List of CAD/CAM Software

[Boyan Silyavski]

Ucancam V9 . Thats what the Chinese use. I think i am going to trial it, to see what it does but is quite promising for the price.

[EddyCurrent]

Ucancam - says it's for engraving but then goes on to show other stuff, I'm going to trial it too. (Edit: website says it needs a dongle)
Interesting photo on their website, rotary axis engraving, gives me an idea for converting a wood lathe maybe.

[EddyCurrent]

Got this email, might be of use to someone.

We have been running a Special Offer Promotion for visitors to the Model Engineering Show in Sandown Park. We have decide to provide this offer to other hobby users.
The offer is - PartMaster Milling for £95, PartMaster Turning for £125 or BOTH for only £195.
This offer expires on Sunday 22nd December 2013.
To take advantage of the very special offer, please visit.
Home

[Boyan Silyavski]

Got this email, might be of use to someone.

We have been running a Special Offer Promotion for visitors to the Model Engineering Show in Sandown Park. We have decide to provide this offer to other hobby users.
The offer is - PartMaster Milling for £95, PartMaster Turning for £125 or BOTH for only £195.
This offer expires on Sunday 22nd December 2013.
To take advantage of the very special offer, please visit.
Home

I am downloading the trial now. Do you know of a comparison table between these and the more expensive Dolphin 3DCAM? apart from the 5th axis, what will be the difference? That could affect me, i mean.

[m_c]

Personally, for a mill you'd be better spending £93 on CamBam, and saving a couple quid (or 209 if you happen to need a commercial license!).
One thing to note, the hobby license is usually for the previous version. The current commercial packages are on V12, while that hobby offer is for V11, however I don't think there is that much difference between V11 and V12...

As for the main difference between standard and pro, from what I could figure out, it's mainly to do with 3D files. The trail version is only for the standard version, and they're website is pretty rubbish for comparing products (the US site is a lot better).

[Washout]

Whilst hypnotising myself on CNC youtube vids last night, I came across HSMExpress for Solidworks, which I don't think has been listed?

Link: HSMXpress | HSMWorks • Integrated CAM for SolidWorks

It looks to be similar to the awesome SolidCAM/IMachining CAM software, but would be very interested if anyone has experience with it, as I'm about to get hold of Solidworks for CAD work.

Ooops srryI forgot to mention it appears to be "free".

[Jonathan]

Link: HSMXpress | HSMWorks • Integrated CAM for SolidWorks

It looks to be similar to the awesome SolidCAM/IMachining CAM software,

According to your link that one doesn't support high speed milling (HSM) toolpaths, so their choice of name for the software is somewhat misleading. Their example toolpath image looks very generic - if that's the best they can come up with to advertise their product it doesn't bode well.
If you want to use HSM paths, like trochoidal milling, then you would need IMachining or some other program which supports it. However if you're happy with the sort of toolpaths that the likes of CAMbam and Aspire generate, and happen to have solidworks, then it could be a good option as it's free.

[Boyan Silyavski]

From a couple of days i am playing with NX Cam 9 trying and starting to learn bit by bit, and i used Aspire till now. Its like jumping from driving a 3 wheel child bicycle to flying a Boeing .
So write down that cam too in the list. At the top of it! of course its shamelessly expensive and unreachable.

[JoeHarris]

On the cad front I believe Moment of Inspiration is worth a mention - I only have a trial version as yet but it has excellent support from the creator (one of the guys who developed Rhino) and is a real easy NURBS modeller to get into... I'm planning on buying it once v3 is out of beta.

[m.marino]

Jonathan,

May I point out that Aspire has a few thousand professional shops using to generate their code and income. No it is not the same as IMachine CAM and it does not have the price tag to go with it. There is also a few that I personally know of in the professional realm that are using CamBam for production grade work. While they do not use some of the more advance logarithm that you find in IMAchine and NX they also don't come with the price tag that those programs do. I have had the enjoyment of using T-Flex CAD/CAM/CAE software and while it is NX based it is still out of many folks budget.

Artsoft, CAMaster and Gibb's CAM are also wonderful software that very much do the job, again it comes down to price point and ROI. Not all shops NEED the high end, Expensive software that makes ROI a very difficult item unless you are in the market to be able to charge the rates that are required to recover that kind of investment (that or independently wealthy).