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What all-in-one software to choose?

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Plastic
Joined
Jun 6, 2015
Well, at the moment am working at a small shop, where we mostly do sheet metal stuff and tube bending. And am having a brain crash of a time deciding what cad program I would have the most advantage of learning both now and in future endeavours.

I’m looking for something that can do all the basic and advanced stuff when it comes to sheet metal and tube bending, some kind of cam capabilities would also be great.

Beyond that it would be fun if it was somewhat future proof, if i invest 20k hours I would like to be able to use that experience in as many situations as possible, so the more things the program is capable of the better.

I’ve been looking at solidworks, inventor, safe and good choices? Also looked at catia and nx, retarded overkill? And lastly onshape, too small and new?

Im very thankful for all comments and suggestions, thanks.
 
Take a look at Fusion 360. Sheetmetal is supposed to be available as a preview soon, beware "soon" is pretty open. Other than that I think it fits your needs pretty well although I have no idea about tube bending. If you are just wanting to learn it and not making over $100,000 a year then it is free.
 
I am now using Fusion 360 for CAD and CAM. We use Solidworks at work and we do a little bit of everything with it. I went back and forth between buying solidworks or not for myself. And now I think at some point I will buy myself Soldworks. Based on my experience with the types of stuff you seem to want Solidworks is great. It has some really nice features for weldments where you basically just build the thing, whatever it is, out of line segments then just click on the line and can turn it into a structural section then it has a fairly simple way to specify what happens at the corners. I have only used the sheet metal design in solidworks minimally but it seems very good too. Probably if you get on youtube and search for solidworks sheet metal and weldments you can get a decent idea how it works. It's all pretty easy to learn too with their tutorials.

Solidworks is not an all-in-one system though different purchase prices give you different options. And they have an Add in system where you can use it with third party packages as though they were part of Solidworks. One thing that held me up from buying Solidworks is that I really wanted to use it with HSMWorks CAM. I have my doubts about spending money, at least my money, on this combo now that Autodesk bought HSMWorks.
 
For what its worth here are some things to look at.

1) Solidworks has the largest install base currently, most education institutions have it for instruction\research and coursework, so easy to find it in industry for design and manufacturing. Yes you'd have to by 3rd party CAM like HSMWorks ( 2.5 axis HSMExpress is free), CAMWorks, SolidCam, BobCam for SW, MasterCam for SW and quite a few more are available at different price points. HSMWorks is now a subscription only you can pay monthly or yearly and if monthly you can get it us it then let it lapse and then start it up when you need it again, more expensive in the long run...maybe.

here is the dollar side of this scenario, you have to pay subscription\maintenance per year on 2 or more software's with SW.

2) Inventor HSM, you get the CAD and CAM together, it is only a subscription model again but you only are paying for 1 software and it's the same cost every year, not a large cost up front then a maintenance at a lower cost per year like SW and most of the other CAD out there. This is the new Autodesk subscription only no more perpetual licenses. The CAM side is built on the HSMWorks engine since AD bought them.

3) Fusion 360 is Cloud Based, include CAM and T-Splines (Sub-D Faces to allow push\pull of faces), CAM is again based on HSMWorks. Subscription only again, files are stored in the Cloud (can be stored locally but a pain) you need to be connected to the internet (has a 2 week safety if internet goes down you can still work on the current file saved in cache). of course depending on what you do the cost is free, $300 or $1200\yr. as for sheet metal haven't used it.

4) the rest NX, PROE\CREO, SolidEdge and CATIA those I wont go into as I have not used them.

hope this helps

yes I'm a SW guy but use HSMWorks, had it before the AD buy out.
 
Inventor, not Fusion. Sheet metal is well established in Inventor and extremely efficient... with HSM in Inventor you're off to the races with machining stuff as well. Inventor integrates extremely well with any other software you might need... a nesting solution is necessary for volume production of sheet metal parts (SigmaNEST is the best for that).
 
Thanks for all the help, im going to give inventor a try, seems to fit my needs and its not nosebleed expensive.:)
just a thought, if i learn inventor, or start to learn, and i for some reason switch program, to sw, ironcad or whatever. will that be like starting over from scratch or just some getting use to, like different ui and small things.
 
Every software is different for UI and features but I find, the more of them you learn, the easier it becomes to learn the next one. Assuming of course, it's not ass-backwards antiquated software (there is still lots of that around).
 
Subscription only again, files are stored in the Cloud (can be stored locally but a pain) you need to be connected to the internet (has a 2 week safety if internet goes down you can still work on the current file saved in cache).

The newest update lets the user set the amount of time that files are cached locally, and will go at least up to a year (365 days). I believe technically you still have to log in every two weeks to maintain useability, but thankfully users are now not quite as dependent on cloud functionality/connectivity to keep up their day-to-day operations.

Cache Time.JPG
 
I'm a cad guy (20 years) thats in the process of purchasing first cnc now - so coming at things from the opposite end from most people here.
For approx 5 years, I've used cam for 3 to full 5 axis offline programming where very tight integration is needed between cad and cam. The system we use is creo (what was proe) and is a v good system for our needs. We design products/large assemblies that have combinations of machined parts, surfacey injection mouldings, vac forms, sheet metal, castings and electronics/PCB. For us it's great to have everything in one system for a couple of reasons: familiar interface and feel, and for machining projects the ability to assign tool paths to parts which automatically update when part geometry changes. Do you need this tight integration/link between cad/cam? Or would a standalone cad and standalone cam system do? There are good options out there now for both routes. You need to evaluate this in relation to work you do and where you want to be in the future

For 'mid priced' cad systems in addition to creo, there's solidworks, inventor. NX and catia are good but probably overkill,designed for larger businesses.

Whichever system you choose youll need training and possibly some consultancy to get the most out of your system/quick roi.
 
I would say not VisualCADCAM. I got it to do CAM for Alibre Design and the interface is just awful. It throws useless error messages and I've spent hours trying to figure out why it won't generate a tool path.

I got Fusion 360 and in about 10 minutes I'd imported an Alibre part and generated a program for a Dynapath Delta 20, all without reading any help files.

I haven't really tried designing anything in Fusion 360 yet and it seems to run slower than Alibre on my machine (might be a video driver problem) but so far I'm pretty happy with it.
 
Take a look at Fusion 360. Sheetmetal is supposed to be available as a preview soon, beware "soon" is pretty open. Other than that I think it fits your needs pretty well although I have no idea about tube bending. If you are just wanting to learn it and not making over $100,000 a year then it is free.

I have seen this free under $100k option mentioned before but all I could find was student, 30 day trial, or paid subscription. Where do you find the under $100k option?
 
I have seen this free under $100k option mentioned before but all I could find was student, 30 day trial, or paid subscription. Where do you find the under $100k option?

Scroll down to the Subscription Types (about a screen scroll's worth): Autodesk Fusion 36 Changes to Benefits - November 216 | Fusion 36 | Autodesk Knowledge Network

How to activate as an Enthusiast/Startup or Educational license: How to activate Start-up or Educational licensing for Fusion 36 | Fusion 36 | Autodesk Knowledge Network
 
Find out what your customers are using! What are shops that you compete with using?

In my local area, its about 75% SolidWorks, 20% Pro/E, 5% other.
 
For approx 5 years, I've used cam for 3 to full 5 axis offline programming where very tight integration is needed between cad and cam. The system we use is creo (what was proe) and is a v good system for our needs.
A second vote for pro/e, just 'cuz usually people either ignore or say they hate it. (Seems like a lot of people who hate it never used it, but that's a different subject.) There is probably not another cadcam program that is more capable and with a broader variety of supported fields. Solids, surfaces, sheet metal, wiring, engines, fea, cfd, simulation, it's all there. If it's mechanical, pro/e has it.

The drawback is PTC. But nowadays it seems like it's not if your cad supplier will flock you, it's when. Since Wildfire the interface has been more pleasant. If your thinking fits the "parametric" methods, the pro is worth looking at. It's decent.
 
I’m looking for something that can do all the basic and advanced stuff when it comes to sheet metal and tube bending,

Sounds like a job for Solid Edge. There's no CAM in SE, but it cooperates with most stand alone CAM. I use it with edgecam
 
We're a small business and we use NX. Lots of small businesses use NX. They probably (like us) just don't use the Teamcenter packages that set up extensive standards, document control, change tracking/authorizations, parts libraries, and multi-site permissions and stuff like that. NX has 'modules' you can buy in packages, but no, it's not cheap, overall. It's expandable into anything you want, though, pretty much. This is the first company I've worked at where I used it. I like it hands-down over everything else I've used; Autocad, Solidworks, Inventor, Fusion, CATIA, and CAM software like FeatureCam, MasterCam, SurfCam, OneCNC, and such.

I used Inventor and Solidworks for sheet forming (no tube bending though I've modeled it enough) and they all do well. I haven't had cause for using sheet metal tools in NX but they're there, and expansive. NX seems to have more control and options for almost every little thing than any other software I've used. It's pretty powerful.
 








 
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