[fitzpatrick2362]

Am I the only person who finds Edgecam very frustrating to work with???

I have been using Edgecam for approximately 4 years now and I am quite a competent user.

Firstly, I would like to say that as a CAM package in general it is very good, flexible and has many options for machining, but it lets itself down in so many ways.

I can't begin to tell you the amount of time wasted trying to overcome bugs from the system.

When upgrading to a new version, the enhancements in turn seem to throw other functions out of sync. A few examples are below.

1.When using finish turn cycle in 2010 R1, when inside a groove it creates a lead move(5mm approx) which you cant get rid of.This causes fouling conditions that have to be amended manually after output(wireframe geom).
2. If certain components have been machined in a previous version,2009R2, then when opening it up in 2010R1 toolpaths change and cause a crash condition.- this only happens if say feed or rapid moves are used or certain lengths of lead in and outs on cycles(turning).
3. When roughing off of the solid it outputs a series of small lines instead of arcs even when NC Output smoothing is on and when doing the same cycle off of wireframe it outputs arcs??(milling)
4. Drawing package -When sectioning in a drawing they disappear when reopening and you cant get them back.
5.Drawing package-Cant dimension angles anymore in 2010 R1. The function .
6.We run Edgecam off of the server and generally have problems installing new versions, problems with tool stores etc.

This is just a few examples, and we are ready to load 2010 R2 and have started to find again, that some of the commands when opening a component created in a previous release are changing.

All of the above have been sent to Edgecam support and 'Have been forwarded to development and will be fixed in future release'.

As I say, this is unfortunate a very frustrating as it is a very good CAM package.

It would be interseting to hear peoples comments and share their frustrations as I am sure I am not the only one out there that is having these problems.

[Mike Mattera]

If I remember right, the 5mm is built into the post for safety. If you change the lead in move to .1mm you'll get that instead. If you set it to zero (0.0) you'll get 5mm. Kind of weird, but in there for safety reasons.

Mike Mattera

[mikewsk2]

First off, I would never do an upgrade installation. I know that it recommends to do an upgrade but do a new installation instead and make a version directory, ex: Edgecam 2010 R1, Edgecam 2010 R2... for each install. Each version will have it's new set of quirks and if 1 of the things breaks that is mission critical to your machining you can easily jump back to the last install and get your part out the door. All you have to do is copy over your machdef folder (or upgrade your Code Wizard files) and your support folder for your *.CONFIG and *.DFT files. I bit more manual of an operation but well worth it in the long run.

It makes for a cleaner install and this is actually how all the betas are tested by the resellers. So you should not notice some of these quirks you have listed. However, item #3 you would still have in either install scenario.

For item #3, you might see if adjusting your tolerance value inside the cycle to .001 - .003 and see if this helps your output. I wouldn't go lower to these values unless you're in a fine finishing cycle where your surface requires it.

Eh, my two cents

[MIKEL12]

I'm irritated with the outdated 3D interface. After using solidworks and then switching over to edgecam, I always think that they should improve/replace the 3d interface.
Things like moving parts and attaching them to vices should be much much simpler than using PCI:s or rotating and translating by using command boxes.

Also the snap is horrible, I feel like it's constantly playing games with me. I see the snap point in the centre of a circle, but as soon as i approach it it goes away. The tab button seldom works, usually I need to zoom in like crazy to get the snap point i want.
When using snap on my tombstone programs edgecam often snaps to the piece that is on the other side of the tombstone when using a "front view"

When creating large programs with a lot of indexing and translating the sequence window gets overwhelmed. Don't know how this should be fixed, but the current solution where i can color a part of the sequences just seems like a ridiculous quickfix.
And then every change i make to the program edgecam goes through the whole tree of sequences and my view changes. I've tried to shut of auto-regenerate and have tried "batch processing" but it seems like this "animation" could be left out. I'm not interested in seeing edgecam work through the list, it's not "cool"

My CPL:s don't update with my model in tombstone machining. I've written a PCI for batch moving my CPL:s but honestly it's work i shouldn't have to do. A change in the setup of the parts on the tomstone means that i have to manually move usually 36 CPL:s on the tombstone.

Edgecam cad-links usually wont read thread information from solidworks solids. It does some times but most often it won't (have cosmetic threads checked in the solidworks part).

Wrote all this mostly because I'm hopefully doing something wrong and you guys will set me going down the right path again

[fitzpatrick2362]

Unfortunately the lead move remains no matter what lead move that you enter. It is not always 5mm it can increase or decrease. This only happens when you are inside grooves.

I will try a fresh installation with R2 and see if that helps with any of the issues.I am not sure if it will though as Edgecam themselves do not have a solution to the metioned issues(apart from 'It will be fixed in a future release')

[Fabio1]

I can def. relate!Always hated if I waited too long for an upgrade,things that worked great now had issues and things that had issues now work great(remember the change in tool library file type very well!).
It is a nice rounded program but they should take a windooz approuch to upgrades.