I have a VF2 mill with 5 axis Trunnion and a ST20SSY lathe (live tooling, Y and C axis). I wrote a lot of my posts myself for the Tebis but haven't for GibbsCAM.
I use OneCNC cad/cam, current version is XR4pro. They did release XR5 a few years ago but I have not upgraded yet. When I do upgrade I plan on getting the Expert version which is the best you can get from them, 'pro' is second best. I've used Solidworks but I believe I like OneCNC better.
http://onecnc.net/en/products/video-tour
NX all day every day for both
Looks pretty powerful kinda surpisingOriginally Posted by Luke
how much is the software
Last edited by m98custom1212; 01-18-2014 at 12:55 PM.
You will have to call for a quote, but it is extremely affordable in comparison to the top end software big companies use, and you own the software to boot. If you want to sell your seat they will support it 100% after it's been transferred to the new owner. NO maintenance fees, upgrades are a fraction of the cost of new seat, they actually credit you your prior software investment meaning if you have XR4 and paid $3k and XR5 is $4k (for a new seat) the upgrade cost for you is 1K.
The product support is phenomenal, they have private forums for software owners, if you get stuck you have lots of help to get through it.
They also help start up companies, they gave me a HUGE discount when I purchased my original seat after they found out I was brand new to CNC manufacturing, I thought it was pretty awesome.
Right now I use cubify/ geomagic which is formerly alibre. I'm at the usability limit and need something more.
When I designed industrial automation equipment (if you've eaten Stacy's pita chips, a big Texas cinnamon bun or other stuff from Cloverhill bakery, or fed your pet anything from Purina then you've been in contact with my designs) we used solidworks. It was pretty picky in the assembly structure and handled subassemblies easier at a large scale. In the aerospace industry we use NX. I've toyed with a lot of programs and they all have quirks, but SW is so simple that the time savings make it my preferred overall solution.
Just upgraded from XR4-pro to XR5-expert pretty stoked!
I just recently learned that I can get Solidworks at a very low price; that being said, I can't get to it anytime soon but, what are the best bang for the buck learning resources for it?
I took a couple semesters of drafting (pencil and paper based :P) a long time ago in High School, and I've dabbled in TurboCAD and DesignCAD but, only for relatively simple geometries.
The built in tutorials and Youtube are the best value for learning in Solidworks.
I used what I believe was AutoCad 1.0, a thousand years or so ago. We were learning computer drafting in high school, but most of our drafting work was still being done on paper at the time. There was no mechanical drafting curriculum set up, and everyone else in the class was going the architectural route, so I kind of wrote my own ticket in that class. It wound up not being overly useful, really.
Now, I'm starting to have some project ideas that are going to require dabbling back into CAD work. Any workable low/no cost options out there? About the last thing I want to do is spend a bunch on a program that I just use for personal projects/amusement. That would likely anger my wife.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote