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AutoDesk HSMWorks - I am cutting my losses and jumping ship. What next?

irobotix

Aluminum
Joined
Jan 22, 2014
Location
Greenville, PA
Aside from constant license issues and not being able to use my CAM product, I am leaving because of what they are doing with the maintenance vs subscription. I paid $10k to HSMWorks for an excellent product for Solidworks. Autodesk bought it and absolutely destroyed my investment. They're going to force people onto subscription by pricing maintenance so high that you have no choice. That should be illegal and I hope like hell they see a class action for doing it.

But that aside, I need to move on and quickly. I am going to demo SolidCAM and probably MasterCAM for Solidworks. I don't care if my CAM is integrated, so what is out there that people are liking these days? Never thought I'd be in this spot, hope I am not again...

Right now I have an Okuma Genos M560V 3-axis VMC, prob adding a 4th soon. Also have a Hwacheon Hi-Eco 21 turning center w/ live tooling... don't use it much but wouldn't mind a CAM with good mill-turn.

Thanks.
 
I am in much the same boat. Autodesk seems to be buying everything up though. Esprit, perhaps?

If you find something better to jump to, let us know what.
 
Aside from constant license issues and not being able to use my CAM product, I am leaving because of what they are doing with the maintenance vs subscription. I paid $10k to HSMWorks for an excellent product for Solidworks. Autodesk bought it and absolutely destroyed my investment. They're going to force people onto subscription by pricing maintenance so high that you have no choice. That should be illegal and I hope like hell they see a class action for doing it.

But that aside, I need to move on and quickly. I am going to demo SolidCAM and probably MasterCAM for Solidworks. I don't care if my CAM is integrated, so what is out there that people are liking these days? Never thought I'd be in this spot, hope I am not again...

Right now I have an Okuma Genos M560V 3-axis VMC, prob adding a 4th soon. Also have a Hwacheon Hi-Eco 21 turning center w/ live tooling... don't use it much but wouldn't mind a CAM with good mill-turn.

Thanks.

I hope they get what they deserve also. I dropped mine already. My perpetual license still works, but the ramping up of price is never going to stop. They will begin to do the same to the subscription folks once they get the subscription numbers to where then need it. Then when they decide to move on they want have access to legacy data with out paying.



Development is slow on top of that. The reality is they are actually falling behind other cam systems not catching up. They had one of the best 3 axis products out there, But their inability to repeat that in 4th, 5th and turning must be humbling.

I thought Al was going to work some magic for you??
 
I thought Al was going to work some magic for you??


Lol - it's some reduced rate on the subscription... all bs...

I can't get the damn licensing to work anyway.. It works good for 3-4 weeks, then fails again.. If I reboot my machine, it fails... I have an email string to support that is months long begging to be taken off network license and put on stand alone....they finally did...and it also doesn't work.. Supposedly they added a stand alone to my account. I downloaded it, uninstalled the one that "kind of worked" and now none of it works... Nice work Autodesk.. the new stand alone is looking for a server license... I deleted the flexserver and all of that junk off my machine, yet the new "stand alone" still seeks the server license...


I have given plenty of warning that I will jump ship if this doesn't get resolved... Now I am jumping ship and I get insulting offers of reduced subscription pricing. How about my $10 grand back?

Man... I lost the weekend on this - I do a lot of RnD over the weekend, and it seems that's when this s/w lets me down... I simply cannot afford that... If I add up the time/$$ I've lost screwing around with their license server, it would exceed the price of buying another $10k package that functions...

I've learned this lesson with old janky machines - it costs more to keep them running, it creates more anguish, it ruins your inspiration to be creative... My solution - I bought a brand new machine and I feel like freaking Da Vinchi, but with a broken brush... Time to use that same method of thinking for CAM.
 
Thoughts on EdgeCAM? Hypermill? I am also looking at an eval of ZW3D from ZWsoft - downloading the demo right now. I don't expect much but was recommended by a friend...worth a try.
 
I am also looking at an eval of ZW3D from ZWsoft - downloading the demo right now. I don't expect much but was recommended by a friend...worth a try.

I had a full seat of ZW3D (or whatever the name was that preceded it). Abandoned it when the company was taken over by the Chinese. Just wasn't comfortable after that.
 
Well camworks (just rebranded as solidworks cam) will be included in every seat of Solidworks starting in 2018 version. You will have to pay for turning they haven't released a price yet.
 
Hello.
Perhaps you can use fusion. I think it's can is HSM works in another skin. Your templates and posts should work too. At least they did for us when we tried. 300 bucks a year seems cheaper than the regular HSM maintenance. Alternatively I think mastercam might be a good fit. They seem to do most things decently. Personally I use Esprit for mill turn but can not comment on their milling.
 
A standalone seat of Mastercam includes a seat of MC4SW. It is great for 3ax miling and fine for 3ax turning. If you get real sophisticated with mill/turn machines Esprit would prolly be a better choice.
 
I had a full seat of ZW3D (or whatever the name was that preceded it). Abandoned it when the company was taken over by the Chinese. Just wasn't comfortable after that.

Curious what you paid for it and maint? PM me if you'd like to not post publicly.

After an hour of messing around with the demo, it seems very capable but the workflow isn't as good as HSM... Still interested though.
 
Hello.
Perhaps you can use fusion. I think it's can is HSM works in another skin. Your templates and posts should work too. At least they did for us when we tried. 300 bucks a year seems cheaper than the regular HSM maintenance. Alternatively I think mastercam might be a good fit. They seem to do most things decently. Personally I use Esprit for mill turn but can not comment on their milling.

Nope. I will never use another Autodesk product in the history of time.
 
Well camworks (just rebranded as solidworks cam) will be included in every seat of Solidworks starting in 2018 version. You will have to pay for turning they haven't released a price yet.

I think this is how I am going to lean... It's about time Solidworks picked up CAM. They really really really screwed up by not purchasing HSMWorks before Autodesk did... Now they're behind the 8 ball, but hey at least it's something, and it's NOT Autodesk!! I like it already.
 
Curious what you paid for it and maint? PM me if you'd like to not post publicly.

After an hour of messing around with the demo, it seems very capable but the workflow isn't as good as HSM... Still interested though.

In all seriousness it was long ago, don't remember either number except that the full seat was pretty cheap (relatively) as it was bought during a "we're desperate to sell seats" sale, which was done by the original company.

Just did a quick check, it used to be known as "VX", found the email where the sale announcement was made. At that time (9/2010) the three levels were 2.5, 4, and 7K (for "End to End", which I had) for a new seat, doesn't mention maint.

I've been a SmartCAM user for ages, have stayed with it.
 
Well camworks (just rebranded as solidworks cam) will be included in every seat of Solidworks starting in 2018 version. You will have to pay for turning they haven't released a price yet.

Are you saying included as in free??

I was accepted to the beta but have not installed it yet as now one seemed to be able to answer the price or if it was going to only be available in premium.
 
$2,400 a year which includes Inventor and Fusion...what a deal. :(

well if you look at purchasing any other popular perpetual license CAM over ten years WITH their maint, costs are pretty comparable.....as long as you don't start 10k in the hole with HSM. I'd be pissed too.
I might be tempted to get in at 2400/yr for a great cad.cam package. HSM is not a great package as far as i know.
 
Picture it this way... With subscription if you stop paying, you're done.. With maintenance, you still have a product although not updated and riddled with bugs we're forced to pay to fix - but thats another story. So we have the choice to pay or not. Autodesk is taking away that choice, and in return we're getting bricked. The more I think of this the more furious I get. HSMWorks as it were, is dead. You now get Inventor and Fusion, and you get to have an un-updated dusty HSMWorks that gets very little, if any updates. We (those of us who bought HSMWorks for what it was and believed in the company) knew this was coming....and they've done some progressive scummery in order to make it happen.

So offer your petty little discounts, "free this and that", reduced rate for HSMWorks "loyalty" and whatever other sorcery you can think of - in the end I will not be happy until I get a refund. I do not want Autodesk, never did, yet I got it shoved up my a$$ the same way I got Obamacare.

If there ever is a class action I am jumping on that thing like it was the Trump Train.... and I hope we see it. Until then, Autodesk is dead to me....I'll happily continue to let it be known what they've done as well.
 
Curious what you paid for it and maint? PM me if you'd like to not post publicly.

After an hour of messing around with the demo, it seems very capable but the workflow isn't as good as HSM... Still interested though.

That is the problem, the workflow. Solidworks and HSMworks feel like they are 1 program. MC4SW, Solidcam or Camworks don't feel as integrated with Solidworks.
 








 
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