[sumi990]

Hello,
My shop has been searching for a simple/cheap cad/cam software that will get what we need done.
We only run one CNC which is a Haas VF2.
I myself have learned how to run Mastercam X(5-7) successfully. But we only do basic milling and drilling. No 3D or anything crazy. So spending a lot of money on the software is kind of not an option. We just want to be able to set up tool-path to walk around a part and do some drilling.

What would you suggest?

Side note: We have a guy coming in from CamWorks in about 2 weeks to try and sell us, but from reading reviews they can be kind of pricey. And the annual fee is pretty high.

Thanks Jessica

[blowlamp]

CamBam will do all that with ease and try ViaCAD for the drawing side of things.


Martin.

[greggv]

HSMWorks 2.5 is a free download. Looks like good software. Runs inside of Solidworks.

[victorofga]

something like cam bam.. everything beyond that will cost ten times more and up..

for cad itself, go with draftsight.. free and very effective.. basically draftsight is a ""clone""" of autocad 12-13..

I don't know haas but I can imagine a haas can create itself the toolpath of dxf files..


from there draftsight it self will work.. output the dxf file and run.. looking for camworks website... it will be very costly program..

you can check one more thing..

bobcad express... or checking ebay for older bobcad versions.. its already capable to work from iges, and other solid files..

beyond vectorcontrolled toolpaths..

[tatinc2000]

No 3d you could use draftsight (free) and cut2d from vectric. ($150). That's what I used for routing 2d parts.

[ChrisAttebery]

I'm using TurboCAD Designer ($40) and SheetCam ($150). It isn't perfect, but it is very easy to use and very quick to go from DXF to g code.

[headscraper]

Cut2D is cheap but you can't draw in it, it is just CAM not CAD. You can get plenty of free CAD software. Sketchup is getting popular but it lacks some basic functions. FreeCAD is so much better!