Converted from Surfcam

[ltmquik]

My opinion is CAMWorks 2007 is absoultely worthless for 3D work. Teksoft has so many issues to deal with they cannot even issue patches because they do not know where to start.

The software shuts down our systems and then will not recognize the license. The 3D toolpaths nearly grind the video to a halt even on simple paths.

Go to the Teksoft forum to see what is happening to the CAMWorks population.

[mdlmkr]

Its hard to think that a cam system is "worthless". It sure sounds like your computer needs some updating or at least your video card.

I have been using the software enough now to know that there are some bugs, but "worthless"...I don't know about that.

Maybe you should check to see if you have a video card that is on the supported list from SolidWorks.

[ltmquik]

Dual Core 4400 AMD Athlon 64 X2 Series Processor with 2 X 1 MB L2 Cache. Two (2) Western Digital 74 GB Raptor Series 10,000 RPM Hard Drives in RAID 1 Stripe, a Western Digital 400GB RAID Editon 7200 RPM Hard Drive,
four (4) OCZ Titanium 1 GB High Performance, low latency 2-3-2-5 SDRAM for 4 GB of System RAM with Heat Spreaders, NVIDA Geforce 7900GTO 2 GB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card. I think I'm up to date. I have no problems running SolidWorks or SurfCAM. I also did not encounter any problems until I upgraded to CAMWorks 2007.

[cadcam]

mdlmkr try doing a surphircal shape in a mold Cavity and see if it out puts Radial code and does not facet the sides of the cavity.

I have heard this to be a be problem.

[pixburghenat]

That nvidia gforce card is a gaming card isn't it? It may be the reason for the slow simulation display, it might be using software rendering. Check on the Teksoft forum for any tweaks using the AMD chip.

Currently I'm using a 4 year old Dell P4 with a Powerleap CPU upgrade to 2.8 and 2 Gigs of ram with a 4X AGP FireGL 2 videocard, works very good.

Yes, the older versions of CamWorks, before 2006EX, was a bit slow generating the 3D code, but it always did what I wanted it to do.
I've made many small prototyping and short run molds without any problems.
And have made many short run parts and lots of prototype parts using 2D and 3D, never a problem with the code.

The current version of Camworks is by far the best. SP0 of 2007 had some bugs, but Teksoft was quick to release a fix. Now, you should be using at least SP1.1 of Solidworks and SP2 of Camworks, I've had no problems yet.

I don't use the AFR, I tried it in an older version and didn't like it.
But for anyone having database problems with upgrades, you should always use the import feature for the new database. Yes, if you are having problems with CWX crashing, it might be a problem using an older database with the updated version, mostly with the 3D stuff.

enat

[ltmquik]

I enjoy using CW for the 2 1/2 D work. The 3D + can get tricky and very slow on large files, 20Mb and up. These files are common in mold making. The software is definitely not tailored for mold making. For that we use SurfCAM.