work NC

[jagourley]

Hi all,

The owner came back from a show with a Work NC brochure and asked what I knew about it. Of corse the sales guy says it the best thing for the guys on the floor to program with because it is easy to use. We talked to a shop in the area that uses it and they seem to like it. they also have several seats of UG that they use for more camplex stuff. i am wondering if any of you have used work NC and what you thing of it.


Thank you

Jody

[Dan B]

We have been using WorkNc since 1995.

I would highly recommend it for the type of work we do (high production, one-off gauges and fixtures for the auto industry) We build about 1200 jobs a year, so we don't have a lot of time to spend on programming. WorkNc works for us because it is an automatic CAM package. We input the necessary values, but WorkNC calculates and detects a stock model that other paths are driven by. In other words, we don't need to waste time figuring what is cut and what isn't. WorkNC does that for us, and machines only the areas necessary dependant on the type of path we choose.

Another nice feature is that after the path is run, you can edit the tool movements just like a CAD program, as opposed to re-doing the parameters. If you want to delete a certain area of toolpath, just window around it in any view you please. WorkNc will re-calculate the retracts for you.

Also WorkNc does 3+2 positional programming, with simultaneous 5-axis coming in 8 to 10 weeks.

The downside: Annual maintanence fees are high. However, you do get major upgrades every year plus support all year long.

Dan

[hardmill]

What type of work will you be using it for?
2d, 3d ???, Prod, Prototype??
This could help dan give you a little more info.
PEACE

[jagourley]

We build injection molds. we would use it for a little 2D work but mainly 3D cutting the cavity, core and the trodes for them. We do have mastercam but are always looking for ways to improve. We will keep Mastercam for manipulating geometry and some of programming.

thank you

Jody

[Dan B]

WorkNc caters to the mold industry. There are a lot of mold shops in this area that use WorkNc. Included with WorkNc is a program called WorkNc-Cad that does automatic electrode creation. Since we don't work with molds, I can't really tell you much more about it, but judging by the demos, it looks pretty handy.

Dan