Lathe Package need help

[jbclean]

Today we sat thru a online demo of Feature Cam's lathe package.We thought it looked pretty nice,the pricing may of been high compared to Master Cam or Gibb's.Thought what a better place to go and get feedback about the lathe package than a Feature Cam Forum.Please tell pro's and con's.Some thing's are better than others.I appreciate your help.THANKS

[duluthboat]

I don’t have enough experience with the others to give a fair comparison. My experience using FeatureTurn is with single spindle turning centers and no live tooling. I haven’t seen a CAM package for turning that is easier to learn and seems infinitely customizable.

Gary

[jbclean]

Thanks for the input Gary.Our shop is single spindle and no live tooling.

[rick_7037]

I have used the turn/mill interface extensively and really like it its basically 2.5 D milling on a 4th axis works awesome and no new interface to learn

[kantarr]

Can you get feature cam to select the tools that you want it to? When I looked at this product it seemed intent on making its own decisions on type of tools to use and not in an intelligent way. Was this just me not understanding the program?

[CNCRim]

Originally Posted by kantarr Can you get feature cam to select the tools that you want it to? When I looked at this product it seemed intent on making its own decisions on type of tools to use and not in an intelligent way. Was this just me not understanding the program?

You can select tool you want.

[kantarr]

yes that is correct but can you teach feature cam to select the tool that you want it to select, first time?

[kantarr]

I see that no one has taken the time to answer my last question re Feature Cam so untill otherwise advised I will take that as A no.

[Excelmachine]

Originally Posted by kantarr I see that no one has taken the time to answer my last question re Feature Cam so untill otherwise advised I will take that as A no.

I've only seen a demo of FeatureCam but in regards to your question, could you perhaps "force" it to use the tool you want by making a special tool table for it to program with?

[CNCRim]

Under Custom Manufacturing -> Machining Attributes. To Modify tool double click on the one you want edit, click Properties then change to the one you want.

BTW, it's in the manual.

[The Engine Guy]

Originally Posted by kantarr Can you get feature cam to select the tools that you want it to? When I looked at this product it seemed intent on making its own decisions on type of tools to use and not in an intelligent way. Was this just me not understanding the program?

When I start a new job I already know what tooling I will be putting in the machine so I simply create a new "Tool Crib" first and then select that Crib for use with that program.

The software will then use tooling from that Crib only and it is then real easy to have the right tool every time.

You should set up your Tool Library with tooling created that you actually own and use and delete the rest, less confusion that way.

Any time I get a new tool it is added to the main tool library and then just added to any particular Crib as required.

The software is very, very good, I have used other cheaper alternatives and they don`t come close to FeatureCAM IMHO

Regards
Rob