[foxsquirrel]

I had the opportunity to try X5 for SW, and HSMworks... 2.5D and 3D for 3 axis milling were priced within a few hundred bucks of each other.

I went with HSMworks.... it's x64 bit, and the program flow is excellent IMO.

Love the interface with SW....love the adaptive clearing tool paths.... very intuitive and easy to learn...

I am not a production machine shop....and am by no means an experienced machinist... in my limited experience I chose a different package than MCAM...

But back to the topic - did MCAM do what they were advertising? In my limited experience - yea I think it was a nice looking package...close second to HSMWorks for me...

The HSM demo did have a very smooth feel but the toolpaths were not optimized so I went with SolidCam. After using Solidcam for awhile I am 100% satisfied with the quality and tech support (training NOT REQUIRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

[WallyL7]

I think that there are far more dis-satisfied customers than you might think. I dont know many that are "absolutely stoked" about any cam system. I find the the people that are "stoked" or rather do not bother to mention their frustrations with Mastercam are the people that are either invested in it some how (reseller, training, etc), have never used any other system, or have only had their hands on lesser systems such as Bob Cad so they have no real point of reference.

There are things that in my opinion, make Mastercam stand out from some of the rest in its level of Cam, but having licensed seats of 5 other cad and cam software, I can hardly say that I am even close to "stoked" with this system. And as far as an add on to Solidworks... there are far better choices out there that have been around long enough that the juvenile Mastercam SW plugin has allot of catching up to do.

We have very different experiences, because I know personally dozens of people that never go on forums that love using mastercam daily. I agree with some of the gripes that you guys have...but certainly not all. But I also love how easy it is for me to make money with mastercam.

[jjacoby]

We have very different experiences, because I know personally dozens of people that never go on forums that love using mastercam daily. I agree with some of the gripes that you guys have...but certainly not all. But I also love how easy it is for me to make money with mastercam.

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA3oKK0Q6IE"]YouTube - TopSolid Cam 7 is easy to use[/nomedia]

[foxsquirrel]

We have very different experiences, because I know personally dozens of people that never go on forums that love using mastercam daily. I agree with some of the gripes that you guys have...but certainly not all. But I also love how easy it is for me to make money with mastercam.

I have never complained about the actual toolpath generation, that is MC's strong point. Our bad luck came from a rep with techs that did not give a rats butt about making sure our posts were correct. Then MC released X3, don't need to say more, its been down hill ever since. Most people are beating the drums on here in hopes of MC making some changes because its obvious they don't listen when bad news goes backward in the channel. Since switching to SolidCam my blood pressure is down and productivity is up, if MC would release an X3 (maint. expired) fix for everyone that is stuck on sp0, I will not waist my time to upgrade since SolidCam is stable and my posts work fine.

This should explain why you read the negatives on here, its their license agreement. The dongle cannot be sold, myself, if something does not perform to my satisfaction its sold and a large portion of the investment is recovered and everything moves forward. Cannot do that with MC (and others) so, everyday when you have to look at your mistake the level of frustration grows and continues to grow...........................

[foxsquirrel]

That's what I am thinking would be a good idea for CAM software in the future. I am going to start a numbered company and have the software be the only asset. This way when for whatever reason I want to sell the software it can be done.

I was thinking about starting an information website to address this. Also the pricing issue.
I own both of these.

Business profile for cam-pricing.com provided by Network Solutions
Business profile for cadcampricing.com provided by Network Solutions


I could include the steps to start a small company and have a much needed price list for CAM software.
I would need users to supply recent quotes.

[email protected]

John

John, you got some really good URLs, you can get free forum software like this site uses and your expense will only be hosting. You will take in a lot of money when you get the traffic. This site takes in a fortune from ad revenue. I am sure you would not have any cad/cam vendors on their other than low lifes like BobC and Dolp. If you use a category structure like the PM site you should do well. My advise will be to lock in the common lower levels, when I started my company 10 years ago we got a top level .com domain and did not even think about lower levels, extremely bad mistake. I do have serveral domains but only a couple are top level .coms and the names, we felt were not going to be strong enough to pull in the traffic needed for a cash cow forum. Top of the page banners cost the advertiser around $2500 per month, the cheap ones are around 200-300 USD for the small banners!!!!!! Do the math!!

[jjacoby]

SolidWorks focus is on being able to design great products. The focus for SolidWorks Corporation stops there. I'm really not sure what CNC Software's focus is but neither SolidWorks or Mastercam comes close to offering a complete solution.

It should be obvious to an objective observer that this company truly has a complete solution where ease of use and power are not compromised.


True Solid Based machining – No curves required! » Clear Cut Solutions, Inc

[jjacoby]

I'm not going to e-mail prices. I'm going to put them right here for everyone to see:

Prices in the U.S.A. where given to me by the master distributor in the U.S.A. for TopSolid this week:

2D mill and lathe and some limited 3D machining, 4 axis positioning, 5 axis positioning, TopSolid 7 CAD Light (All part modeling (surfacing, etc.), all drafting, NO ASSEMBLY = $4,750

Full 2D and Full 3D, Full TopSolid CAD and CAM 7 = $8,000

TopSolid 7 CAM will not have what TopSolid 6 has (4 and 5 axis simultaneous, mill turn, twin turret) until 2012

TopSolid distributor in the U.S.A. has been around for I think approx 10 years.

[jjacoby]

Mastercam 2.5 mill, basic lathe and wire edm on the same key are alomost 17K now in Canada...(nuts)

I had NX quoted and it was cheaper...

John

NX CAM Express is very close in price to Mastercam. Only when you add NX CAD's full capabilities does the price really go up.

[foxsquirrel]

They all seem to be very good at heavy post sale leverage, the only buyers for 2.5d are first timers or not in the know. 2.5d is pretty worthless, you can do work arounds but you spend alot more time than if you had a full 3D surface tool paths.

[TheBigJW]

Above was only for a price comparison. I think NX is 6k more for 3D. Mastercam 3D is 12k in the US now so I would think 18k in Canada. Way more expensive than NX and all others here in Canada.

John

Now after talking to CNC Software I now know why Mastercam is so expensive here in Canada. There is a dealer monopoly and there is no price protection for customers outside the US.

I wonder if I can be a dealer? No service is better than bad service with price gouging.

Canada needs another dealer. Well not really.

John