CAD/CAM choices Siemens NX or Fusion 360

[EmGo]

I've never used Alias, but the industrial-design guys used it at the cellular phone company where I worked, and drove the designers and engineers crazy when they forked over their random-complex stretched and pulled gumby surface-models and had to transfer them into UG(NX) with "real" defined surfaces, symmetry and such.

Thanks for the laugh, I didn't like it either but chalked that up to being from the "I want dimensions" school. Guys doing auto body tho were either using Design Studio or IceM, the only two that had class A surfaces, so if you were doing that ... Kinda funny you'd be pissed at sketcher, I can see not liking parametric cuz it can be a pain but sketcher doesn't seem like such a big deal to me. But then I liked I-DEAS best, followed by Pro/E with UniAp ... err, graphics bringing up the rear. Now lots of people think NX is the bee's knees

Fusion, tho ... jeeze, I can't imagine being stupid enough to put yourself at Autodesk's mercy. That's like going for dinner at Count Dracula's castle.

 

[gkoenig]

I think you meant to say CAD

I did!

But on further thought? I’ll go with my typo.

 

[Marvel]

They are the only two relevant and thriving CAD/CAM packages. Everyone else is currently lost in the woods to the point where I wouldn't bet on any of them besides F360 and NX.

- SolidWorks w/CAM is in a bad place. DSS doesn't have a cohesive strategy and SW growth has stalled (doesn't help that the feature set stalled years ago). Any survival of SolidWorks is 100% based on flywheel momentum and no on anything good DSS has had done to it in almost a decade.
- Inventor is a dead product walking. Just like PartMaker and Feature CAM. The Fusion team is stripping all of these other packages for parts and incrementally shifting resources away. This is a statement of fact, not an opinion.
- Esprit is now owned by Hexagon. Who knows how that will wind up?
- MasterCAM is now owned by a cutting tool company. Who knows how that will wind up?
- CATIA makes NX look like a bargain and has zero user base outside of a handful of Fortune 500 companies and their captive suppliers.
- SolidEdge is a dumb offering. Ok, it is fine CAD... sure. Who cares? The CAM is NX and what Siemens should do is strip TeamCenter integration from NX, lower the price to make it the SMB path for NX, and kill SE. Supporting two packages - one of them always crippled because it can't ever be allowed to cannibalize the crown jewel, is management bozo dumb dumb extreme.

I'm curious to see where SolidWorks ends up with this rebranding of CAMWorks into SolidWorksCAM, I've heard rumors it was an initial phase of acquiring CAMWorks from HCL and making it a SW product.

But the thing about Sandvik owning Mastercam, is that it also owns Vericut, Icam and Gibbs.
So for the moment at least, i would like to think it has a stable ownership.
Unlike someone like Topsolid who is now owned by a venture capitalist.
Or Autodesk which only ever buy a company to close it.....

I'm also curious on what Sandvik's plan is, and what they will do with MasterCam, are they planning on improving the terrible CAD side of MasterCam, is that why they are pulling the add-in for SolidWorks?

You would be *shocked* at how many shops think the junk CAM built into MasterCAM is just fine.

I can't help but laugh when I see someone comment on MasterCam's "CAD" being good!

 

[empower]

I'm curious to see where SolidWorks ends up with this rebranding of CAMWorks into SolidWorksCAM, I've heard rumors it was an initial phase of acquiring CAMWorks from HCL and making it a SW product.



I'm also curious on what Sandvik's plan is, and what they will do with MasterCam, are they planning on improving the terrible CAD side of MasterCam, is that why they are pulling the add-in for SolidWorks?



I can't help but laugh when I see someone comment on MasterCam's "CAD" being good!

IMO mastercan't or mastercrash - whichever you prefer - is the WORST piece of software i've ever used. i'd MUCH rather use fusion over it. thankfully i have NX to save me from them though.

 

[riverside_eng]

I'm curious to see where SolidWorks ends up with this rebranding of CAMWorks into SolidWorksCAM, I've heard rumors it was an initial phase of acquiring CAMWorks from HCL and making it a SW product.



I'm also curious on what Sandvik's plan is, and what they will do with MasterCam, are they planning on improving the terrible CAD side of MasterCam, is that why they are pulling the add-in for SolidWorks?



I can't help but laugh when I see someone comment on MasterCam's "CAD" being good!

I thought DS was pushing Delmia machining (machining from CATIA and now 3dExperience) as the future. I remember the integration of Delmia and Solidworks being a big talking item a number of years ago at an IMTS. Of course plenty of things have changed over the years.

 

[Marvel]

IMO mastercan't or mastercrash - whichever you prefer - is the WORST piece of software i've ever used. i'd MUCH rather use fusion over it. thankfully i have NX to save me from them though.

I never took to MasterCam, tried it a couple of times. I know a few guys that love it and can program complex parts no problem. The one thing I always tell people asking about CAM software is, I don't believe there is a "best" software, there is only a "best" software for the user in which they can navigate and create the program needed for their parts, machines, etc and every programmer is going to take to software differently. Find something you are comfortable with. Like buying a car, they will all get you from point A to B, but what are you comfortable in.

 

[Marvel]

I thought DS was pushing Delmia machining (machining from CATIA and now 3dExperience) as the future. I remember the integration of Delmia and Solidworks being a big talking item a number of years ago at an IMTS. Of course plenty of things have changed over the years.

I haven't heard anything about Delmia recently. I know they rolled out SolidWorksCAM a few years ago, which a lot of people think its a new CAM system and don't realize its CAMWorks rebranded. CAMWorks has actually been around for a long time and was the first CAM system fully integrated solely into SolidWorks.

 

[riverside_eng]

I haven't heard anything about Delmia recently. I know they rolled out SolidWorksCAM a few years ago, which a lot of people think its a new CAM system and don't realize its CAMWorks rebranded. CAMWorks has actually been around for a long time and was the first CAM system fully integrated solely into SolidWorks.

Yep, I have met the CAMworks guys before.

This is the latest I can see about Delmia and Solidworks.

Design to Manufacture – Introducing NC Shop Floor Programmer

Learn more about DELMIA's NC Shop Floor Programmer that can help your company collaborate more effectively and make parts more efficiently.

blogs.solidworks.com

Best I can tell they might be looking to phase over to Delmia for anyone who gets the 3dExperience version of Solidworks.

 

[empower]

I never took to MasterCam, tried it a couple of times. I know a few guys that love it and can program complex parts no problem. The one thing I always tell people asking about CAM software is, I don't believe there is a "best" software, there is only a "best" software for the user in which they can navigate and create the program needed for their parts, machines, etc and every programmer is going to take to software differently. Find something you are comfortable with. Like buying a car, they will all get you from point A to B, but what are you comfortable in.

yeah i'm not saying you cant program complex parts with it, you certainly can. and for guys that maybe havent tried anything else it might be just fine - you dont know what you dont know kinda thing.
i've personally tried most of the current big name programs and i can CONFIDENTLY say that MC is the worst of them.

 

[Marvel]

yeah i'm not saying you cant program complex parts with it, you certainly can. and for guys that maybe havent tried anything else it might be just fine - you dont know what you dont know kinda thing.
i've personally tried most of the current big name programs and i can CONFIDENTLY say that MC is the worst of them.

I’d have to go with SurfCam being the worst! It felt like I was in MS Paint

 

[cj.abraham]

Fusion 360 is cheap enough that you can comfortably buy BOTH it and NX and make the decision on what to move forward with on your own schedule. Fusion can do all the boring stuff that 99% of machining is at <10% the price, and it is still being improved by adding toolpaths from PowerMill and from 3rd party algorithm providers that are prolific in multi-axis milling packages. The reality is that there are Fusion 360 users that can wipe the floor with NX users, NX users that can wipe the floor with Fusion 360 users, and people that make loads of money using either one.

 

[len_1962]

I’d have to go with SurfCam being the worst! It felt like I was in MS Paint

More like AutoCAD 12, but still it produces great code, just make sure you have SW for the design side because there is a link that updates surfcam when SW changes are made.
I still have it and fall back to it when HSMWorks cannot do what I need.

 

[Buns]

They are the only two relevant and thriving CAD/CAM packages. Everyone else is currently lost in the woods to the point where I wouldn't bet on any of them besides F360 and NX.

- SolidWorks w/CAM is in a bad place. DSS doesn't have a cohesive strategy and SW growth has stalled (doesn't help that the feature set stalled years ago). Any survival of SolidWorks is 100% based on flywheel momentum and no on anything good DSS has had done to it in almost a decade.
- Inventor is a dead product walking. Just like PartMaker and Feature CAM. The Fusion team is stripping all of these other packages for parts and incrementally shifting resources away. This is a statement of fact, not an opinion.
- Esprit is now owned by Hexagon. Who knows how that will wind up?
- MasterCAM is now owned by a cutting tool company. Who knows how that will wind up?
- CATIA makes NX look like a bargain and has zero user base outside of a handful of Fortune 500 companies and their captive suppliers.
- SolidEdge is a dumb offering. Ok, it is fine CAD... sure. Who cares? The CAM is NX and what Siemens should do is strip TeamCenter integration from NX, lower the price to make it the SMB path for NX, and kill SE. Supporting two packages - one of them always crippled because it can't ever be allowed to cannibalize the crown jewel, is management bozo dumb dumb extreme.

This makes so much sense. 15+yr SW user. I'm on day 3 of a 4 day course for Solid Edge..... jeez I feel like like throwing up. Last year I did a 4 day course for NX. OMG SE is a pile of ...... I can sort of see what Siemens was trying to do with the UI of SE with "intuitive" step following but it's an epic fail. I want every variable of every function in one box, a la NX, SW etc. And their sketcher is the icing on the cake. Shocking.