vx cad cam

[smoker]

There is a review of "VX live" on the product review pages.
I was wondering if anybody had experience with the product and price indication?

David

[mfzf]

Hola

Deseo contactar con profesores a nivel técnico cualquier pais de habla Hispana
Con interes a la Manufactura Asistida por Computadora

[biomed_eng]

Please take a serious look at VX.

Last year our company went through extensive demos and evaluations of:
1. ProE with ISDX
2. ThinkId
3. VX (Mold and Die Version)
4. SolidWorks with surfacing 3rd party add-in

FYI, as a background, I have 7 years of SolidWorks experience in small device engineering, typically smaller than a tennis ball. I was hitting the limit of what SolidWorks could do in terms of free form organic shapes. We needed a robust surfacing solution.

Our budget allowed up to $20k for a Solids/Surfacing package. I initially wanted ThinkiD because it was the most expensive Reason being that the most expensive is usually the best right? (Insert Sarcasm) Well I was wrong! After importing several different IGES and stl files into each of the above packages, VX came out the winner. VX`s imported models were the best and imported the fastest. SW couldn't even open some of the files.

When creating simple but memory intensive lofted surfaces from scratch, SolidWorks and VX came out the fastest. They tied in terms of speed. ProE and ThinkID were SLOW to the point of being frustrating!!

VX and ProE were the best in terms of complex surface creation. VX being easier to create the target surfaces. SolidWorks only dreams of being able to make these surfaces!

Core and Cavity design - Thinkid came out the winner with VX a very close second. SolidWorks has novice core and cavity functions. ProE has a $7000 add-in that was not evaluated.

Straightforward User interface - from best to worst:
1. VX11 and SolidWorks
2. Thinkid - pretty looking but not very friendly
3. ProE - ugly and not consistent from one tool to the next

In the end we went with VX. Our surfacing designer has many years of industrial design experience with Alias and he now loves the power of VX. He says it has much better to use than Alias for organic surfaces mainly because of the history editing.

In short, I do not regret one bit switching from SW to VX, in fact I encourage all CAD users to try out VX. VX is an extremely powerful modeling solution.

[Nivec]

I am a user of VX as well.
I have used Cimatron and Visi in the past. I also have a small amount of experience with Solidworks which is used by a Mold Designer where I work. I had the chance to switch to either Cimatron Elite or Solidworks recently and spent some time with both. The reason for this is we are looking to simplify our work by dumping some of the other software packages to save a lot of time translating.

I really had high hopes for Solidworks but they were quickly dashed when I found out how weak its surfacing was. As far as I am concerned, strong surfacing is needed in any solids package. Sooner or later you are going to get some really crap geometry from a customer that is going to take some surfacing skill to fix. This is where VX clobbered the other two. VX is a true hybrid. Only Cimatron IT had similar surfacing abilities but Cimatron IT wasn't a true solids package and, although powerful, it was slow and cumbersome to use.

To make a long story short I am still using VX and happy with it. We are now investigating the CAM end of VX and its looks very promising. Now I just need to convince the designer using Solidworks to make the switch so I don't have to waste any more time fixing junky surfaces from Solidworks.

[smoker]

THX for your answers, do you have a price indication?
Just so I do not bother them if it is out of my budget?

David

[Nivec]

I am not responsible for the finances here but I seem to remember my supervisor saying that you can buy a full seat of VX (CAD/CAM with all the options) for around $10000. I may be wrong on this and I'm sure if I am someone will be along soon to correct me.
So depending on what options you want or don't want, the price comes down from there.
I can give you some contact info for the sales rep we deal with if you like. He's out of Michigan. Let me know.

Good luck.

[Nivec]

I just took at look at your original post again and I fear we might be discussing 2 seperate pieces of software. I am not sure what you mean by "VX live" and I didn't see it on the product review page. Unfortunately I saw VX and assumed that it was VX CAD/CAM you were talking about but now I am not so sure.
Are you talking about VX CAD/CAM or something entirely different?
If not I apologize for getting your hopes up.

I still recommend you take a look at VX anyway if you are after CAD software.

[Garypl]

I also would like to know more about the VX software mentioned. I could'nt find the product review, could anyone pass a link to the VX company web Page.
Thanks, Gary

[Nivec]

VX CAD/CAM

[smoker]

Hi, yes I was talking about VX CAD/CAM.
The revier on this site was about 'VX Live' which apperently is a remote demo that you can attend.

David

[biomed_eng]

http://www.vx.com/seminars.cfm

Attend one of the seminars and get a seat of VX Modeler for FREE! I bought Mold and Die which as a few more functions than Modeler. Since I have been doing mainly modeling, I have not yet used those extra "mold and die" functions.

[biomed_eng]

Pricing is totally dependent upon the modules that you want.
The "full" package with cnc is $10k
All the modules but without cnc is $4k. That's what I bought.
The most basic package is $2k or less I think.

They run specials every so often so make sure you ask them if they are running any.