Volumill vs Cimco HSM

[?Mark]

The only thing that I know of that differentiate those 2 is that Cimco HSM will work with both rough and finish toolpaths but Volumill will only work with rough toolpaths.

Important question here is: How well do they work with older machines?

Any and all info you can throw at me regarding using them for surfacing will be appreciated.

 

TIA

 

Regards, Mark

[David Conigliaro CNC Software Inc.]

How about Dynamic Mill toolpaths or OptiRough already included in Mastercam?

[?Mark]

I'm mostly after toolpath that will create nc code that will add accelerate/decelerate lines to make up for an older equipment when surfacing. I know , but this is what we got and we need to make it work for us a little better and I'm not sure of any of the above will do just that.

Thanks.

[Bob W.]

How about Dynamic Mill toolpaths or OptiRough already included in Mastercam?

 

I like both of these and I will always use Dynamic milling before I will use Volumill for 2D roughing. Volumill does the exact same thing as Optirough when it comes to 3D roughing except it has a whole host of stock definition and rest roughing strategies and they work very well. With a large cavity with fine features I can use Volumill with a 3/8" mill, 3/16" mill, and 1/16" end mill in three operations and there is almost no wasted motion. STL rest roughing works great and it is very efficient.

[Bob W.]

Another thing worth mentioning about Volumill is that there have been some bugs... BUT, the longest I have ever waited before I could download a fix is 5 days. You will never hear me gripe about paying Volumill maintenance. Their customer service is EXCELLENT!

[John White WLM&T]

Another thing worth mentioning about Volumill is that there have been some bugs... BUT, the longest I have ever waited before I could download a fix is 5 days. You will never hear me gripe about paying Volumill maintenance. Their customer service is EXCELLENT!

 

What about dealer pricing stability. No supprise 40% increases from greedy dealers?

 

I am thinking I can add Volumill to X2 right. Maybe cheaper and better than going to X5.

 

John

[Jimmy Wakeford from Barefoot CNC]

Mark have you tried using the highfeed option in Mastercam? It does exactly what your wanting. It will break lines as it approaches a corner stepping down the federated, then accelerate the same way.

[Chris Rizzo]

:lol:

 

I am thinking I can add Volumill to X2 right. Maybe cheaper and better than going to X5

 

Your losing money hand-over-fist without the entire x5 dynamic milling suite.

[Steve Hattori]

I've been using CIMCO HSM with adaptive clearing since V9, and only with the X5 milling has mcam come even close. I am still more familiar with CIMCO, and use it all the time, and their service has also been excellent. It has been a life-saver for us with high-speed- high reliability roughing and finishing.

I haven't tried Volumill, so have no comparison. I use all of Cimco's toolpaths, and they now have 5-axis Swarf, and very fast verify, so you get a lot for your money.

Several people on here have much more experience than me with Mcam's new routines, but I have no complaints with Cimco. Not trying to bash Mcam, but maybe I should- this stuff should have been part of mcam to begin with....

[?Mark]

Jimmy,

I haven't tried the highfeed option in depth yet, but from what I remember any changes I made to machine dynamics didn't have any effect on a posted code

Any tricks there I need to know about? Help file on this is not very good

 

Steve, thanks for the HSM info. We still looking at volumill vs Cimco HSM, but also need to explore MC highfeed option if I can get it to work

 

Thanks all <cheers>

[neurosis]

Mark,

 

Focus on the corner accelerations part of your machine dynamics. It would probably be best if you actually ran a couple of tests and enter real results but if you know the machine you can guesstimate close enough usually.

 

Enter a work piece diameter that you machine often and a feed rate that you know will reliably give you good results for that diameter. It will automatically fill in the cornering acceleration field for you.

 

Once you see what its doing you can start playing with numbers and posting to get desired results.