questions about their Camworks experiences.
Also, my new VAR is CAMS Inc. http://www.camsnet.com/ there are many posts from a user from there and another guy named GlennD. They are active in the forum and will always answer any question. I haven't had a chance to talk to them yet, but I'm sure they can help. My old VAR was Access Manufacturing....I didn't have much luck with them.


I know very little about SolidCam.

Here's a link to Metal Innovations in Portland, OR http://www.metalinnovations.com/news.htm

They have a 5 axis Haas using Camworks.
The guy's name is J Kimmel, he posted on alt.machines.cnc
Here's a link to the newsgroup post
http://groups.google.com/group/comp....works+jkimmel#

Scott

[pixburghenat]

Sorry for going off topic here..

Jerry, I agree with you about SolidCam. If I were looking for a 5 axis CAM system, or even a 3 Axis, I'd give SolidCam a closer look. I viewed the demo video and was somewhat spellbound by the movement of the machine. The machine moved the way I expected it to, not jerkey or long pauses. I inherited Camworks when I moved from the medical school, used featurecam there, to the engineering school here. The only reason Camworks was selected was for it's integration in Solidworks, the eye candy value, and price, school discount. If I had to do it over again, I'm not too sure Camworks would be my choice. I was on Teksoft's page again and there is nothing like Solidcam's video, only simulated cutting.

The other Delcam product is PowerMill, I'm having a look at it's features, claims, etc.


Scott

[JerryFlyGuy]

Ya SolidCAM is for sure my top choice right now.. I've got the demo copy [well I did.. I'm not sure if the current demo works w/ 08 or not [yet]]

And I plan on duplicating all my tool path's [or operations] in it from my current CAM and comparing speed and ease of tool pathing on a part by part basis. I don't ming my current CAM but an integrated CAM which parametricly updates tool paths will be a huge help.. IMO.. We'll
see.. The last thing i want is to spend $$ on a pc of software which does not meet my needs.. or is glichy or has issues..

We'll see..

[SolidWorks-APAC]

Hi - Here is a quick note on how to update your configuration and make the right decision when selecting your graphic card to use for SolidWorks

http://www.solidworks-apac.com/2008/...ck-and-update/

Hope this helps!,
Clement
Dassault Systemes SolidWorks