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SURFCAM? Looking for any feedback on it

JoeMack2112

Plastic
Joined
Feb 11, 2020
I have never used Hexagons SURFCAM, I'm looking for reviews to see if its worth it. I'm a big fan of Mastercam and Esprit but is SURFCAM a disappointment?

Thanks
 
I have never used Hexagons SURFCAM, I'm looking for reviews to see if its worth it. I'm a big fan of Mastercam and Esprit but is SURFCAM a disappointment?

Thanks

which Surfcam? there are 2, Surfcam Traditional (original) and Surfcam (rebranded EdgeCAM).

I have used Surfcam Traditional since 92\93 and I am a fan, but......................... the UI hasn't really changed since, cleaned up and a few modern features but still like using AutoCAD 12 for the CAD side.

as for Surfcam i did some training and didn't flow for me.

I use Solidworks and HSMWorks mostly now do to the fact that if parts change the toolpath updates.

I still have Surfcam Traditional for when HSMWorks cannot do what I want and for lathe work and true 4th axis.

lenny
 
Hello. New forum member here. Programmer for 22 years ( Mastercam, Esprit, HSMWorks, partmaker, Edgecam). I just recently started using Edgecam and it's awful. Edgecam and Surfcam are essentially the same program as both are owned by Hexagon just branded differently. It does processing from a solid ok with regards to feature recognition but struggles doing simple 2D stuff like profile milling. In training I was told that some functions don't work well if selected from certain areas. For example: If I selected profile milling using the profile milling icon, I had issues with the toolpath generation. If I select profile milling from the milling cycles tab and give it the same info I get a good toolpath. They spent a lot of time and effort making it look slick but not work well. Also forget about changing a job from one machine to another. The post architecture is completely different. I was told that I may have to start over if I switch between different mills. So far it seems like they have ONE person working on posts. They have little staff in the US and support is slow. RUN from anything Hexagon.
 
Hello. New forum member here. Programmer for 22 years ( Mastercam, Esprit, HSMWorks, partmaker, Edgecam). I just recently started using Edgecam and it's awful. Edgecam and Surfcam are essentially the same program as both are owned by Hexagon just branded differently. RUN from anything Hexagon.

Sith,

there are 2 Surfcams as I stated above, yes one is the same as EdgeCAM which I didn't like either, Traditional is that original (Surfware) got bought by VERO which got bought by Hexagon, started in DOS in the mid 80's. SURFCAM TRADITIONAL - World class precision and control for your CNC machines
 
Another Surfcam Traditional user here. Not only did it start life as a DOS program, but it is very much stitched-together from several parts over the years and the UI feels like it. It's not that consistent and has parts that feel like evolutionary dead-ends. I feel like we use it in our shop because we've been using it rather than by any sort of deliberate choice. I'd shop around before adopting it.
That said, before Surfcam I was still writing code by hand so it's comparatively pretty cool.
 
I have used Surfcam Traditional since 1996. I gave up on maintenance in 2009.
I do a lot of what could be considered 2.5 axis stuff. A lot of fixture pallets for dispensing equipment that are made from 1/4" AL plate. For me, I can take a design and in many cases have a program for my VF3 in fifteen minutes. Even complex stuff with 15 tool changes would take (for my sort of work) 45 minutes max.
BUT... the last ten to 15 years have seen very little improvement from what I can see. It is a little less expensive than Mastercam but it would need to be half the cost to make it worth looking at these days (at least without something earth-shattering).
Their dealer network seems non-existent. I believe Hexagon simply cut them loose.
I wish the folks at Surfware (who are still making TrueMill optimization stuff) would buy it back and take it to the next level.
And unlike many other packages they do nickel and dime you for additional features. I would need to go to 2.5 axis advanced to get chamfering and threading where many other packages I have looked at include that in their standard 2.5 axis package.

I've looked at OneCNC and meh. There is no way I could be as productive with it as I am with my old surfcam version.

If anyone has suggestions for an alternative I am all ears. Like a lot of folks I have a small business so CAM software is a big ticket expense. My investment in surfcam over the last 25 years (almost) has had a good ROI but if I could find something equally easy to use I would switch in a heartbeat.
 
I have used Surfcam Traditional since 1996. I gave up on maintenance in 2009.
I do a lot of what could be considered 2.5 axis stuff. A lot of fixture pallets for dispensing equipment that are made from 1/4" AL plate. For me, I can take a design and in many cases have a program for my VF3 in fifteen minutes. Even complex stuff with 15 tool changes would take (for my sort of work) 45 minutes max.
BUT... the last ten to 15 years have seen very little improvement from what I can see. It is a little less expensive than Mastercam but it would need to be half the cost to make it worth looking at these days (at least without something earth-shattering).
Their dealer network seems non-existent. I believe Hexagon simply cut them loose.
I wish the folks at Surfware (who are still making TrueMill optimization stuff) would buy it back and take it to the next level.
And unlike many other packages they do nickel and dime you for additional features. I would need to go to 2.5 axis advanced to get chamfering and threading where many other packages I have looked at include that in their standard 2.5 axis package.

I've looked at OneCNC and meh. There is no way I could be as productive with it as I am with my old surfcam version.

If anyone has suggestions for an alternative I am all ears. Like a lot of folks I have a small business so CAM software is a big ticket expense. My investment in surfcam over the last 25 years (almost) has had a good ROI but if I could find something equally easy to use I would switch in a heartbeat.

What are you using for CAD? Or is surfcam your only CAD also?
 
What are you using for CAD? Or is surfcam your only CAD also?

My company does a lot of pallet design stuff in Autocad LT 2020 (most of it confidential and so cloud based stuff isn't going to work). I DO have Alibre but I am still slow with it. I recently went from Autocad 2005 to 2020 and at first I felt forced to make the switch. But the 2020 version is shockingly better (I am not a fan of the subscription model but a windows update forced my old autocad to try and reregister with a now nonexistant autodesk validation server). Snaps happen automatically, potential click candidates now highlight... I am just really surprised at how much faster certain things can go together now. I might not be 20% faster in the 2020 version but I am more than 10% faster! (And yes, I know many of the 3D packages have these same features I find new and great, but there was minimal learning curve with 2020.)

I like surfcam because I take tools from their tool library, adjust the spindle speed for whichever machine I am writing for, select peck versus drill (for example but contours, pockets etc are equally easy), set a depth, and done. Surfcam masking works well too. select a size or color and done. Setup sheets are generated and verify helps confirm tool paths. This process on many of our pallets can take only 15 minutes. If a typical pallet takes me 40 mouse clicks in Surfcam, I feel like a bunch of other CAM packages I have looked at would cost me 140 mouse clicks!

Having spent nearly 25 years with surfcam, a lot of things are second nature at this point. But I also think that since Surfcam (Hexagon) would have me buy a whole new seat because I am out of maintenance since 2010, that $5,600 price (something like that) of 2 axis advanced means I should probably look at other stuff as well.

Recently on my VF5XT I have been doing large parts and I have discovered that verify requires extra scrutiny because you dont see as much detail doing a 56"x 24" part versus a 2" x 3" part. Not sure if anyone's verify can make me more observant!!!
 
My company does a lot of pallet design stuff in Autocad LT 2020 (most of it confidential and so cloud based stuff isn't going to work). I DO have Alibre but I am still slow with it. I recently went from Autocad 2005 to 2020 and at first I felt forced to make the switch. But the 2020 version is shockingly better (I am not a fan of the subscription model but a windows update forced my old autocad to try and reregister with a now nonexistant autodesk validation server). Snaps happen automatically, potential click candidates now highlight... I am just really surprised at how much faster certain things can go together now. I might not be 20% faster in the 2020 version but I am more than 10% faster! (And yes, I know many of the 3D packages have these same features I find new and great, but there was minimal learning curve with 2020.)

I like surfcam because I take tools from their tool library, adjust the spindle speed for whichever machine I am writing for, select peck versus drill (for example but contours, pockets etc are equally easy), set a depth, and done. Surfcam masking works well too. select a size or color and done. Setup sheets are generated and verify helps confirm tool paths. This process on many of our pallets can take only 15 minutes. If a typical pallet takes me 40 mouse clicks in Surfcam, I feel like a bunch of other CAM packages I have looked at would cost me 140 mouse clicks!

Having spent nearly 25 years with surfcam, a lot of things are second nature at this point. But I also think that since Surfcam (Hexagon) would have me buy a whole new seat because I am out of maintenance since 2010, that $5,600 price (something like that) of 2 axis advanced means I should probably look at other stuff as well.

Recently on my VF5XT I have been doing large parts and I have discovered that verify requires extra scrutiny because you dont see as much detail doing a 56"x 24" part versus a 2" x 3" part. Not sure if anyone's verify can make me more observant!!!

After verification, are you comparing to the model or stl file? Or you're programming from 2d wire?
 
I am programming from 2D wire.

When I run Surfcam Verify I am looking with my mark 1 (eyeball) to see that the holes roughly correspond to the right diameters relative to others, that I did not miss holes, that I allowed room for clamping, that clearance heights are good enough to prevent tool crashing, etc.

I have tried to work from 3D models, but right now my design work seems to take 10x longer in the solids world. I did some 3D stuff in Alibre because I needed illustrated part breakdowns for documentation and simple stuff took me 10x longer to do in Alibre. I really hate drawing a single part and then going back to make assemblies (doing the constraints because it isn't everyday for me is a bit like fishing for the right one). This initial work I found so frustrating I really haven't had a chance to realize the advantages that drawing associativity might give me.

Hah! Maybe during this current weirdness I now have some time to take a deeper dive.

I am a small custom automation company and so while I see the advantages of software investment, $5,000 for a package is a real reach for me. Over the 25 years I have been using surfcam I have a library of close to 3,000 parts. The change in file formats Surfcam did around 2010 or so basically means (I think) I have only so much backward compatibility? As a result, looking beyond Surfcam makes some degree of sense.
 
I am programming from 2D wire.

When I run Surfcam Verify I am looking with my mark 1 (eyeball) to see that the holes roughly correspond to the right diameters relative to others, that I did not miss holes, that I allowed room for clamping, that clearance heights are good enough to prevent tool crashing, etc.

I have tried to work from 3D models, but right now my design work seems to take 10x longer in the solids world. I did some 3D stuff in Alibre because I needed illustrated part breakdowns for documentation and simple stuff took me 10x longer to do in Alibre. I really hate drawing a single part and then going back to make assemblies (doing the constraints because it isn't everyday for me is a bit like fishing for the right one). This initial work I found so frustrating I really haven't had a chance to realize the advantages that drawing associativity might give me.

Hah! Maybe during this current weirdness I now have some time to take a deeper dive.

I am a small custom automation company and so while I see the advantages of software investment, $5,000 for a package is a real reach for me. Over the 25 years I have been using surfcam I have a library of close to 3,000 parts. The change in file formats Surfcam did around 2010 or so basically means (I think) I have only so much backward compatibility? As a result, looking beyond Surfcam makes some degree of sense.

This is where you should have gotten SolidWorks as surfcam (Traditional) takes in the solids directly and if you change the SW file surfcam update automatically with the new changes, has been that way since surfcam 2004\05 ish.

You would be so much farther ahead and be up to speed using solid models in surfcam if you had jump on 15 years ago. also if you had SW there are so many CAM software's that run right inside it, some are (free99), like HSMXpress 2.5 axis (HSMWorks) and now SW comes with cam as long as you stay on subscription.

I tell you all this cause I use SW with surfcam since SW97+ and still to this day as well as SW and HSMWorks, best combo ever in my book.

lenny
 








 
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