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purchasing mastercam or camworks

rcavalieri

Plastic
Joined
Feb 11, 2014
Location
florida
can anyone give me some advise on purchasing mastercam vs camworks, herein my shop we have purchased a new okuma genos M460 mill and need to buy software for it we are going back and forth about the 2 different softwares to buy. our engineering staff is pushing to buy camworks claiming it works better with the solidworks they run and my operator wants mastercam because he is more familiar with that, are there any problems running mastercam when you import a solid drawing file ?
 
M/C is sold through a reseller. Call them and ask who your's is. Camworks is probably the same. I would suggest doing your homework. There are lots of better choices.
 
can anyone give me some advise on purchasing mastercam vs camworks, herein my shop we have purchased a new okuma genos M460 mill and need to buy software for it we are going back and forth about the 2 different softwares to buy. our engineering staff is pushing to buy camworks claiming it works better with the solidworks they run and my operator wants mastercam because he is more familiar with that, are there any problems running mastercam when you import a solid drawing file ?

So do you want the machinists to have to reprogram the part when changes happen or do you want the CAM software to automatically tell you the part has changed and then allow it to update the toolpath?

CAMWorks, HSMWorks, SolidCam, DelCam for SolidWorks and yes there is MasterCam for SW also, these will allow updated toolpath when the parts change saving him time and you money, plus making engineering happy.

So tell the machinist that learning SW is just like learning a new CNC with a different control, more experience = more $$ for him.:D
 
Who is responsible for creating tool path and posted code to run on the machine, Engineering or the operator?
Solid point, this should be among the consideration as much as anything else. Mastercam does have a feature called change recogniton that does something similar to what len said, although I don't know how to use it or how well it works.
edit: Len did mention the Mastercam for SW, I have no experience so maybe this has the same functions as change recognition...?
 
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can anyone give me some advise on purchasing mastercam vs camworks, herein my shop we have purchased a new okuma genos M460 mill and need to buy software for it we are going back and forth about the 2 different softwares to buy. our engineering staff is pushing to buy camworks claiming it works better with the solidworks they run and my operator wants mastercam because he is more familiar with that, are there any problems running mastercam when you import a solid drawing file ?

I can't really comment on Mastercam, it's been 18 years since I used it.

Please see my thread about Camworks before you buy it;

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...g-4th-axis-milling-2-1-2-axis-milling-285403/
 
can anyone give me some advise on purchasing mastercam vs camworks, herein my shop we have purchased a new okuma genos M460 mill and need to buy software for it we are going back and forth about the 2 different softwares to buy. our engineering staff is pushing to buy camworks claiming it works better with the solidworks they run and my operator wants mastercam because he is more familiar with that, are there any problems running mastercam when you import a solid drawing file ?

I've used Mastercam for years.
Mastercam can import many many types of solid models. Some are better than others. Not to Mastercam, but just mathematically. STL's have tessellation issues. Personally, I use X_T files a lot. Occasionally I use STEP files. Mastercam can import native Solidworks files with no issues.
You can use them for cut geo, or surfacing direct from the solid.
Pretty simple...
 
I have looked at a number of CAM software packages, including MasterCAM and CAMWorks. I priced 4-axis milling plus 2-axis lathe for both. MasterCAM came in about $10k with two post-processors and CAMWorks a considerable premium above MC. My needs are pretty simple, so I'll probably just go with a lower end package like VisualMill for less than half that of MC. Most of my products will be hand coded anyway, as the bulk of the parts I'm machining are simple enough to hand code.

My CAD software is Solid Edge, and it would be nice to have CAMWorks built-in, but it is just too pricey.
 
I think if they are "standard" they are pretty much free forever (with up to date maintenance of course :) ) Alloutmx. By standard I mean Fanuc based (probably...maybe?) and nothing much beyond 4 axis. I do believe they "give" you one for whatever machine you plan on using when you purchase MCX the first time, but I am sure it is just included in the initial price.
 
I got some Generic 3x posts, 4x posts, Haas posts, Fadal posts, Fanuc posts, yada yada.
Mastercam posts are VERY easy to modify. I mean....I can mod them.
I have NEVER failed to get a solution for a post very quickly from my reseller. And they have never charged me for it.
You'll pay for a 5x post, but if you want a free one...you're still gonna pay. It's just that you'll be paying for it in machine repair.
I'm buying a new twin spindle, live tool Y axis machine. Post is I think $2500.
I used to program my Star SV32 with Mastercam 7 (long time ago) and stitched in the wait codes....13x. Big fun
I'd happily pay for a post for that machine.
 
can anyone give me some advise on purchasing mastercam vs camworks, herein my shop we have purchased a new okuma genos M460 mill and need to buy software for it we are going back and forth about the 2 different softwares to buy. our engineering staff is pushing to buy camworks claiming it works better with the solidworks they run and my operator wants mastercam because he is more familiar with that, are there any problems running mastercam when you import a solid drawing file ?

It depends on the type of work you're doing..

There aren't really any issues with importing cad data (solids included) into Mastercam, mostly just that when something changes on the CAD side, it becomes quite a bit more work to integrate those changes in. With integrated packages, it's often as simple as opening up the CAM assembly, recomputing the toolpath, and re-post processing. In Mastercam, you'll be manually copying and pasting the geometry, or re-picking line segments.

But CAMWorks is pretty rough, if really interested in a solidworks integrated package.. look at HSMWorks/Xpress or Delcam for Solidworks, either one is leagues ahead of Camworks in virtually every way, and at least when I was shopping they were considerably less expensive as well.
 
been Mastercaming for years.
this week i'm programming a 65" diameter, 10,000 pound part with 270 MC operations in it.
the workflow in MC is not the best, lots of stupid repetitive mouse clicks that do get annoying, also there is a fair mount of tribal knowledge on work arounds and cooool tricks. There is LOTS and LOTS of functionality to go at things in multiple ways.

which CAM depends on your business plan.
fast turn aound of R&D models in solidwork= camworks, HSM , Delcam, Matercam for solidworks (works decent)
great knowledge / user base= mastercam
 
Sign up for Fusion 360 for $40 and let the guy doing your G-coding get his feet wet with HSM Works as HSM Works 3+2 is now baked in.

I don't think it's exactly feature complete yet, and he will need to poke around the Fusion way of doing things for a little bit (it's very easy to figure out). Once he gets a load of HSM, he'll forget MasterCAM or CAMWorks ever even existed.

Easy $40, and he gets to spit out real g-code.
 
Sign up for Fusion 360 for $40 and let the guy doing your G-coding get his feet wet with HSM Works as HSM Works 3+2 is now baked in.

I don't think it's exactly feature complete yet, and he will need to poke around the Fusion way of doing things for a little bit (it's very easy to figure out). Once he gets a load of HSM, he'll forget MasterCAM or CAMWorks ever even existed.

Easy $40, and he gets to spit out real g-code.

It sounds like his engineering department is already engrossed in Solidworks, so HSMWorks would have some big advantages over fusion or inventor CAM..
 
Mastercam has no problem importing any kind of solid model and your programmer is familiar and prefers to use it. Appears to be a simple decision.
 
camworks vs mastercam

As a business owner, you'll have a lot better luck on finding somebody with Mastercam backround opposed to Camworks backround, we've spent considerable amount of money on this software recommended by an employee, which ultimately moved out of state, only to find out its incredibly hard to find anybody with experience in Camworks, I'd much rather have bought Mastercam only because theres quite of people with experience in Mastercam, I'd much rather sell this software and purchase something that's used heavily in this field, just an owners opinion.
 
Yeah Mastercam is def a lot more popular. I currently use Solidcam but I started with Mastercam V5 through V9, My boss is in the works to purchase a new seat of Mastercam so this means ill be going back to it. Solidcam is a very powerful cam software and works amazingly inside of Solidworks but too many applicants always list Mastercam as their weapon of choice.


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