MasterCAM for solidworks or CAMworks?

[Meldas]

Hello everyone,

 I recently started a new job. My responsabilities will be to program a HAAS umc and all their other machines, Mills, Lathes, and an Omax waterjet along with designing and reverse engineering. The boss, who has no true experience with machining or programming, is running solidworks.

He got a quote from mastercam, camworks, and several others. He has since narrowed his choice down to the former two. 

He has given me the responsability to choose one of the two.

 I come from a job shop. My main task was to program and run their 5 axis Mazak along with their lathes and wire EDM.

Me being a Mastercam guy that is my first choice however, I do like the idea of adding another CAM software to my resume'.  

 The boss says he likes the "logic" of CAMworks and my thought is "you've never ran mastercam"

 

CAMworks comes with the option to purchase multiple dongles which i like very much as we may have someone other than me programming at the same time or I may have to take one home for home work. What i've gathered so far is they lack in 5 axis (just module works 5ax package) and their mill package is scattered by multiple vendors e.g. Volumill for their high speed 2D package, and Module works, again, for their 3D verification. For a nice 9000 extra, you can get full G-code verification much like Veri-cut.

 

To sum it all up,

Does anyone have any experience with CAMworks? What do you like / dont like about it?

 

Thanks,

 Trey B.

[gcode]

I have no recent experience with CamWorks, but did own a seat of TekSoft/ProCad

This was parent company of CamWorks and was at some point purchased by it's current offshore owners

I switched from Procad to Mastercam  in 1998 when they started buying code from India.

ProCad98 was so buggy it was unusable.

6 months after it's release, I got a post card announcing a patch.

The patch was a 40mg download.

In 1998, a15k modem and a teenage daughter made a 40mg download simply impossible.

After a month of trying, I called and requested a hard copy.

They refused. I offered to pay shipping, they refused... and that was the end of that.

I bought a copy of Mastercam V7 a couple of weeks later.

 

Obviously this has no bearing on a modern version of CamWorks

My understanding of CamWorks is that it is a knowledge based system, so you have to

build the knowledge in up front.

That may be great for a family of parts scenario, but if you're a  job shop, you'll be building

a new knowledge base for every job.

 

My suggestion is to get a 30 day trial license of Mastercam and CamWorks and try them out.

Since your boss is hot for CamWorks do it first, then Mastercam.

If CamWorks won't give you 30 day codes, that speaks volumes IMO

I have no doubt your Mastercam dealer will happily give you 30 day codes

 

 

If you decide to buy Mastercam, buy a regular seat of Mastercam

A seat of Mastercam will run Mastercam for SolidWorks on the same license

Keep in mind, you can run Mastercam OR Mastercam for SolidWorks

You can't have one programmer running MC and another running MCfSW on one license

Multiple instances require multiple licenses.

 

I've been a user and beta tester of MCfSW  since day one, and over the years

it has become a very capable product.

I use it a lot for designing and manufacturing fixtures

I still do production work in Masterccam

a. because I'm old school

b other programmers may have to work on my files and they are not SW users

[gcode]

I tried a search on Pratical Machinst and didn't get much, which leads me to believe the CamWorks

userbase must be pretty small

 

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/search.php?searchid=8207806&pp=

[Meldas]

"I bought a copy of Mastercam V7 a couple of weeks later."

I only wish i could purchase Mastercam for myself. My dream job is being a contract / free-lance programmer.

 

I haven't heard of CAMworks til I heard of it from my boss.

just the other day, the rep from camworks called me and tried to bribe me to say yes to the purchase.

that, in and of itself, makes me wonder, "is camworks really so good that they have to bribe me to say yes?"

I am a man of morals and taking a bribe is not what i stand for.

but im looking past that and trying to see the benefit of adding that to my resume'

 

I have worked with a stand alone seat of Mastercam and yes, it has its glitches too but all-in-all,

Its a wonderful product. I like the legacy 5x paths better than the "advanced multiaxis - Module works" paths in addition to Dynamic Motion.

 

I have taught myself 5 axis programming thru books, Mastercam U, Streaming Teacher, ect... all out of my own pocket and on my own time.

Im invested in Mastercam, I just need my own suite and ill be good to go. 

 

I, like you gcode, have done my research on Practical Machinist and CNCzone and I dont find a whole lot.

I agree with you that " the CamWorks userbase must be pretty small"

 

nonetheless, I'm trying to be open minded to what lies ahead. 

The company is gonna pay for training despite what is chosen so thats a plus.

but I have a post processor for mastercam that works very well with a 5 axis machine thus, I have a good relationship with my Mastercam reseller.

However, my boss is going thru some other reseller, which sucks.

[jlw™]

I got a 30 day of Camworks back in 2012 iirc and it is entirely feature based. You have to use this feature finder to apply any tool paths and none of the models I tested completely worked. It was very frustrating for me as I was not used to that at all.

 

I had never used Mastercam then but having used it for almost 2 years now I would hands down recommend Mastercam. As pointed out you can use mcam for Solidworks as well as the standalone version.

[balnh]

I used cam works for a year or so. Our head programmer built all our databases. And this was no small task. Your feature based toolpaths will be as good as the database that drives them.

[gcode]

Mastercam for SolidWorks used to be a stand alone product that required the purchase

of a separate license.

Now it runs on a regular license, so if you buy Mastercam, you've got MCfSW at no extra cost

The beauty of that is, it uses the same posts and toolpaths as regular Mastercam

If you know how to run Mastercam and you know how to run SolidWorks, you're good to go.

 

If you don't know SolidWorks, you'll need some training there, whether your boss goes

with MC or CW.

A strong knowledge of SW will be needed to use either CW or MCfSW properly

 

That is another plus for Mastercam as you can still be producing code and keeping the machine running while

learning the SW side of things.

A CW purchase leaves you dead in the water, learning 2 different softwares at once.

It actually gets worse as you'll also be dialing in a post for a CAM package you know nothing about.

That is a nearly impossible task.

 

I'm sure CW will tell you they've got a post for that machine, but given the fact they tried to bribe you

I don't think I'd believe another word they said,

The bribe attempt speaks volumes IMO.

It smells of desperation.

Given the tiny CW footprint on CNC Zone and Practical Machinist, the desperation is probably warranted

The software's capabilities should sell the package, not an under the table trip to Vegas or whatever

[Watcher]

"I bought a copy of Mastercam V7 a couple of weeks later."

I only wish i could purchase Mastercam for myself. My dream job is being a contract / free-lance programmer.

 

I haven't heard of CAMworks til I heard of it from my boss.

just the other day, the rep from camworks called me and tried to bribe me to say yes to the purchase.

that, in and of itself, makes me wonder, "is camworks really so good that they have to bribe me to say yes?"

I am a man of morals and taking a bribe is not what i stand for.

but im looking past that and trying to see the benefit of adding that to my resume'

 

I have worked with a stand alone seat of Mastercam and yes, it has its glitches too but all-in-all,

Its a wonderful product. I like the legacy 5x paths better than the "advanced multiaxis - Module works" paths in addition to Dynamic Motion.

 

I have taught myself 5 axis programming thru books, Mastercam U, Streaming Teacher, ect... all out of my own pocket and on my own time.

Im invested in Mastercam, I just need my own suite and ill be good to go. 

 

I, like you gcode, have done my research on Practical Machinist and CNCzone and I dont find a whole lot.

I agree with you that " the CamWorks userbase must be pretty small"

 

nonetheless, I'm trying to be open minded to what lies ahead. 

The company is gonna pay for training despite what is chosen so thats a plus.

but I have a post processor for mastercam that works very well with a 5 axis machine thus, I have a good relationship with my Mastercam reseller.

However, my boss is going thru some other reseller, which sucks.

 

Have you considered to talk to your boss about the bribe attempt? I would.

 

I´m sure he wins nothing from a company that tried to bribe an employee.

[mkd]

 

I, like you gcode, have done my research on Practical Machinist and CNCzone and I dont find a whole lot.

I agree with you that " the CamWorks userbase must be pretty small"

 

if you look closer what you'll find is a lot of hatin on camworks.

 It is pretty great that you can get gcode verification for that price. So that is a huge advantage. Question i have: is dealing with the programming interface worth the advantage of well priced built in verification?

If you're looking for more of a one stop shop with the best integration of these features, then NX is on top of the heap. Unfortunately dealing with Siemens is a lesson in company hubris. Plus HS toolpaths are an extra cost add in, so some integration goes out the window, i suppose.

 Catia has a couple of third party verification add-ins also. Icam and IMS.

[gcode]

if you look closer what you'll find is a lot of hatin on camworks.

a lot of the hatin' is directed at the CamWork/SolidEdge version.

From what I've read, the last release is an unusable bugfest with no patch in sight.

To be fair, it looks like Siemens is letting SolidEdge go to seed, so it's not

unreasonable for CamWorks to stand back and wait for the dust to settle

It sucks for folks who have invested a ton of $$$ in CamWorks and SolidEdge though

[htm01]

have a camworks sim sitting on a shelf from 2008, never did what was promised, led us on saying that will be in the next release, no the next release, maybe the next one.just wanted us to keep paying maint.

takes a lot of prep database work.

training was more like a basic solidworks class

[JoshC]

There is a lot to look at with software purchases, one of the most important things in my opinion is the support / resources available. Mastercam has top notch support with the way its sold and supported by area, and you also have lots of online resources, like this forum or Mastercam.coms forums with lots of knowledgeable individuals available and willing to assist. Mastercam also is the most used cam software and has the most seats installed worldwide. The software has to work and it has to work well and Mastercam has the reputation that you know you can trust. I have been using Mastercam for Solidworks for quite some time and if you have run the full verison of Mastercam then you will have absolutely no trouble learning the Solidworks equivalent, go with Mastercam, you wont be disappointed. Also if you purchase the full version, which I recommend more, you will get MCFSW included. This gives you the ability to program in either environment as well as opens up additional options for future or new employees as now your employees have a choice to program in MC or MCFSW depending on which one they like more or are more familiar with.

 

That's my $.02 on this subject and I hope its helpful

[gcode]

There is a lot to look at with software purchases, one of the most important things in my opinion is the support / resources available. Mastercam has top notch support with the way its sold and supported by area, and you also have lots of online resources, like this forum or Mastercam.coms forums with lots of knowledgeable individuals available and willing to assist. Mastercam also is the most used cam software and has the most seats installed worldwide. The software has to work and it has to work well and Mastercam has the reputation that you know you can trust. I have been using Mastercam for Solidworks for quite some time and if you have run the full verison of Mastercam then you will have absolutely no trouble learning the Solidworks equivalent, go with Mastercam, you wont be disappointed. Also if you purchase the full version, which I recommend more, you will get MCFSW included. This gives you the ability to program in either environment as well as opens up additional options for future or new employees as now your employees have a choice to program in MC or MCFSW depending on which one they like more or are more familiar with.

 

That's my $.02 on this subject and I hope its helpful

I'd be willing to bet that my local Mastercam dealer has a bigger support staff than the worldwide support staff of CAMworks

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

Just a quick note regarding this comment:

 

"...Mastercam for SolidWorks used to be a stand alone product that required the purchase of a separate license..."

 

Mastercam for SolidWorks still can be bought/licensed separately. There are users out there who insist on the integrated solution and ONLY the integrated solution.

[crazy^millman]

Just a quick note regarding this comment:

 

"...Mastercam for SolidWorks used to be a stand alone product that required the purchase of a separate license..."

 

Mastercam for SolidWorks still can be bought/licensed separately. There are users out there who insist on the integrated solution and ONLY the integrated solution.

 

There are those that just don't know what they don't know Pete.

[K80]

Hi! I'm new here but have been using mastercam for roughly 10 years. That is, up until 5 months ago when I started at the company that I am currently employed at. They have CamWorks and a 1 year old Okuma HMC. They made a somewhat uninformed decision to buy CW over MC primarily because management looked at CW and it looked more "user friendly" over mastercam. CW is just a plain old PITA. Now to be fair, we have the basic 2.5 axis mill software. None the less, It sucks. It really wants you to use the FBM machining in it which doesn't work well. The tool database in it only comes with about 15 tools in it (total). You must draw or import all tool geometry for everything you use. Get mastercam. 

[Meldas]

UPDATE: my company went with mastercam.

I want to thank you, all for your input on this subject.

[Solidworkscadman]

The decision of mastercam to include the Mastercam For Solidworks seat with the purchase of a regular seat is great. I actually based my purchase around it.

 

Althought MCFSW has some flaws it is still a good product that I use to complement the standard mastercam seat.

[gcode]

UPDATE: my company went with mastercam.

I want to thank you, all for your input on this subject.

thanks for the update

I was wondering which way your boss went.

don't forget, between eMC and the Mastercam website, you've got the best sources on the

planet for help with your new purchase

[jlw™]

I've used a lot of CAD and CAM softwares and I can say the fastest and most helpful support is Mastercam's. Whether it's my reseller or emc, I usually get help in minutes.