good morning,
I'm a newbie. Having a 4 axis machine (3 continous + 1 indexed) would you suggest sprutcam?
I was thinking to Visualmill too.
Other affordable software suggested ?
Thanks for any help

Other affordable software suggested ?

OneCNC. ;)

Thanks for your help

I feel it works pretty darn well for me in a hobbyist environment. I'm a CAM beginner and it took a while to get up to speed on it, but I'm now very happy with how well it does. Dave Pearson's (UK) support program has been extremely beneficial for me.

Mike

Thanks for your help

I like VisualMill

Absolutely. I've only owned SprutCAM for a few months, and have been using it for slightly less than that, but I am extremely impressed with ease of use. There are built in tutorials that will get you cutting parts in literally 30 minutes or less. In addition to that: there is a lot of tech support in various forums, and there are tutorial videos offered out there too.

I've used MasterCAM and other CAM packages in the past, none of which were as easy for me to pick up as SC.

As a side note, I'm using SprutCAM 2007 Master (i.e. good for mill/lathe and 5+ axis machining) with a Tormach PCNC post processor. I believe this is the most enhanced version offered (anyone correct me if I'm mistaken). Thus, I can not speak on behalf of other versions.

Good luck chosing!

Oops, I forgot to mention... SprutCAM '07 is offered at a significantly reduced price for Tormach PCNC owners. I just noticed that the CAM package is likely for another machine, so the retail cost may be a factor in how you chose.

v/r

thanks for your help

i have sprut and visualmill with 4th axis and visualturn. i can tell you sprut is a huge pain in the rear compared with visualmill. in visualmill you can alter borders or other features for your machine operation very quick and easy because the cad package is in the software. sprut has a very poor ability of editing your geometry. i would gladly sell you my dongle and cd for $500 but you would want to hit yourself in the head with a hammer after about 10hrs or so with it. I spend many hours with sprut i thought it was okay till i used a friend of mines visualmill, i was so much better to work with. sprut has its good points to im sure but i never found very few of them. yes i know visualmill costs more but i can assure you you will get much more joy from the machine you purchased if you get software that is user friendly. lets see 1k for standard 2k with 4th axis. small fraction of what your machine costs. they have 1st rate tech support the tech support guy named uday knows the software inside and out i dare you to throw him a problem he cant answer in seconds. sprut has very poor tech support. thats my opinion. if sprut is all you know i can see why someone might like it. just like driving a camaro it seems nice until you drive the corvette.

Hi , my company manufactures moulds and neckrings for glass containers. we recently bought a 4axis ( 4th indexed) CNC milling machine and were looking for a good CAD CAM software...
sprutcam was one of the possibility, others being NX ( unigraphics), solidcam and surfcam
after reading this thread visualmill joins the list.
can anyone please suggest for mould designing and machining ( for bottles) which CAM/ CAD combination would be the best. the parameters being user friendly ( as we are new to all this), cost effective ( not very very expensive) and fast

thanks
Sidhi

Hi , my company manufactures moulds and neckrings for glass containers. we recently bought a 4axis ( 4th indexed) CNC milling machine and were looking for a good CAD CAM software...
sprutcam was one of the possibility, others being NX ( unigraphics), solidcam and surfcam
after reading this thread visualmill joins the list.
can anyone please suggest for mould designing and machining ( for bottles) which CAM/ CAD combination would be the best. the parameters being user friendly ( as we are new to all this), cost effective ( not very very expensive) and fast

thanks
Sidhi

You could try this one. I have never used it but many here like it. Check it out to see if it fits your needs.

http://www.dolphincadcamusa.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=24

I bought the Sprut with my Tormach, yes the learning curve was steep but it is short, I think a lot has to do with your CAD package, I use Solidworks and can make changes in Solidworks and it will change the SC part. So that being said you need to make sure your CAD and CAM are compatible this will save you a lot of headaches. I've heard good and bad about all of them so make your choice and learn it live it love it.

Hello all , i am a EdgeCAM user since 7 years , I can do almost anything in it , have no trouble to make a part, but it does not mean I like them , I really hate them, EdgeCAM can be really a pain in the a..s ( some described here : http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68350 ) I tried do learn MasterCAM - but this software really push me away for some reason I do not know, I tried also others CAM systems with no luck till I saw SprutCAM - in sprutcam I found these good things that I miss in EC , very other approach to the milling and part operations , there is one thing I miss in SC : profiling a part with correction and recognizing the levels ( not a 2D path ) maybe in the future will be , so the beggining.

I am not the SC user , I only try it few times , so I don`t know this software from the bottom , but for now I am really impress how easy it is to make a part , make changes , see the collisions before simulation , turning a part is more easy than milling - this software thinks ! on the contrary for other cam systems.

So please, can somebody give me some good reasons to not buy it ? I am thinking for milling 2.5D and turning , or maybe some one can type what are the worst things in SC2007 version ?

I understand , there is no perfect software , something is better here and something is better there , but if I need to choice I need to know as many as can.

Thanks.