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CAM plugin alternatives in Solidworks?

Toolbert

Stainless
Joined
Nov 29, 2003
Location
Vashon Island, WA
Given the nature of my work - product development, constantly changing part models, really benefits from a CAM package that operates within Solidworks and enables emailing part models around with the CAM embedded and preserved, even if folks doing the editing don't have a CAM plugin.

I'm giving up on BobCAM and am surprised to see there aren't a whole lot of alternatives. BC is great in concept but too unpredictable to be useful here.

HSMExpress / 2.5d doesn't meet my needs.

HSMWorks is presently available only as a $2470/year subscription bundled with AutoCAD - even if all I need is the Solidworks plugin. That is Autodesk's approach to building market share. I'm not bad-mouthing Autodesk's products but as far as I can tell, I've got ~30 customers using Solidworks and zero using AutoCAD/Inventor/Fusion360 and am not interested in paying for a big bundle of just to get one little piece and then paying that level of subscription in perpetuity.

MasterCAM appears to be the only other viable CAM that runs as a Solidworks plug-in and facilitates sending part models back and forth with customers with the CAM preserved. Or are there others?

Conversation today with the local MasterCAM rep gives a pretty good feeling for MasterCAM Mill doing what I need and with less frustration. The up front cost ($6000) is more than I want to spend but at least it is a buy-once deal, with a reasonable annual maintenance that includes upgrades to future versions in perpetuity.

Has ever regretted buying MasterCAM at least for any reason besides the cost?

Any other lower-budget options to consider?

thanks
 
I don't know of any low-budget options.

Also, I don't generally send the cam file itself around - the customer won't actually be able to open that anyway (even though there's solidworks file embedded inside it.)

Rather, send a solidworks file with any edits back for customer to look at. Then they send you their updates. Now open the CAM file and tell solidcam (or mastercam if they have this) to "synchronize" - pick up the changes. Now go through the model and check that it's all still OK - some manual fixup is sometimes required.

I've been through a few iterations with a mutal "customer" of ours.... Solidcam works OK at this.

Remember also - solidworks goes out of their way to arrange that older versions cannot open files written by newer versions - if customers send you updates, that is no big thing. If you need to send changes back, you need a version that matches what they are running, and you have to make edits *in that older version* for the customer to see it. (A really nasty arm twist if you ask me, but nobody does...)
 
BoB user for awhile,guess I may not understand your question in it's entirety ??

Don't understand the benefit of letting a customer seeing the CAM ever,,,,but we all have different business's

Don't have the Solid Works plug in,But,since V26 in the Pro Mill,it has been possible to save out the simulation as a file that you may send to anyone,,,and they have almost full functionality of how they view it,,,which is many,many areas of the cut path

I don't use that,as I don't think the customers need to know my shit,,,,Job is worth this much,,,deal or no deal ??

Like I said,may not get where you coming from ?
 
Besides HSMWorks, MasterCam, and SolidCam, there are VisualMill and CAMworks. We went through this earlier in the year and ended up with CAMworks.
 
Besides HSMWorks, MasterCam, and SolidCam, there are VisualMill and CAMworks. We went through this earlier in the year and ended up with CAMworks.

I've never used it, but it seems to me that CAMworks is not very highly thought of from what I've read around here. However, Solidworks' CAM beta is built on CAMworks from what I can see, so it would follow that D'Assault have the long term goal of absorbing CAMworks to be their "native" built-in cam as in NX.

Maybe sign up for the beta and see where it takes you?
 
I've never used it, but it seems to me that CAMworks is not very highly thought of from what I've read around here...

I'm not quite sure why it gets a bad rap. I've used Mastercam and Bob Cad(granted it's been about 5 years) but I prefer Camworks. It takes a little while to setup your tech database but once you do it's really quick. I also like their simulation. Granted most of the work we do is 2+1.
 
I'm not quite sure why it gets a bad rap. I've used Mastercam and Bob Cad(granted it's been about 5 years) but I prefer Camworks. It takes a little while to setup your tech database but once you do it's really quick. I also like their simulation. Granted most of the work we do is 2+1.

Second this. Properly set up, tools, materials, strategies, etc. CAMworks holds its own with the benifit of feature recognition from the feature tree.

I'm a beta tester for the new CAM Dassault is rolling out, can't say I like it yet. It is made by the CAMworks guys anyway, at this point it's CAMworks lite.
 
HSMWorks is presently available only as a $2470/year subscription bundled with AutoCAD - even if all I need is the Solidworks plugin. That is Autodesk's approach to building market share. I'm not bad-mouthing Autodesk's products but as far as I can tell, I've got ~30 customers using Solidworks and zero using AutoCAD/Inventor/Fusion360 and am not interested in paying for a big bundle of just to get one little piece and then paying that level of subscription in perpetuity.

Huh? We've got no subscription of AutoCAD bundled with HSMWorks.

Autodesk did change up their licensing to bundle all three HSM products together - use one of the HSM products and get the other two (IE if you use HSMWorks, your license is also valid for Inventor HSM and Fusion 360 although F360 won't grant you the integrated packages) using the same license key, but you certainly don't have to use them.

Of course if you don't like subscriptions, that's its own issue.

I moved us off of CAMWorks, FWIW. Hated it, glad to be rid of it. It has no HSM style toolpaths of its own, so you get stuck buying another license for Volumill (which is okay, but difficult to tweak in CW as was my experience) if you want an HSM solution. The data is stored in the .SLDPRT file though, no issues there. Oh and you'll need Microsoft Access to use the database. As far as cost goes, a subscription of HSM costs us less than maintenance for CAMWorks did previously.

Personally I'd suggest getting trials and seeing which interface is most intuitive for you, what you can get done quickly and efficiently. HSMWorks fits my brain like a glove for most things, which is more than I can say for most previous CAM packages I've used, but you're not me! :D

Good luck!
 
I would try them all and find the one that suits you best and then look at local users groups and local support. That can be as important as the software itself. I think SolidCAM and MasterCAM are good ones to look at.

I was a long time HSMWorks user and have since dropped all Autodesk products. The constant licensing changes, price increases to perpetual licenses, and absolute lack of any support is more than we cared to deal with. Remember with the new ADSK subscriptions if you decide to change cam systems you will no longer be able to access legacy data with out paying. I would think long and hard about getting into another relationship with them.
 
My 2 cents.

As a model maker\prototype machinist (30+ yrs,) that makes onesie twosie parts everyday HSMWorks is the quickest and easiest to learn and use, though coming from surfcam traditional anything that runs in SW seams easy.

As other have stated Autodesk is now really a pay for use software company, no more perpetual licenses, as CSharp stated.

HSMWorks has it's downfalls like any other software, either it doesn't have or doesn't work well for certain operations. The Lathe portion not so good, 4 and 5th work but..., no wire, but 2 and 3D work pretty damn nice.

I have used CAMWork and SolidCam and jump back to HSMWorks, in education we get to try and use most softwares for free or next too free, though they powerful for production and toolpaths automation HSMWorks is quick right outta the gate.

so JMO

here is a link to SW's CAM solutions page: Search Partner Products | SOLIDWORKS

you will see 3 types of Partners

Solution Partner = does not run inside SW and can read native SW part and assembly files

Certified CAM Partner = does not run inside SW and can read native SW part and assembly files and when the part or assemble changes they are linked warning you of the change so you can update and regen the paths.

GOLD Partner = Runs inside of SW and if the part and assemblies change it will regen the code automatically
 
Thanks for the replies, most helpful.

I mis-wrote, not paying attention to the difference btw. Autocad/Inventor/Fusion360.

Sending CAM back to the customer - the BobCAM tree embedded within the SLDPRT is invisible to my customers. If they bought the CAM package yes they could see it but without it's just so much metadata that Solidworks ignores but preserves. I send their model back to them so they can rev the part model without having to pay me to recreate the CAM from scratch.

It hadn't occurred to me before reading these replies - sounds like Mastercam maintains the association of the part model with the CAM even though the data is stored separately, and so the customer can just send a part revision and MC will automatically pick up and reassociate whatever features match up, without me having to send anything back to the customer to keep it in sync.

Gut feeling at the moment I'll stick with BC for now and see what Solidworks does with CAMWorks.

My brain doesn't learn new software packages as easily as it did 40 years ago :-) The last thing I want to do is install and try a bunch of trial versions.
 
Thanks for the replies, most helpful.

I mis-wrote, not paying attention to the difference btw. Autocad/Inventor/Fusion360.

Sending CAM back to the customer - the BobCAM tree embedded within the SLDPRT is invisible to my customers. If they bought the CAM package yes they could see it but without it's just so much metadata that Solidworks ignores but preserves. I send their model back to them so they can rev the part model without having to pay me to recreate the CAM from scratch.

It hadn't occurred to me before reading these replies - sounds like Mastercam maintains the association of the part model with the CAM even though the data is stored separately, and so the customer can just send a part revision and MC will automatically pick up and reassociate whatever features match up, without me having to send anything back to the customer to keep it in sync.

Gut feeling at the moment I'll stick with BC for now and see what Solidworks does with CAMWorks.

My brain doesn't learn new software packages as easily as it did 40 years ago :-) The last thing I want to do is install and try a bunch of trial versions.

When I used HSMWorks I just created an assembley and added the customer part to the assembly. If the update it the assembly picks up the changes and I can add my own assembly level chamfers and radii with out c;;hanging the master model. No need for sending models back and forth. Not sure if bobcam supports cam in assembly files but it worked great in HSMworks. I never put CAM data in the actual part file.
 
It's not at all a cheap package, but Hypermill's integration to Solidworks is pretty good. I tried both CAMworks and HSMworks and found them to be really lacking in more complex applications (especially HSMworks).
 
Go with the one that has the best customer support. Don't go with one that will be out of business in 3 years.
I'm really biased toward Mastercam as that's all I've used since the mid 90's, and their support is top notch.
I can't speak for others though.
 
Espirt Doesn't run in solidworks..

Solidworks for Mastercam is still pretty buggy wouldn't recommend for the price.
Hsmworks or Hyper Mill are really ones that stick out the rest are meh
 
I have used several CAM programs over the years. One of my favorites was FeatureCam but have used BobCadCam as well as Mastercam. Mastercam is probably the most powerful but also requires a college course almost to Master it BobCadCam I felt was to scattered and cumbersome at the time when I used it. recently FeatureCam was bought by Autodesk though and so far I can't say that it works as well as it did before they got their hands on it.
 








 
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