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The Big Book of PROS/CONS for CAM Turning Softwares.

madbaby

Plastic
Joined
Sep 5, 2019
:typing:

So every software company tells me their widget is the best of widgets. And every forum comparing CAM turning packages turns into war before the objective is reached. If only there was something standardized like a nutrition label, I believe everyone can benefit from it.

This thread is intended for two axis turning (lathe) CAM packages only, either plug-in or standalone. Please no live tooling, mill turning, dual spindles, etc (planning to make other threads for them) to keep things focused. Your inputs for turning CAM packages you use eveyday, please & thank you. I suggest the follwing format for apples2apples. For example:

CAM PACKAGE and VERSION: MetalKILLER Turbo Version 12.0

PROS:
  • It is affordable
  • This
  • That
  • ...and the other thing


CONS:
  • It melted our lathe
  • This
  • That
  • ...and the other thing

SCORE: Do a word count. +1.0000 point for every word in PROS, and -1.0000 point for every word in CONS.

( Hope you pardon my precision joke I could not help it :D )
 
I don't quite understand what you are trying to get out of this. To me it's the same thing "What is the best CAM" that has been posted here too many times to count. Most people in here have been in the trade for a long time so naturally they are going to be biased as to pros and cons of their favorite software. This kind of post always turns into a pissing match.
 
I like Gibbs but am biased as I've been using it for nearly 10 years.

Couldn't get much simpler for a 2 axis lathe outside of conversational perhaps. Only thing that is unnecessarily complex is threading NPT for some unknown reason but once you've done it their way a couple times no biggie. Latest version has rotary and linear broaching included in the base package now.

I don't have a swiss but have played with that side of the software and it seems intuitive enough with the only thing I was confused with being the sub spindle hand-offs.

Downside is you pay for posts but have a whole department supporting just posts and changes are typically free.
 
:typing:

So every software company tells me their widget is the best of widgets. And every forum comparing CAM turning packages turns into war before the objective is reached. If only there was something standardized like a nutrition label, I believe everyone can benefit from it.

This thread is intended for two axis turning (lathe) CAM packages only, either plug-in or standalone. Please no live tooling, mill turning, dual spindles, etc (planning to make other threads for them) to keep things focused. Your inputs for turning CAM packages you use eveyday, please & thank you. I suggest the follwing format for apples2apples. For example:

CAM PACKAGE and VERSION: MetalKILLER Turbo Version 12.0

PROS:
  • It is affordable
  • This
  • That
  • ...and the other thing


CONS:
  • It melted our lathe
  • This
  • That
  • ...and the other thing

SCORE: Do a word count. +1.0000 point for every word in PROS, and -1.0000 point for every word in CONS.

( Hope you pardon my precision joke I could not help it :D )
Smartcamcnc.com
producting turning

Cons there is NONE
pros
POST/CODE Generators are free and stupid simple
100% code generator editing. You can make it do f'king anything including inspection reports and tool sheets, if your handy with simple basic computer skills.
drawing and programing a 5 year old can do it.
if need be you can click on a tool path line and modify it with out changing your drawing.

next to finger banging its the easiest cad/cam program to use.
I'd been using it since the very early 90s in the dos version.
used it on many controls never had a problem with any control. never had to modify anything other than a code generator which only takes a few mins for each machine.
I made it spit out code to the style I program ie finger bang it. included subs and canned cycles. not to mention bar pullers, hand pulling and both automatic and hydraulic bar feeds making many parts out of one pull of the barfeed (ie like washers rings etc etc)
used it on Hitachi sekies, miyanos, older citizens, slants, Onniturns supermax lathes,Big old 50" HES machines with no tool changers etc etc

Getting ready to pull the trigger on freeform for the mills here soon.
I been using the old version( 1st version they made when windows xp came out) for turning and then 3d advance milling . Started using it in the DOS days I think it was 1990.
good luck
 
Whats the best CAM for drilling a hole?
Whats the best CAM for tapping metric threads?

This forum is turning into a big pile of burning dog shit.
 
:typing:

So every software company tells me their widget is the best of widgets. And every forum comparing CAM turning packages turns into war before the objective is reached. If only there was something standardized like a nutrition label, I believe everyone can benefit from it.

This thread is intended for two axis turning (lathe) CAM packages only, either plug-in or standalone. Please no live tooling, mill turning, dual spindles, etc (planning to make other threads for them) to keep things focused. Your inputs for turning CAM packages you use eveyday, please & thank you. I suggest the follwing format for apples2apples. For example:

CAM PACKAGE and VERSION: MetalKILLER Turbo Version 12.0

PROS:
  • It is affordable
  • This
  • That
  • ...and the other thing


CONS:
  • It melted our lathe
  • This
  • That
  • ...and the other thing

SCORE: Do a word count. +1.0000 point for every word in PROS, and -1.0000 point for every word in CONS.

( Hope you pardon my precision joke I could not help it :D )

I don't think the wisdom of the masses "Thing" is gonna help you with this.

CAD/CAM is not a contest to guess the number of jelly beans in the jar and fit a bell shaped distribution curve to determine the most probable answer.

Your "Metrics" for word count seem to only measure the lack of brevity of an individual poster not the efficacy of software design.

I feel well qualified to make that assertion as I design software and rarely am I able to exercise sufficient brevity in my posts or explanations (for lack of time to consider a much better edited and concise answer.) .
 
The functionality of cam software can be broken down as follows:

1. Features that they all have in some shape or form.
2. Features that people know how to use.

When you ask questions like this on any forum, you will get a bunch of responses pertaining only to the latter.

There are some cam softwares that generally suck at turning, and there are some that don't do it at all, just like there are some that only do it. Those are all well documented.

But when you consider those that are comparable in broad strokes, they all have some means of doing the same things.
 
And BTW - for milling, i am a big advocator of offline 'grammin.
That's 100% dependant on the type of work you're doing.

I just did a part that had over 1.3 million lines of code, and that's tiny compared to some people out there.
'gram that by hand.
 








 
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