New CAM software

[g-coder05]

I practically spat my coffee out onto the screen at that one... LOL (funny but also sad.).

Is Software Piracy for these products still a major "Thing" / problem (in China) ?

Good that your firm is "Street legal" on the software front !

Its absolutely horrid how bad the pirating is. I can honestly say that I have never met a Chinese machinist that didn't have at least one form of cad/cam cracked on his/her laptop. I used to give lectures on cutting strategies at the Zhongshan Polytechnic School and they had every software imaginable but not one was licensed. Now, this school is the Harvard of the machinist world putting out more than 1500 machinist a year. And like Harvard they have jobs waiting as soon as they're excepted. When I would go in and interview a group for a position I always asked what software they are fluent in. They would always pull out a Mac running a pirated copy of Parallels, running a pirated copy of Windows, running a pirated Cad/Cam. Seems the government ran colleges provided free pirated software.

Its really sad to see the ethics of the Chinese but on the same note these software companies went from dongles to that flex licensing server and made hacking a breeze. I watched how they did it and it just blew my mind. basically delete the .dll file that request the license, create a new one with some garbage text, then point the licensing server to the file. Less than five minutes and bang, $80k worth of software ready to go.

If you want a good laugh and have a few spare minutes just wait till the next time a Chinese shop emails or calls you trying to be a supplier. Just hint that you have a lot of work to be quoted but what software do they use and they must provide proof of purchase. Typically you get a hateful email back about how good they make parts and the proof does not matter. You can send them a one liner and they will spend half a day replying.

 

[solidworkscadman]

You do have a point there. Its hard to see how autodesk could do that to their customers. We have 39 full blown seats of Powershape, Powermill,Mold, and Featurecam shelling out around 300k per year in maintenance. I'm hoping we get a few more years out of it.

Wow, that must be a tough check to sign.

Do you think autodesk will continue to support partmaker?

 

[pablo.casiano75]

Use what you like and what makes you shine as a programmer, at the end of the day we all have to make that part, the part doesn't care what software you use as long as it comes out good. Nothing wrong with trying out different software, I love learning new things but use it because you like it and feel confident, don't use it because someone tells you it's the best or a must have.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[solidworkscadman]

What is autodesk going to replace to program Swiss or multi task machine (multiple turret/spindles

 

[goooose]

Do you think autodesk will continue to support partmaker?

There was a thread talking about this earlier. Partmaker is basically done.

Use what you like and what makes you shine as a programmer, at the end of the day we all have to make that part, the part doesn't care what software you use as long as it comes out good. Nothing wrong with trying out different software, I love learning new things but use it because you like it and feel confident, don't use it because someone tells you it's the best or a must have.

Ya and no. Just because you like a software doesn't mean its a good financial move. Also, as much of this thread is alluding to, you have to be careful where you put your eggs because some companies can royally fuck you over in the long run.

 

[g-coder05]

There was a thread talking about this earlier. Partmaker is basically done.

I just got the update last week. Partmaker has been released with Featurecam 2020 and supports Powermill projects. This got me excited and pissed at the same time. I finally got so tired of Featurecams new UI I just wiped it off and went back to FC 2016. I really do like Partmaker for complex round work but don't want that crappy new Featurecam UI just to have it.

And,,,, Just how long before you get sucked into the cloud???


PartMaker 2020 release notes | FeatureCAM 2020 | Autodesk Knowledge Network

 

[oppster]

Thanks guys. Myself personally i would stay with MC. Ill be showing this thread to management tomorrow

 

[pablo.casiano75]

There was a thread talking about this earlier. Partmaker is basically done.



Ya and no. Just because you like a software doesn't mean its a good financial move. Also, as much of this thread is alluding to, you have to be careful where you put your eggs because some companies can royally fuck you over in the long run.

You are right about that! Nothing worst than investing a lot of money to have them change it to subscription and leave you on the curb. It ain’t right!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[as9100d]

SolidCAM does rule if you do any design work in Solidworks. If you're a SW user, it's a no brainer! Great support too!

We love solidcam with solidworks. support from both of these companies are top notch.

 

[Big B]

Good evening,

In a bit of a dilemma, our company is looking at another seat for Cam.
We currently have Mastercam 2018, we was looking for another seat. So we had a quote and was quite expensive.

We have numerous lathes, mills (vertical and hori) and 2 Dorris Sharmans with full facing head and live tooling. We know the posts will cost a bit mainly on the sharmans but thats irrelevant.

So we have been looking at other options before we go ahead.
We have had Solidcam and a conference call from Fusion 360.

I have been using Mastercam for 7year's now and i'm quite comfortable using it. I have installed the 30 days demo for fusion 360 and seem to be really struggling with the software in basic stuff due to not knowing were everything is. (I did do Autocad 2d and 3d 9year's ago)

As for Solidcam it looks pretty similar to Mastercam.

So what i#m asking is:

1: What software would you recommend?
2. Is Fusion really that tricky to use?
3. Is Solidcam really as good as the reps made it to be.

Thanks Paul

I was thinking about buying something but it was quite expensive too. I'll let you guess what it was and how much it was.

What is it about machinist types that they can't seem to type a price of things? How much was it for your extra seat of Mastercam?

I see machine tools for sale all the time with no prices. WTF is it about machinists? We all know we can count.

 

[Mud]

Since you are in the UK it would serve you to look at Edgecam. It's a direct competitor to MC, it's very focused recently on multiaxis and more advanced machining, and it's developed in the UK. Edgecam has eliminated resellers and all tech support is now done direct, which should be good for someone in the UK.

I've had Edgecam for years, and it's sort of a love/hate relationship, lots of power but as soon as we get comfortable with it there's a new release with "improvements" and needs changes to code generators.

I'm considering upgrading my old seat of Smartcam because I miss the control it gives you over every piece of geometry. Machining from associative solids in Edgecam is neat, but I miss the control and tight code of Smartcam, and being easily able to draw a simple toolpath directly.

 

[oppster]

Stayed with Mastercam, we are running 2018 at the moment as the clowns stopped the maintenance....
Guy who the seat was for ended up leaving engineering altogether.. So there was no need for it.

Now i run round like a dog with a bone!

 

[Job Shopper TN]

I’ve been using Solidcam for about 6 years. I like it. I do think some features are over-hyped. But it depends on your shop and the work you do.

The biggest drawback for us? Good luck hiring someone who knows how to use it. In this area anyway, every shop is using Mastercam or Esprit. If we used one of those it would be far easier to hire a programmer in and they (mostly) hit the ground running. Instead with Solidcam, it’s hiring someone who knows Mastercam or Esprit and teaching them a whole different system.

That aside the only major dislike I have of Solidcam is it’s kind of a glitchy platform. Files can be easily lost or corrupted, especially for folks used to Mastercam etc., because of how the software “works”. But, all CAM softwares have their quirks, so you do you…