what is the most popular cad / cam system

which is the most popular cad / cam system used by small machineshops, and which is the most popular for very large shops like the aerospace giants ?

Trying to learn one or another system for a small shop.

I am at a cross roads on this subject myself. At work I use Solidworks for design and GibbsCam for making code. I just started a side shop and will buy my own seat of Solidworks. If you are doing any amount of design work Solidworks kicks butt. I'm not sure about the Gibbs though. It works very well but is a small fortune. I am still looking for something geared toward mold making that is less money than Gibbs that is still usable.

Take Care

ARB

There are so many to choose from. There are also now some great simple CAD/CAM packages. Ref to http://www.appliedresolution.com.au for samples done using a $300 CAM package. Most like Gibbscam are absolutely fantastic once you have mastered the basics, but be prepared for a long learning curve. I found Gibbscam to be the most intuitive of the 3D CAM software, with DESKPROTO and DESKAM bot good entry packages with simple demos. Also check basic CAD/CAM in the web site listed above. Great entry level software and good entry machines.

At the aerospace company I work at, we use Pro-Engineer and Solidworks for CAD work. Pro-E Manufacturing for CAM. All expensive but with great results. As time permits,we (model shop dept.) are testing the deskam cam program. Hope to have it figured out soon.

ARB; I have not tried it out in a practical aplication but look at a product called ONE-CNC. I have a demo version of this and it seems like it might be close to what you are looking for. I use ESPRIT here at work but if I was going to buy something for home I would probably go with ONE-CNC first until I was ready for something more powerful.

Charles

From my experience, the most popular software for the small shop is Mastercam. One of the reasons is that it is better at programming a number of different machine types; Esprit may be better for Wire EDM (at least, marginally, IMO), but Mastercam is better at mills, lathes, etc.

For medium to large shops, Mastercam, Gibbs, and Pro-E seem to be the standards; Autocad is probably most often used for pure CAD.

For large and very large companies, CATIA, Unigraphics PGDS, I-deas, Autocad, and others are the norm for CAD, and some of them have CAM packages available; again, Mastercam is not unusual as the CAM package of choice.

While I'm not really a Mastercam partisan (I'm primarily a Wire EDM guy, and I like PEPSWIRE for that, though both Mastercam and Esprit are quite good), I do appreciate its versatility; I don't know of any machine tool type that it is not used successfully for; and this is probably why it is so widely used.

There are probably dozens, if not hundreds, of less expensive programs available; some are good, some quite good, and some suck. Your question, I believe, was about popularity; and that is what I replied to.

BTW, some Mastercam distributors offer something called a "Student Pack"; it's about $250, and includes a copy of Mastercam Draft (the CAD end), several manuals, and a fantastic college level textbook-tutorial; so if you want to learn the basics, I recommend this; any files you create are exportable in a number of formats; and it imports most of the major formats.

Cblair, I have had my eye on the One CNC product for a while. Looks good from a distance. Does anyone have any experience with it? As good as Gibbs is I'm afraid that i'll be dissappointed with something else.

Take care

ARB

ARB;
Yes I agree you would be dissappointed with something less than GibbsCam, but if you cannot afford it then something less may have to do. I would also be interested in knowing just how well ONE-CNC works on a day to day basis, so far I have only used a demo version and it does seem "clunkier" than the more expensive products. I guess that is the trade off.

I am curious about GibbsCam however, I use ESPRIT and the one thing that it does not do well is open geometry. That is a pocket or feature with a open side. The tool paths like to be contained by features but on the open side the cutter will not extend over the edge of the part. How does GibbCam work on this type of part?

Charles

Very well. Right click the appropriate
entity(s) selecting it and opening a popup. Select "Change geometry to Air Wall" The selected entity(s) turn red and is now invisible to the tool. Set pocketing parameters in the process tile box.

Thank you for that explanation, I suppose that is for GibbsCam. I only have the 2-1/2 axis version of Esprit so I suppose that the full suite may have another alternative.

Charles

The most popular Cam program is MasterCam if you look at sales volume. There was a report by one of the machining magazines about a year ago. I think they said MasterCam had 56 % of the market and the balance was split up between the next 4 or 5 vendors.