[MWBumgardner]

We are part of a university and have just acquired a Patriot ShopMaster with Mach 3 CNC software. What CAM packages should we consider? We have to work in a modest budget maybe $4,000 or hopefully less. We will create solid models using Autodesk Inventor. The most complex shape would probably be something like spherical shapes on the lathe and pretty simple work on the mill. We would like to be able to thread on both the lathe and the mill. Any and all thoughts will be appreciated.

[MichaelHenry]

If you are using Inventor, HSM Express is free but I think it only does mills. They might have CAM for turning, but that would probably cost you extra.

If your needs are simple, you might look into the New Fangled Systems Wizards for Mach3. They basically give you conversational routines for basic operations. For example one Wizard is used to surface a part, another is used to cut a pocket, and another to drill a bolt circle. Each will generate a separate G-code program but there is an easy way to assemble them into a single program that does all the operations.

SprutCAMAmerica sells SprutCAM and a version that does mill and lathe operations is $2k or less, I think. That's one of the more inexpensive mill and turning CAM packages out there and they have a free trial available.

Mike

[awerby]

Take a look at Mesoft's products, like VisualMill and VisualTurn www.mecsoft.com. They compete with much more expensive programs in their feature sets, but would come in well within your budget. Threading is supported in VisualTurn, in VisualMill it would be called thread milling, and it's done with helical toolpaths.