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HSM and SolidWorks

desim

Aluminum
Joined
Apr 23, 2013
Location
tennessee USA
What is up with HSM? I don't see much chatter here on it? At one time a few years ago this forum was abuzz with news on it and a lot of people thought it was the best CAM out there. I have solid works and thought to maybe get the company to allow me to install HSM at my desk so I could help with posts and run times on parts to quote.
We have Gibbs and it is a good pkg. however I don not have access to it.

Is HSM Express still free?
Is it a lot of trouble to install?
Is it still well thought of for SW?
Is it still supported for SW thru AutoDesk?
using for milling only on HAAS machines, posts still available for free?

Thanks
Mark

Hmm lot of views no replies..am I missing something?
 
Last edited:
Hi Mark,
I use HSMworks with Solidworks almost daily. I love it. BUT........I'm not a "power" user by any means. I use it with my Haas Minimill and it works a treat. If I have questions I can go to Nextgen website, Autodesk forum, or Youtube for help. I started out with Hsmexpress and used for a couple of years to great effect. It installs seamlessly and you will wonder how they can give it away for all it will do.

Sorry I have not answered any of your questions but I hope if HSMexpress is still available that you will try it out.
You might look into the Fusion360 posts here as HSMworks is part of that package and has been discussed therein.

Cheers
Tim in D
 
HSMXpress is still free, standard posts are still free and the Haas pays are pretty good. Installation of either Xpress or the full version is easy and quick but you will need the serial number which they email to you. Integrating is second to none IMO. I use it to program our Haas VF6SS and Fadal VMC2216, and have gotten most of the kinks worked out for our Amera Seiki Fanuc lathe post too. Thera a good HSM forum too with lots of help available.
 
it's all in the post you get from them,
they never did provide a proper working post for 4 axis indexed
Fadal 88 format 1 ridged tapping, had to go in and edit the g code
they never would make it put out the taping in the proper format.

watch out make sure you have a good post before you give them any money,
you are dealing with autodesk remember.

now express well it's ok if all you need is 2d.

I went to bobcad full 4axis mill it actually works
 
Works great for us, have posts for all of our machines (Haas, Centroid, AMC, OSAI). the only feature they haven't implemented that we use is aggregate support, have to manually code that for now.
 
it's all in the post you get from them,
they never did provide a proper working post for 4 axis indexed
Fadal 88 format 1 ridged tapping, had to go in and edit the g code
they never would make it put out the taping in the proper format.

watch out make sure you have a good post before you give them any money,
you are dealing with autodesk remember.

now express well it's ok if all you need is 2d.

Pretty much all of that should be fixed now in their standard post. If using Fusion 360 or Inventor HSM the 4th has to be set up in the post and not the machine configuration. Personally I did a LOT of editing of the PP, it's just written in JavaScript and there are tutorials on it on YouTube, as well as good insight and help on the forums. That said, they will direct you to a reseller for post edits most of the time.

Works great for us, have posts for all of our machines (Haas, Centroid, AMC, OSAI). the only feature they haven't implemented that we use is aggregate support, have to manually code that for now.

What's Aggregate Support? :confused:
 
uselessly fancy way of saying "right angle head"
software companies are using that verbiage. No idea why.

Well, that's the manufacturers term and the umbrella term for a variety of "right angle heads", as well as angled heads. We use em for side milling, drilling, and sawcutting features on a ton of different extrusion parts... allowing us to complete several whole parts at once with features on numerous sides (typically 2-3 planes), on a 12 foot gantry mill in a single operation. huge improvement over doing them on a vertical mill, and not expensive to set up either :)
 
It kicks ass for 3 axis milling and 3+1 and 3+2 milling. Turning and any simultaneous 4 and 5 needs work.
 
Turning in HSM is steadily improving though, Milling was their main target and has a lot of effective strategies. I do turning programs regularly in HSM (using the latest experimental builds which get the latest turning features first), I have to tweak em sometimes so it's definitely not there yet for complete peace of mind. and like with anything, posts are crucial... I've found em to be pretty good with fixing up posts for us (though, we do pay for the software).

experimental versions: Inventor HSM Development Versions - Autodesk CAM Solutions
 
What is up with HSM? I don't see much chatter here on it? At one time a few years ago this forum was abuzz with news on it and a lot of people thought it was the best CAM out there. I have solid works and thought to maybe get the company to allow me to install HSM at my desk so I could help with posts and run times on parts to quote.
We have Gibbs and it is a good pkg. however I don not have access to it.

Is HSM Express still free?
Is it a lot of trouble to install?
Is it still well thought of for SW?
Is it still supported for SW thru AutoDesk?
using for milling only on HAAS machines, posts still available for free?

Thanks
Mark

Hmm lot of views no replies..am I missing something?

The reality is that once ADSK purchased HSMWorks the spent about 2 years integrating it into Inventor and Fusion and caused a massive slow down in development. They appear to be picking up again. HSMWorks express is a great package and is free. If I had to purchase new software I would be evaluating others as well. Also there is no longer an option to purchase the software only rent it year to year. Once you stop paying the software stops.
 
But you are talking about turning in Inventor not SW/HSMWorks. HSMworks has not seen many of the refinements that InventorHSM or Fusion has seen in turning. The OP is talking about HSMWorks and should not assume the 2 are on par in turning.
 
The OP stated that this was for milling only on Haas machines. I agree with the turning sentiment, but it's not terribly relevant to the OP's question.
 
But you are talking about turning in Inventor not SW/HSMWorks. HSMworks has not seen many of the refinements that InventorHSM or Fusion has seen in turning. The OP is talking about HSMWorks and should not assume the 2 are on par in turning.

Interestingly enough, HSMworks is updated even more frequently than HSM for Inventor... the link to those versions (and dev versions) is also on that page I referenced. Of course, I've no idea if the specific new features in both are up to date between both, they are the same department (to some extent) though so I suspect that is the case (within reason).
 
The OP stated that this was for milling only on Haas machines. I agree with the turning sentiment, but it's not terribly relevant to the OP's question.

Yes you are correct I should have quoted the post I was commenting on in which the person mentioned turning.
 








 
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