SolidWorks to Mastercam - what do I do?

[MelMfg]

Hello,

 

I'm new here and our company is considering Mastercam for milling. Our design department has Solidworks.

 

How would I get this into Mastercam?

 

And more importantely, once I get a part in and program toolpaths to it, what do I have to do when the design dept changes the Solidworks file?

 

Does Mastercam update with to the new file or do I have to read it in and program it all over again?

 

Thanks.

[M. Anderson]

Check out this thread -

 

Solidworks + Mastercam

 

Search - is your best-freind!

 

Later,

 

Mark

[Guest]

Welcome to the Forum

 

Depending on the kind of work your company does Mastercam might well be the best choice for you needs.

 

Getting your work into MC from SW is accomplished a couple of different ways. There is an add-on for SW available on the Mastercam webstire called Mastercam Direct, YOu click on this from inside of SW and it drops your file into MC, tree and all. You can also open a sldprt file into MC, you get not no tree or you can export out of SW as a parasolid and open the parasolid into MC.

 

Changes to the part in SW the new model can be brought into MC and replace the original model and reassociate your toolpaths. There is no associativity between the MC and the SW file. SO no you don't have to reprogram the file, your toolpaths if the model has not chaged dramatically will be vaild, you'll just need to tell the path which geometry to cut.

 

Even the "BIGBOY" cam systems that claim to be able to do this are mostly blowing smoke.