Lathe and Mill CAM Recommendations

[mecheng10]

I'm in the market to purchase lathe and mill CAM software and am looking for input from people on this forum on recommendations. I currently use Alibre CAD software and like the integrated mill CAM capabilities provided by Mecsoft. I am also evaluating Mecsoft's lathe CAM package. Both seem quite usable. I can spend approximately $1000-$1500 per module (lathe and mill) and would prefer to avoid significant maintenance expenses.

[Hirudin]

I am certainly no expert, but I think you're on the right track. I own RhinoCAM (which I assume is very similar to AlibreCAM) and think it's probably the best bang for your buck out there. At some point I got tired of some perceived problems with RhinoCAM and started looking elsewhere. Unfortunately I was not able to find anything that seemed to even match (much less surpass) the capabilities within the same price range. All the other software I was able to try also had similar or worse problems as RhinoCAM.

Personally, I decided to go with SolidWorks and SolidCAM, but these packages cost many times more than what MecSoft offers* so it's really not fair to compare them.

* SolidCAM 2.5D milling and "HSM" (3D milling) was $6000 (on sale), and that is without SolidWorks which was $3000 more for their most basic offering (called "Parts and Assemblies").

[TheBigJW]

I am certainly no expert, but I think you're on the right track. I own RhinoCAM (which I assume is very similar to AlibreCAM) and think it's probably the best bang for your buck out there. At some point I got tired of some perceived problems with RhinoCAM and started looking elsewhere. Unfortunately I was not able to find anything that seemed to even match (much less surpass) the capabilities within the same price range. All the other software I was able to try also had similar or worse problems as RhinoCAM.

Personally, I decided to go with SolidWorks and SolidCAM, but these packages cost many times more than what MecSoft offers* so it's really not fair to compare them.

* SolidCAM 2.5D milling and "HSM" (3D milling) was $6000 (on sale), and that is without SolidWorks which was $3000 more for their most basic offering (called "Parts and Assemblies").

How happy were you with the purchase of SolidCam?

John

[M250cnc]

(lathe and mill) and would prefer to avoid significant maintenance expenses.

OneCNC zero maintenance, but might be more in initial cost but is a joy to use

[mcphill]

BobCAD.

[mecheng10]

I've heard too many bad things about BobCad's business practices (specifically their sales tactics) to even consider downloading a demo at this point. I'm not sure about OneCNC yet; what is good/bad about it? SprutCam interests me; what do people think about it? Do people know what these different packages cost and if any discounts are typically available?

-Brian

[Hirudin]

How happy were you with the purchase of SolidCam?

John

I'm still getting the hang of SolidWorks (which I like quite a bit so far) so I still haven't installed SolidCAM yet. SolidWorks is quite a bit different than Rhino, that's for sure. I figure I'll get it on my computer within a week (probably less) and I'll try to remember to come back to this thread and let you know what I think.