Camware or camlink trial?

[Steve_rb]

Hi,

Anyone knows where I can find trial version of Mazak Camware or Grifo Brothers CamLink (any version)?

Regards
Steve

[al3azim]

Hello there,
I am not sure where you can find a trial for camware or camlink, but I think you should check out MazaCAM.
It is definitely better than both of them. We got demos from all of them and we went with the full MazaCAM package to program our Mazaks and G-Code controls.

They support all the Mazak machine, very easy to use.
www.mazacam.com

[Steve_rb]

Well I had a look to their demo. It didn't run on PC at first but after spending some time and changing graphic card setting to 16bit color finally magaged to run demo. Looks OK but unless test a trial on our Mazak H15/M2 couldn't convince owner to pay for the software. Is there any fuly functional trial version for MazakCam?

Steve

[al3azim]

MazaCAM is not made by Mazak. It definitely runs on a PC.
Check out mazacam.com or call them, I belive the number is on the website and they might be able to work out a demo for you.

[the thrill]

i checked out mazacam a while back and while i was very impressed at their program, their salesmen were annoying and would call me at work every day... their program is over 5000 dollars and for a 2½D package i dont think its worth it... were running camware milling expert (another expensive program) which is made by mazak and despite its quirks, it works fairly well for mostly every complex part ive had to make... the menus are tricky if you dont know them but they have a tutorial cd that is pretty self explanatory... but despite all that, ive heard griffo brothers is like 10 times cheaper

[al3azim]

We checked out griffo because we heard the same thing and actually it is not true. It might be cheaper if you only have one Mazak and do not CAD feature, just plain Mazatrol editing. If you have Mills and Lathes and want to import CAD, then it adds up and it is about $8000 or $9000. So do not be fooled by the rumors. Do check them all out and make the best informed decision based on your need. After all when dealing with CAD/CAM systems you DO get what u pay for.

Be careful and good luck

[the thrill]

well honestly i wouldnt use mazak camware to do a cad drawing of a straight line because in my opinion it absolutely sucks! there are no visual markings for endpoint, midpoint etc like mastercam, autocad, solidworks etc. which makes it pretty tricky to get an exact idea of where your next point is going to be and all of the snaps are in the right click menu so you have to manually enable them. it doesnt do any solid modeling or any type of real 3D just a bunch of hard to accomplish wireframe stuff like in the tool path simulation... definately not a very powerful system... personally i would just go with a CAM package whether you choose griffo, camware or mazacam because you can get a much more powerful CAD software in the future such as alibre (1000 bucks which isnt bad) solidworks solid edge etc... camware doesnt import 3D parts yet but i spoke with one of the applications engineers in kentucky when i went to the touch the future seminar and he told me the next revision of camware has 3D importing and automatic feature recognition... it sucks that mastercam had a mazatrol post available (not just a mazak eia but an actual mazatrol) when they had V7 but they got rid of it personally if i didnt have such a problem with the mazacam guys, id check out their CAM with the 3D geopath program they have as well... why settle for just doing mazatrol when you can do 3D?

[al3azim]

the thrill, I know what you are talking about as far as dealing with sales people. When we got our MazaCAM, we worked it out initially with the Applications engineer, I believe his name was Martin. He was very helpful with our parts, walked us through a program for one of our parts. We delt with him mostly.
If you are still interested in checking out their program, call and ask for him.

Also I do agree with you on the point of getting a complete package to do everything. Like you said, why just settle for Mazatrol when you can have full 3D.

[the thrill]

well as far as getting a new cad/cam package im probably not going to need one for a while... i just got a job as an applications engineer at mori seiki so im going to use their vega milling software and i have to learn CAPS programming... but again, if you want a whole package with mazatrol availabillity, id look into geopath again... but i wouldnt wanna deal with a sales rep