Rick Finsta
Stainless
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2017
I am shopping for an integrated CAD/CAM package for the shop I'm running now. Just want to make sure I don't miss anything looking over proposals from a few different companies. We have a new live tooling, y-axis, subspindle lathe coming in the next few weeks and we want to alleviate some pressure off our aging Mazak SQT-18MYS. The parts have always been programmed conversationally on that but we're moving to a more modern CAD/CAM workflow with the turning and milling work. Otherwise most of our VMC work is 2.5/3 axis, with some parts I will be moving to 4th axis indexing for fixtures. We are adding full 5-axis later this year for a specific 3+2 part, but we will also be trying to bring in some full 5-axis work (and will also eventually be doing some mold cavity work once a non-compete runs out).
I come from Fusion 360 (and will still use that for my small home business) but it appears the shop is going to standardize on Solidworks for CAD. It looks like HSMworks, FeatureCAM, and Powermill will integrate, and I've also looked into Hypermill options. Esprit and NX have been mentioned but I have no frame of reference for them.
We're realistically going to have two people (including me) doing CAD/CAM work as well as a shop computer, so three seats until we expand. I'm supportive of the cloud-based subscription model, and understand the potential pitfalls of that. Since we're going to be an educational shop in the long-term, I'd love something that has a good training infrastructure. We have a local Autodesk reseller (three miles away) that does a lot of training.
Is there one solution for this turning and milling work, that will integrate with Solidworks? If nothing else I know the Matsuura 5-axis that has my attention comes with a seat of CAMplete so perhaps I really need to just find something that will handle the multi-axis lathe and simple milling with indexing?
I'm sure I'm missing a lot of the questions I need to be asking.
I come from Fusion 360 (and will still use that for my small home business) but it appears the shop is going to standardize on Solidworks for CAD. It looks like HSMworks, FeatureCAM, and Powermill will integrate, and I've also looked into Hypermill options. Esprit and NX have been mentioned but I have no frame of reference for them.
We're realistically going to have two people (including me) doing CAD/CAM work as well as a shop computer, so three seats until we expand. I'm supportive of the cloud-based subscription model, and understand the potential pitfalls of that. Since we're going to be an educational shop in the long-term, I'd love something that has a good training infrastructure. We have a local Autodesk reseller (three miles away) that does a lot of training.
Is there one solution for this turning and milling work, that will integrate with Solidworks? If nothing else I know the Matsuura 5-axis that has my attention comes with a seat of CAMplete so perhaps I really need to just find something that will handle the multi-axis lathe and simple milling with indexing?
I'm sure I'm missing a lot of the questions I need to be asking.