SPECIFIC CAD/CAM QUESTION

Randolph · Aug 20, 2004

A little over ten years ago I did the programming, and programmer training, for ALCOA's maintenance machine shop. We had three lathes, two milling machines, and a oxy-fuel/plasma burning machine. We used a system known at that time as SMARTCAM.

My question is about MASTERCAM. Is it a descendant of SMARTCAM? SMARTCAM did a good job for us and I am now considering a system for my own small shop. I have HAAS CNC lathe and, although it is pretty easy to program, I need to produce some profiles which would be made easier using CAM.

Any suggestions about other systems will be appreciated.

Thank you.

tnmgcarbide · Aug 20, 2004

i haven't heard of smartcam in years. no, a diff.
company than mastercam . they may still be around - google search it. mastercam, surfcam , gibbs ,
bobcad , featurecam ,... are popular systems
that people love or hate for diff. reasons.

if you're used to smartcam , and you liked
what it did for you in the past, you may consider
getting that program - otherwise you'll have
to train/learn on a new system . unless you
get something like bobcad , which is so simple
it is almost self-explanatory , most, like
mastercam and gibbs are quite different and
will require training to become proficient.

D. Rey · Aug 20, 2004

http://www.smartcamcnc.com/index.asp

Looks like they are back, under new management.

jhearons · Aug 20, 2004

Hugh Caldwell [[email protected]] is the guy I spoke with when we were shopping for CAM packages in May/June of this year. SmartCAM was out of it for a while but they are back in business. I believe that they have a new release scheduled for this year.

Randolph · Aug 21, 2004

I should have thought of Google myself but thanks for the suggestion. It wil probably boil down to whether or not I want to invest in both software and training or just software. If you have to ask you probably can't afford to buy and I have to ask.

Mud · Aug 21, 2004

The last time I looked at Mastercam it worked a lot like Smartcam and was more like it than any of the other systems. Mastercam will seem familiar to a Smartcam user. There has been a great deal of development in CAM in the past 10 years and if you are only familiar with Smartcam I think you'll be amazed at how advanced the new systems are, and how much easier they are to use. I still use Smartcam a little, but have moved to Edgecam for most work.

I'm told Excalibur is powerful and inexpensive enough for a home shop - http://www.excaliburcnc.com/products.html

CBlair · Aug 21, 2004

Randolph,

Just as a suggestion I would like to add that Mastercam is probably the most used of all of the cam packages. Of course the newer software like Esprit and Surfcam and Gibbs are growing, but Mastercam still pretty much rules the roost for small shops. I would think that if you were haveing trouble you would find more people on this site or others who could help you with Mastercam than some of the lesser used software.

Of course for lathe profiles like you will need I am sure that most any software will work well enough. But if you ever add a CNC mill or more complex machine you will be wanting more powerful software. Check out Smartcam carefully before you decide and let us know how it works out.

By the way, how are you likeing the lathe?

Charles Blair

Randolph · Aug 21, 2004

Thanks for asking, Charles. I am learning to get along real well with the HAAS. The first part I machined was a 5-C collet adaptor for the spindle nose and I was impressed with the accuracy and rigidity of the spindle for a small lathe. I have since done two jobs, one of 87 parts and one of 56 parts, on the machine and I am now wondering why I waited so long to but it.

jhearons, I recieved an email today from Hugh Caldwell. I will be talking more to him in early September.

Thanks all, for your responses.

metlmunchr · Aug 21, 2004

Randolph, for strictly lathe work I'd look for a workaround to keep from buying a relatively expensive cad-cam package. As you point out, about the only time you really need cam is for parts with intersecting curves and such. There are products out there that are free or nearly so that will spit out that part of the code for you. For everything else, I find having a good knowledge of the programming capabilities of your particular control will allow you to be running most parts faster than you will by sitting down and drawing them out via cad and generating code via cam. And I'm sure your control is a couple light years ahead of my 20 yr old okumas.

tnmgcarbide · Aug 22, 2004

randolph,
something else to consider- as dubious
as smartcam sounds , i would entertain the
possibility of finding an existing system to
purchase. what would a 1990's version of smartcam
be worth ? $25-100 bucks? i know there have been
some advances in lathe technology in the last
100 years, but not that many. perhaps someone
out there has the diskettes and printer key ,
sitting in a drawer somewhere - if i had it,
i'd sure give it away....no copyright on software
that old , besides, that software was probably
intended for a 'workstation' anyway.

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SPECIFIC CAD/CAM QUESTION

Randolph

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D. Rey

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Randolph

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Mud

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CBlair

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Randolph

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tnmgcarbide

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