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Any Hypermill users?

Joined
Jun 10, 2007
Location
Orlando
I'm in the process of upgrading to full 5 axis machining. I would like to know Pros and cons of hypermill. Especially support, learning tools, and upgrade costs(maintenance fees).
 
I am a Hypermill user of the 3D Pro package, have been for years. I am not familiar with there 5 axis software but I can give you any information on the general use of the software.

Do you use Inventor?


Cheers
SF
 
Hi,
I do not use inventor. I use Rhino and onecnc.
How do you like the CAD side of Hypermill? If you use a different package for CAD, what is lacking in Hypermill?

How is the support and what kind of maintenance costs can I expect?

Are there any good learning tools?

Is the Drawing process intuitive like onecnc?

Thanks for your input.
 
I do not use inventor. I use Rhino and onecnc.
How do you like the CAD side of Hypermill? If you use a different package for CAD, what is lacking in Hypermill?
A: The version of Hypermill I use runs inside of Inventor. It is leading edge in every way. But keep in mind, this version only exists inside of Inventor, it has no CAD of its own, nor does it need it.

How is the support and what kind of maintenance costs can I expect?
A: Support is through Open Mind USA and the guys are very good at what they do. Just call them, they will tell you what the costs are. I know they very depending on what options you have. Generally the costs are less than Inventor's maintenance costs.

Are there any good learning tools?
A: It sounds like you would be interested in the stand alone version of Hypermill. It has its own CAD environment and I know nothing about it other than it is licensed from one of the big CAD players.

Is the Drawing process intuitive like onecnc?
A: Hypermill got its start working inside of Mechanical Desktop. It was primarily CAM from the start and they are very good at what they do. Now it is integrated into Inventor, SolidWorks and a slew of others.

IMHO, any CAM company that tries to make a CAD product is just reinventing the wheel and so they will never be able to compete unless the parts you expect from it are simple and there are no assemblies.

I am sure that drawing inside OneCNC is easy and elegant but it is not intended to be a full fledge CAM package like Inventor. It all comes down to what you need. If you are using Rhino maybe you are using all of its wonderful surface features. If that is the case I do not know if Open Mind has a solution for you.

Cheers
SF
 
If you are using Rhino maybe you are using all of its wonderful surface features. If that is the case I do not know if Open Mind has a solution for you.
SF
I just did a web expo and was very impressed. they used their new beta version that is due to release in the next couple of weeks. They claim that it handles surfaces just fine. Does your current version handle surfaces very well?

HOP
 
I have machined many complex surfaces with Hypermill over the years. Hypermill has wonderful surface features.

My comment about Rhino surfaces was directed at the issue of getting that CAD to talk to Hypermill. It will talk of course but I much prefer an interface that is integrated like when a CAM application lives inside of a CAD application.


Cheers
 
I just started a shop that uses Hypermill. They rave about it for their 5 axis work. They say that if they have any problem at all they just call and someone remotely gets onto their computer and helps. Turning isn't it's strong point but is excellent for mill and especially 5 axis.
 
I've been using Hypermill for about a year. Very happy with it, it's my main CAM software now. Best thing I've ever used for multi-axis work, I came from using Siemens NX and I think it is far superior. They are definitely the most innovative company when it comes to new tool paths for 5 axis, such as barrel cutters.

That said I still do most of my drawing in NX, because it is a fuller featured CAD platform. HyperCAD actually has some nice tools for "fixing" cad models to make them work better in the CAM side tho.

Training is either formal one-on-one or remote support. They are excellent at getting back to you when you need help, another reason I jumped over from NX. Unfortunately there are almost no tutorials for things, although they've started to add more on their youtube channels. No dedicated forum either which is kind of a bummer.

Maintenance costs I have no idea, but they do bi-annual updates. Just downloaded 2019.1 the other day.
 
I've been using Hypermill for about a year. Very happy with it, it's my main CAM software now. Best thing I've ever used for multi-axis work, I came from using Siemens NX and I think it is far superior. They are definitely the most innovative company when it comes to new tool paths for 5 axis, such as barrel cutters.

Not that I'm in the market for either, but how is Hypermill on 3, and 3+2 axis operations?
 
Not that I'm in the market for either, but how is Hypermill on 3, and 3+2 axis operations?

I think it is very strong in all milling. Obviously the more powerful a software the harder it is to do basic things, but I've done plenty of 3 axis work with it. 3+2 is especially easy, you just define a "frame" to orient your tool axis and go from there. I have the "Hypermaxx" options with Volumill for HSM which works great for 2D, 3D, and full 5 axis roughing. Haven't played with the 5X helical drilling cycle yet, but I've seen it in person and it's pretty amazing.

They also make it super easy to do multi-axis drilling with automatic hole vector detection and collision checked linking moves between holes or hole patterns. The collision checking in general is world class, it's let me get away with some pretty gnarly stuff. The built in machine simulation is very good and accurate in my experience.

I've started to play with their built in feature recongition tool to make hole-making and pocket operations quicker to program as well.
 
I wasn't looking at Hypermill until seeing here that it integrates with Inventor. I'm getting quotes now, but one thing that may be problematic is it doesn't sound like they play nice with CAMplete.

AD says Powermill is machine and fixture aware as it generates the toolpaths; does Hypermill do this as well if you have a model of the machine? I don't want to have to regenerate toolpaths due to things like spindle/trunnion collisions...
 
I wasn't looking at Hypermill until seeing here that it integrates with Inventor. I'm getting quotes now, but one thing that may be problematic is it doesn't sound like they play nice with CAMplete.

AD says Powermill is machine and fixture aware as it generates the toolpaths; does Hypermill do this as well if you have a model of the machine? I don't want to have to regenerate toolpaths due to things like spindle/trunnion collisions...

Hypermill is the same way. I would say their real claim to fame is the automatic collision detection and avoidance. They have a really easy to use 3D tool holder model import tool for loading in models from manufacturers.

No idea on the CAMplete, I've only used the internal machine simulation in Hypermill. They do all post processor and machine sim in house which I like, just have to provide them with a model and some basic kinematic info for a machine that they haven't done yet.

IMHO Hypermill and Powermill are the top of the heap for serious 5X work today.
 
You know, that was my initial experience as well, but this time I got something back same-day. I am pretty sure I emailed their UK or European office accidentally last time, though, so I'm not putting it on them.

I sent some models over this morning so we'll see how responsive they are about scheduling a demo.
 
Ignoring that this thread was brought back from the dead last month from over eleven years ago I've been using Hypermill at the current job for about four months, had a week of training, and definitely see some upsides and downsides to its use. I haven't done any turning with it, so can't speak to that, but have programmed mostly a Hermle C22U and a Brother for one part.

I still have access to HSMWorks and Fusion 360, but have really tried to push myself to normalize usage of Hypermill, and these are some quick points of observation:

The CAD sucks. Do not use it, it's a pain. Set everything up in another software that has some sort of mate system, it will save you lots of headaches if you are in any way proficient in parametric CAD because HyperCAD-S ain't it. You can export colors to act as a secondary layer system (Fusion 360 for instance does not output features, bodies, or anything else on a layer when you export as a STP).

3+ CAM is awesome. Making surfacing toolpaths is very good, and once one gets used to the nomenclature that Open Mind uses (it's a bit funky) it becomes pretty clear, and good toolpaths calculate pretty quickly and it's fairly simple to iterate.

Stock generation is good. Roughing toolpaths can be set to generate stock automatically, and while anything that is categorized as a finishing toolpath won't, you can do it manually and use it for anything else.

Collision is variable. The software will calculate any collision with actual geometry such as part model, workholding, spindle, toolholder, anything that can be modeled for detection. What it won't do for finishing toolpaths is check for stock collisions from previous operations. You have to run simulation with stock to find this (which is how I did it) and that's... a little disappointing.

2.5 CAM kinda sucks. They don't want to improve it. I've tried. I've had those discussions. It isn't important to them as they are catering to 5x as much as possible.

They have been very good at responding to bug reports. I had a calculation time issue with a large surfacing toolpath that Fusion 360 replicated in under a minute compared to nearly 40 in Hypermill and that will be fixed in the next version. That sort of attention is hard to beat in any package, but of course you pay for it.

Hypermill treats everything as surfaces, and this can be beneficial or irritating depending on what you're trying to get done. Sometimes it's a real pain in the ass when you can't just select an imported surface selection so you have to think ahead in terms of factors like color coding for a region because it's a lot nicer to do in SolidWorks than doing so in HyperCAD-S. They also have some really nice surface generation tools though for aligning U and V parameters that I haven't seen anyone else do, so for organic surfaces it can be very nice for tuning a toolpath.

All this and I'm only four months into using the software. I know it's powerful, and with that comes a lot of flexibility in a multitude of approaches. I'd be glad to provide more insight if I can to anyone who has questions.
 
...Training is either formal one-on-one or remote support. They are excellent at getting back to you when you need help, another reason I jumped over from NX...

Sounds like you are going through a VAR for your NX support. If you have a bad VAR you can go through whoever you want when it comes time to renew your support and I fully endorse that. They work for you, not the other way around! I am not going to say who (they are a huge company too) but my VAR is not very good for support so I always call Siemens directly and I am typically on hold for about 10-30 seconds. I cannot recall the last time I had to wait for a call back but it has happened perhaps a few times in the past 30 or so versions of UG and NX I have used. Our site doesn't have a lot of seats such as General Motors or 3M so size doesn't have to do with great support.

@House of plastics
Ask a lot of questions when you speak with your VAR and also have one of their applications engineers show you what they can do with your 5-axis part. Be careful of letting them "get back to you" with your part because some AE's like to take a ton of time or, once in a while, use the old smoke and mirrors trick to make you think they did a good job. It's not about the best cam system; it's about the best cam system for you and your parts. Ask them costs for turn key up front and also yearly maintenance costs. I know you asked in your OP about fees but some companies price according to your number of licenses and discount the more licenses you own so you should get a quote. Always get a quote.
 
As a more than very happy HyperMill user. I ran it inside Solidworks to start with but then paid for the HyperCAD-S. For me the HyperCAD is a machinists CAD system used to modify existing models that have been importeded or use it to prepare the model to generate tools paths. You can model from scratch in both solids or surfaces and it has all the tools you need but having plenty of Solidworks experience, I find modelling from scratch easier in SW, though opinion is formed from not been a full time user of HyperCAD and been a full time user of Soldiworks. If I used it full time and could make my way round it like I can with Solidworks then my opinion might be different.

Programming wise, I love it. I have plenty of experience with other packages and I can't fault. 5x I don't think it can be beat. I also think it holds it own 3x, powermill may have more 3d finishing tool paths and have a more comprehensive tool path edit function but I would rather give that up for the ease of programming with HyperMill
 
I left my notes at the shop, but the demo went well. I've got a few more questions now that I've digested it, and I did verify that for CAMplete the workflow is similar to F360/Inventor HSM where you "post process" and then just manually import the files (no direct plugin).

There are some pluses and minuses to both this and Powermill so I think I've got a tough decision ahead.
 








 
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