Time to go paperless?

[pemametall]

We are currently designing in Solidworks 2001+ and programming our two Johnford VMC´s (Fanuc control) with two seats of Mastercam 8.1.1 (Mill 1 and Entry).

We have a simple system with hole sizes, a hole to be reamed will be for example 8.02 and a drilled hole 8.0 (All in millimeters) all tapping are made out of the VMC.

We are programming all drill ops with Mask-on-arc, but i am looking to upgrade to V9 Solids.

Will soliddrill handle spotdrilling, drilling and reaming/boring automagically? how about autodrill?

My big Q is how to communicate tolerances on pockets and bearingholes and so on.

We make mostly simple prismatic parts with few holes in them.

We make automation machinery, and the guys programming ar also building our machinery, so the tolerance part are working kind of "automatic".

I guess, what i really want is to skip detail drawings.

How about feature intelligence ? every feature in Solidworks, hole, pocket, boss, cut, chamfer should have a little ID-tag and it should be imported to Mastercam, kind of "Feature recognition-lite"?

Are there any room for this info i the various standards (STEP, IGES, Parasolid.....)

Any ideas anyone?

 

Open for all ideas.

Mattias Magnusson

[cadcam]

You will have A hole tollrence and for solid history,Yoy will not get that from any solid made out side of MC. But you do have fetrue rec for holes and fillets at this time so you will be able to make some changes.

 

the Solid Drill will let you set up for Spot drilling then drilling anf reamming if wanted.

[Tony]

I am always paperless (except for grinder hand operation's).

Sometimes the model gets changed after I am into the job so I will save as and drag my operations over to the new model,no biggie.

 

It helps to know how things "Fit" together.

Fit,form and function...

 

[ 04-16-2002, 01:10 AM: Message edited by: Tony ]

[BIG DOG]

I am not answering any of your questions.(sorry)but I would like to pick someones brain about Solidworks.

 

We are looking at upgrading to Solidworks for our die designs, and thy keep showing us how almost automatic the detail print are to make. Are the detail prints as quick and easy to draw in solid works as they show in the demos?

 

How is the transfer of files from Solid Works to Mastercam? Do the solids from Solidworks transfer over to surfaces in Mastercam very well.

 

Is Solidworks a good tool for you for design?

 

I do like your ideas an making all the holes diferent sizes, for ease of sorting them.

 

Thanks Big Dog

[Jerry Bichsel]

Big Dog,

I have been designing injection molds for 4+ years in SW and love it. Before that is was Cadkey and MC. I've been doing this since 1989.

 

But remember....

 

Nothing ever works as easily as the demo, but SW drawings are very easy to create/modify and are fully associative, so if you make changes to the model your drawings will update as soon as you loadd the drawing file.

 

As to importing to MC, great! You can choose whether you want to import solids or surfaces, with or without wireframe.

 

I regularly import files from SW to MC for clients to view or for programming. Awesome combination.

 

[ 04-17-2002, 01:01 PM: Message edited by: Jerry Bichsel ]

[BIG DOG]

Jerry

Thank you for your feed back.

We have been sitting on the fence, in regards to our software purchaces. I have herd from other sources that Solidworks is a good program, but it is also good to find out from a few more people that are using it for a similar application, and are impresed with Solidworks.

Thanks Big Dog

[lynnz]

Big Dog,

If you need another rec for Solidworks, count me in. I've been using it for 5 yrs. making foundry patterns and aircraft tools. Its done some amazing things for me. For the money, it's a good tool to have in the box to go with Mastercam.

 

Good luck in your software decision.

Lynn Z