Hi,
I am a complete newbie at CAM software. I have an R&D shop with two very experienced machinists that have been making great parts for me with a manual Hardinge lathe and a Bridgeport EZ track mill. I just took delivery of a Haas TM-1P mill and ST-10 lathe. I was thinking that we could do the programming conversationally, but that will not quite cut it for the mill.
Our products are not too complicated from a machining standpoint. They are blocks with holes and threads, valve seats and solenoid stems etc. There is no complicated surfacing. The design work is done on SolidWorks and NX (mostly SolidWorks). We already have solid models for all of the parts. the machinists know some G-code and we have a few guys that write code directly for production parts.
I want CAM software that I can run from the SolidWorks environment and not too hard to learn. From researching the Haas and SolidWorks websites I fond that:
BobCad-Cam
Mastercam
Gibbs CAM
Esprit
May do the trick. Any pros or cons on any of the above packages? Suggestions welcome.
Cheers,
Joe