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SolidCam claim in writing 50% cycle time reduction and fastest cam on market

g-coder05

Titanium
Joined
Mar 5, 2006
Location
Subic Bay
Has anybody else been getting spam mail from solidcam? I recieved an email stating they guarantee in writing that they will reduce my cycles by 50% and offer a head to head competition against our current cam system. I decided to take them up on the challenge and ask what the guarantee was. I said that I would put one of my female interns against his best programmer. The reply was "jay I read you email and had a chuckle. You should read what our customers say about us". He totally avoided the challenge. Thought I would share the email with you guys and see what the thoughts where.

Hello Jay,

I recently discovered your web site and was I very impressed with your company. Many of our customers are servicing the Aerospace, Medical and Commercial Industries as well. I wasn’t able to reach you by phone today, so I am reaching out to you by email to bring to your attention a remarkable New Fully Integrated and Associative CNC/CAM package that is cutting cycle times by 50% and we guarantee it in writing. As well as cutting cycle times dramatically our new patented feature called iMachining is extending Machine and Tool Life significantly too!

Also, in this email I have included the Desktop Engineering article that was written about SolidCAM and a Product Brochure (please see attachments).

In addition, below is a link for SolidCAM iMachining testimonial videos. Our solutions are assisting our customer base in increasing profit margins!
I really encourage you to take a few minutes to watch a couple of these short videos.
Burns Machinery - SolidCAM + SolidWorks CAD/CAM software

Food for thought!
We would be delighted to host an online technical session with you and your team for a head to head comparison with your CNC Software. The demonstration by one of our master machinists will show you an under the hood look at our Algorithm, integration with SolidWORKS and how our software can reduce cycle times significantly and extend tool life. If you would like to send us a part file we can make the demo part specific.

I submit, there isn’t any other CNC software on the market today that is as fast and makes as much $ense!
In addition; SolidCAM’s Support and Post Team experience, capabilities and resources are unrivaled in the industry!

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Have a Happy Holiday Season!

Regards,




Dan Santoro| Business Development | SolidCAM Inc.
Office: Northridge, CA | United States
Toll Free: 866-975-1115 x24
 
Jay, I know you've had issues with getting technical assistance and help, over there, but I would jump ALL OVER THAT in a heart beat. Of course, this assumes you have some time to waste in the effort and name of entertainment.

Two caveats - I would want to see the "in writing" text up front, and they get the part at the same time your intern gets the part. Having a week or two to mull it over doesn't count for Ka-ka in the real world. Anyone can figure out a complex, hard part in a few weeks after having a few go's at it. Show me what it's made of, right here, right now. If it's really better, you'll find out. And in a hurry. ... Then again... I'm funny that way. And yes, I drink the PowerMILL Kool-aid. :)
 
A real problem with the SC claim is "50% compared to what?" - a toolpath that has been hand tuned for years for a high volume part? Or a toolpath the 1st day intern made up as her first ever program, for machines and tools she's never seen before?

Another problem is that iMachining, like I suppose most any other auto-code generating scheme, can be turned "down" or "up" - and "up" - full throttle go for it - will put a lot of pressure on flimsy workpieces and workholding. More or less pressure than some other scheme? I don't know. It could well be that it will be easier to get an iMachine toolpath to maximize the workholding and workpiece, but it would take a lot of testing to prove that.

I use SC and really like iMachine, but I've not compared it to something like powermill.

If the NDAs etc. allow it, a better test might be to program your part in powermill, whatever, and then send the part to somebody who has SC to try it with iMachining. But of course, that looses the part model.
 
The interns we hire have 2 years of powermill and NX training before we bring them on here. After that they get 4 hours a day for 6 months advanced powermill, powershape, electrode, and tool maker training, so for interns they are well versed in the software. I have tried to find out what this guarantee is but there dose not seem to be a link to it.
 
The interns we hire have 2 years of powermill and NX training before we bring them on here. After that they get 4 hours a day for 6 months advanced powermill, powershape, electrode, and tool maker training, so for interns they are well versed in the software. I have tried to find out what this guarantee is but there dose not seem to be a link to it.

If you decide to pursue this ( even if you don't decide to post about it ) I would LOVE to hear how this works out, regardless of outcome.
Seriously. I love seeing actual, head to head, same part, comparisons of stuff, like this. I can usually learn something new on the rare occasion one gets to see it.
 
Im all for it. Maybe say if my person wins they buy us a seat of Delcam and if they win we buy a seat of SC. We can stream video direct from our programming cafe so as long as they can do the same to see there is no cheating then I am all for it. Maybe have one of the PM members through out a model at the same time that neither SC or us have seen and go for it.
 
Im all for it. Maybe say if my person wins they buy us a seat of Delcam and if they win we buy a seat of SC. We can stream video direct from our programming cafe so as long as they can do the same to see there is no cheating then I am all for it. Maybe have one of the PM members through out a model at the same time that neither SC or us have seen and go for it.

"Like"¹º .
 
Its extremely easy to make a cycle twice as fast. Take good, sane feed rates that won't burn out an endmill every two parts... then double that.

I can guarantee I can make a part simulate four times as fast, too.

Our engineers are now working on a simulator that goes to eleven...
 
Its extremely easy to make a cycle twice as fast. Take good, sane feed rates that won't burn out an endmill every two parts... then double that.

I can guarantee I can make a part simulate four times as fast, too.

Our engineers are now working on a simulator that goes to eleven...

That's always the problem with these things! I use mastercam and I can make it super fast in simulation, probably wont last the first full plunge on a 1/4" endmill slotting full diameter at .75 doc, but what the hell.. :rolleyes5:
 
Humor aside, there is a real technology issue here. iMachining does develop fancy motion paths which do appear to give very constant cutter engagement - such that if you can hang onto the workpiece it will cut just fine.

But proving that out is harder - you'd really need to make toolpaths with the automated mechanisms in various CAM tools, and then run them while measuring tool life, forces on the workholding, etc. I will note that imachining is very automatic - I use it whenever I can because it's just faster to program for many tasks - and that's the big issue in what I do.

In the meantime, *I* am going to build a simulator that goes to 12 .... muah ha ha ha ha...
 
50% compared to what?

Guarantee .. or what? They give take their software back and refund your money? You're still out time/money.

It's just marketing shit that's all bark, no bite.
 
ive seen that too. and we all say the same thing...Ya ook haha

and yes 50% reduction of cycle time compared to filing the part by hand between your knees maybe
 
The entire team at SolidCAM 100% understands the skepticism about iMachining as there have historically been too many hollow CAM claims to count. So our biggest challenge is to have people compare it to their existing technology in real-world conditions. In the last few years, we have found that benchmarks, shootouts and other brief trials really do not allow the user to accurately gage the advantages of iMachining due to the many variables involved in day to day machining not being able to be replicated in one or two brief trials. The other issue is that due to SolidCAM's growth (averaging almost 50% per year in the US and Canada since iMachining launched three years ago), there is no way to support hundreds of simultaneous trials without greatly degrading our customer support (please ask any of our customers about our commitment to support). Our approach is simple, we offer a guaranteed repayment within a week, if iMachining does not cut 50% faster than with the CAM system the customer currently uses. This way, we provide top level support to the user, including post processor setup and quick start assistance, during an extended 60 day trial where they can really first-hand experience the benefits of iMachining. To date, we have never had a request to return iMachining.

We do post a large number of real-life success stories and videos on our website, we do live cutting webinars every two weeks and we are fortunate that customers often post their own success stories on Youtube, but if there is another way to help convince that iMachining is for real- help remove the understandable "fishiness" - I am wide open to suggestions.

I hope this helps, and I apologize if this reply post seems too much like advertising.

At your service,

Shaun Mymudes, COO - SolidCAM US and Canada
 
but if there is another way to help convince that iMachining is for real- help remove the understandable "fishiness" - I am wide open to suggestions.

Post the actual before and after machining processes with speeds/feeds/cut depths etc. Provide side by side video of both processes being cut...either in cam or live. Tell us what cam software you are out performing, or is it just fingercam? Sure is easy to reduce cycle time by 50% when the company is cutting the part inefficiently to start with.
 
I think what is so disturbing is the whole marketing technique is based on bashing every other cam system on the market "Break the chains of your current CAM system Make more , Spend less and Automatic Speeds and feeds wizard. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but Featurecam has had this 8+ years. I did do a little comparison last night on the part below with a guy who has SC and using AFR and the SF/HSM wizard in Featurecam I had code before SC had a tool database. I'm not saying SC is a bad software but they have no basis to claim there software is better than any on the market as this can only be user preference. As far as "look at our customer testimonials", Well I have been in this business long enough to know there is no way possible to keep everybody happy so I really don't think you can say you have never had a complaint.






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You make some valid points that we will consider in our next rounds of ads, as our intent is not to "Bash" anyone. There is great CAM software on the market that many are extremely happy with. We simply echoed what thousands of customers have told us (breaking the shackles) as they switched to SolidCAM from CAM software they did not like. As for posting results, we did exactly as was suggested when we first released iMachining. It caused so much controversy, negative feedback and skepticism, that we decided it is far better for customers to decide for themselves. We have posted nearly 200 feedback stories on our website so others can see the results of these trials. Most of the customers preferred to leave off the name of their current CAM system for legality, but most would be very open to discussing their results. If anyone would like to talk with someone who did a comparison with SolidCAM to a particular CAM system, please just contact me or anyone from SolidCAM. Again, please excuse my post as I understand this is not a marketing venue, I am just hoping to provide some clarity to some questions. Sometimes I feel like the guy who has a 200 mpg car to sell, but few believe him, so he seldom gets the chance to prove its real.
 








 
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