Company Changing Programs - Input PLEASE.

[EazyE]

Heres the story we have been doing all design work in KeyCreator for 30+ yrs all paper and solid models are in Key. We just used up a trial of SolidWorks and I believe its a better software expecially w MX being our only programming software I am pushing for SW however people are concerned about the conversions from Key to SW and I am concerned about not having to fix surfaces and have curves that go which ever direction they feel like when trying to drive tools. One of the ideas that came up was to keep Key and use this KeyMachinist that Kubotec has. I know nothing about and have no ground to debate on.

 

Has anyone used it and hows it compared to MX?

 

Any imput other than just answer to ? is welcome, Ideas, Rants, Raves.. Ill take it all....

[DanQ]

Solidworks is great!!!!! Just giving my 2 cents!

[EazyE]

Can some people chime in with Pros and Cons of SW and or Keycreator.

[EazyE]

Thanks DanQ . Could you elaborate on what makes it better than KeyCreator. If anything...

[EazyE]

Well then you might think it was fri.. No one gonna bite. I would think someone could get all kinds of reasons that I could use to back myself in this battle of Software. After all this is MX central isnt it. Give me somehting I can tell them thats not just from my mouth......

[EazyE]

Or maybe its becuz I didnt use any Gremlins...

 

Yeah thats it now I know everyone will come running....

[MotorCityMinion]

Just some input. Our cad guy uses Cadkey 99 for creating.igs files. Lately, I've been stripping out the 3d lines from the iges and importing it into SW to create the solids. Then save as a para-solid and open it in MC to machine. This works fine. I haven't tried using cadkey's native format in SW and surfaces created with Fastsurf don't show up in MC, (for us anyway ). SW rocks though, and so far, all the files I've created in SW and used in MC machine very well. I'm still a SW noob for shure, but theres my 2 cents.

 

HTH, MCM.

[Guest]

What can I tell you Erik?

 

SW is by far my favorite design package, for just so many reasons.

 

I can't speak to CADKey usgae as I have never used it.

 

I can tell you that many models I see coming out of it are just very dirty models that require a fair amount of repair and prep work.

 

Of course you know that

[Tyler Robertson]

Any model I've received from SW has been really easy to work with. You can just assume things are good and go from there.

[DanQ]

well I have never used keycreator but I do use Mastercam Solids and Solidworks, I really enjoy Solidworks because its very user friendly, has alot of different features to analyze the part, great for assemblies, dont have time to get technical but best shot is go to Solidworks website and print a presentation.

[EazyE]

MotorCity thats what I like to hear import from Key save in SW and get to work...

 

JP I do know the awful things that KeyCreator does(and you know I do) its what we work with now and I hate it. But not being the design guy I need to explain to him why SW would be a good switch for the comapny as a whole. Thanks guys. Must have been the gremlins.. haha....

[fro_matt]

CADKey? I have all kinds of problems trying to import from CADKey, thats all one of our design guys uses... problem after problem... O well SW does work well for us, also i had Education Inventor for a while, import supper clean, direct dump right from inventor into MCX.

[Colin Gilchrist]

You will find much more training (and good training at that) available for Solidworks.

 

I would guess that Solidworks has easily 3 times the market share of Keycreator (this is a pure guess on my part, anyone have some numbers?).

 

Solidworks is by far the most intuitive piece of software I've ever used (sorry Mastercam)...

 

If it were my dollar, I would go with Solidworks for Design/Assembly and Mastercam for machining. They work flawlessly together from a design=>Build standpoint.

 

Bottom line is that any Design Engineer worth his or her salt should be able to pick up SW fairly quickly. It is just that easy to learn.

 

The integrity of the data would be my biggest selling point. You don't have to rebuild anything in Mastercam that comes out of Solidworks (99% of the time). This does imply that whoever is designing the parts is capable of producing a decent model. The point I'm making is that if you designed the same part in Keycreator, and in SW, the difference in the quality of the models will be like night and day.

 

JP, how many times have you personally created a Solid in SW and had problems with the geometry in Mastercam? I know there are a few people who have reported translator issues in the past, but they get fixed relatively quickly.

 

JM2¢,

[EazyE]

Thats what I'm looking for people...

 

Now on the other side of the (battle) there was a mention in the meeting "we" had about this toolpath creator in Kubotec that was called KeyMachinist. Has anyone used this and where does it lie in the programming relm? If the person who calls the shots does not heed my warnings and goes with "the other" I will be forced to enter yet another forum to call home....

[Colin Gilchrist]

How much help do you really think is out there for Keymachinist.

 

Personally I've never used it, but I can vouch for Mastercam 110%. I've never seen a part I couldn't cut with Mcam. Not too sure about KM...

 

Here are the "highlights" from their website:

 

quote:

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PACKAGES (sold separately)

KEYMACHINIST 2D includes:

- Drilling, profile milling, and pocketing

- Support for multiple fixtures

- 4th axis indexing support

- Configurable post processor generator

- G-code verification and utility program (MCU)

KEYMACHINIST 3D includes:

- All capabilities of KeyMachinst 2D

- Z-level roughing: countour, zig-zag, uni-directional, circular, and follow milling

- Surface finishing: planar, radial, plateau, circular, and UV-flow machining

- Pencil tracing and point mill toolpaths

- Full toolpath re-generation with all milling strategies

- Convert any 2D/3D wireframe to toolpath

 

BENEFITS

- Simple NC utility interface requires very little training

- Use the familiar KeyCreator interface for viewing, selection, positioning, etc.

- Eliminate data translation to a separate CAM-only program

- No limit on the number of customized post-processors supplied to customers

- Includes all essential functionality needed to machine any part

- Personalized technical support

- Inexpensive solution

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Sounds like it will do about 75% of what you really need to do, then it will crap out just when you need it most.

 

This quote scares me more than any other:

quote:

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- Simple NC utility interface requires very little training

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Now if they are just saying their Graphics interface is simple and easy to use, Ok. If the tools are simple, then watch out...

 

How does it do at undercutting? Notice no live 4 or 5 axis toolpaths.

 

"No limit on the number of post-processors supplied to customers"

 

So, they build all the posts? Does that mean there posts are proprietary? Uh-oh. What happens when you need a change and it take 3 weeks to get it done, just to find out they didn't get it right.

 

I have no idea how good/bad this software really is, I'm just sayin...

[Guest]

quote:

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JP, how many times have you personally created a Solid in SW and had problems with the geometry in Mastercam? I know there are a few people who have reported translator issues in the past, but they get fixed relatively quickly.

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Colin, It has been a long time since I had an issue with a SW file coming into Mastercam. There are still some things if you try to import the feature tree, things Mastercam does not understand and won't read. If you however stop trying to read the feature tree in and just read the part, they have all come in perfect for me.

 

 

I can't say that about the above mentioned "Key Creator."

[EazyE]

Thanks allot people. I appreciate everything said. by year end I will be the designer and Programmer so im on my way to force the issue.

[Jack Neelands™]

Solid works have Webnars like every week with regards to their software ....shows things that you would normally overlook when designing as well...These are fantastic as you have the ability to learn on line ...on time....

 

Solid works and Mastercam go Hand in Hand....No ifs, ands or buts about it...You'll will also note that alot of Solid works Questions are posted in here and get answered fast...even though this is not a Solidworks forum

[Jason B.]

Be careful...... Solidworks is nice yes... but it is a parametric design software. Keycreator is non-parametric.

 

i.e. If you want to change something in the model are you prepared to go back in your history and start over if that's the only way to get it to work? Or are you hoping to be able to edit your part in real time with an "open" modeler?

 

I have been using Mastercam for machining and Cadkey/Keycreator for design for 17 years. I don't have any issues with my geometry when it comes in to Mastercam so it stands to reason there is something else going on. I don't know why these other people are having issues.

 

Everyone is partial to the software that THEY know and like. My advice is to download the free trials and just try them for a while. How else are you going to get a non-biased opinion on how it affects YOU and YOUR work and how YOU like to do things?

 

- Jason

[ken wong]

how about solidedge easier than solidwork

[J Coulston]

1,000,000 SW seats cant be wrong. One millionth license of SolidWorks software

[Jason B.]

It's too bad there aren't any numbers that show how many seats of Cadkey are out their. Since it was the best selling design software on the market for soooo many years before Solidworks was even thougth up. Add to that the keycreator seats out there now and I think you get the picture.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing Solidworks. It has it's place.

 

(right their in second place.)

[gcode]

quote:

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keycreator

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??

who makes it

[Jason B.]

quote:

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??

who makes it

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Kubotek

[Guest]

quote:

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Kubotek

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Who???