Solidworks for Mold Design

[jaybird22]

Hello everyone. Up until now, I have been doing basic 2d designs on an older version of cadkey I bought several years ago. When I needed to have molds made with involved 3d features, I was subcontracting the mold builds out, even though I had the necessary machinery. I was just shy about learning the 3d stuff.

The prices from my subs have been on the rise, and as 3d becomes more and more polular, I find myself building fewer and fewer molds in house. I can't afford to keep feeding my subs, and have my machinery sit idle.

My main subcontractor uses Cimatron. My first thought was to just purchase Cimatron and bring the work back in house. That was until I got the quotes. As a 1 man shop, there is no way I can afford $17K for Cimatron cad and another $18 for the cam.

That brings me to looking at Solidworks. Many of my customers use it for design already. My question is, does anyone here use it for mold design? I have been doing a lot of reading and they say it will calculate parting lines and such for you, and well as seperate core from cavity, but does it really work? Or is it a feature that will take me years to learn?

Also, I intend to look into a package deal with both SW's and Solidcam. I need to do some research on Solidcam as well, so if you have any imput on that with 3d work, I would appreciate that as well.

Thank you all in advance for your time.

Jay

[danmega]

Jay,
I am a mold designer and I use Solidowrks at work and at home. Solidowrks is a perfect fit for mold design. You can probably get a student version for a thousand or so. I also have mastercam and featurecam. I learned featurecam pretty quick. Mastercam is a world of a difference and very complicated for me atleast, and I'm a quick learner then again then again I'm learning these programs all on my own. Featurecam is a powerfull tool and fairly easy to learn and probably not as expensive as mastercam

[jaybird22]

Hi Dan, thanks for your comments and ideas. I'm going to need to have access to customer support at the drop of a hat if something gets complicated. With that being said, I assume if I'm seeking support for a paying job, they'll require me to have more than a student copy, no?

My concern is mostly with being able to seperate features and create cores, cavities as well as necessary inserts. I'm looking to be able to use the customer's part design to pull features from, to machine my electrodes.

Mastercam was a consideration only because of so many people knowing it, but everyone I talk to says it's close to the same price as Cimatron, and when it comes to 3d work, it cuts a lot of air when it goes back to remachine with a smaller cutter. I'm in a tough spot now. I don't have
$17k in my budget for a cam program, so I don't know what I'll do.

I called Solidworks this afternoon. I talked with the Corporate Sales staff. They gave me the pricing for the software packages. From what they told me, the standard package (MSRP $4000) has all the mold design stuff in it, so there is no need to purchase a higher level.

I thought Solidcam was a product of SW's, but they told me no. The said they have relationships with most of the cam software companies, but they don't actually own any of them.

Anyway, they submitted my company info to the department that passes it off to my local dealer. I had to wait for a call back from the local dealer and it hasn't come yet. I hope it comes Monday as I have a quote I submitted today for a mold build, and if it's accepted, I'll only have about 6 weeks to complete it, and that doesn't leave a lot of time to be playing games trying to decide on software. That's my reason for trying to begin research here rather than waisting the weekend waiting for Monday's call.

Jay

[danmega]

You also have to consider the learning curvet it will take to learn these programs

[jaybird22]

For sure. I totally understand that and that's why I'm trying to do what I can now to research and obtain what information I can to make my choice easier.

I've been doing mold designs in 2d form for years now, I'm just going to need to learn how to manipulate the 3d stuff. I understand shut offs, passing planes, inserts, parting lines, cams and all that already. I just don't know how to machine in 3d or how to seperate features to make electrodes. That's my main reason for looking for new software.

I know there is going to be a learning curve to it all, and I'm sure it'll be a while before I can move around like I do now in Cadkey, but if I don't begin to move forward, I'm going to have to sit on the side lines and watch. I'm already several years behind on doing this. I probably should have started looking into this back in the late 90's when 3d was becoming more and more popular.

I should also note, the mold I'm going to be under pressure on is a single cavity family mold. Two parts. 1 Housing and a cover. It's not like I'm looking to building 64 cavity, hot runner, un-screwing mold as my first project.

[Gabe Newell]

You might check out HSMWorks for Solidworks.

HSMWorks - The CAM Solution for SolidWorks

I've been very happy with the product, with the rate of improvements, and with the technical support. The caveat on that is that I don't do mold work.

I've only used Solidworks, so I can't give a relative recommendation on that. I've certainly felt like purchasing it was a good decision.

[mcphill]

SolidWorks sounds like a perfect fit for your CAD needs. I posted in your other thread to check out SprutCAM- and still think that's a good idea ; )

[JerryFlyGuy]

I'll add my two cents.

I've been a solidworks operator for 8 years and a personal owner now for just about 1 [I bought it for my own company]

I also use HSMworks and find it to be an excellent CAM.

I use both of these tools for composite mold design and machining and have had great success. It's a perfectly balanced package IMO.


Fwiw

[giz]

Also note that for simple molds, it's often easier to simply use normal solidworks features such as Combine/Subtract and Scale rather than the "Mold tools"

You can model a simple cavity in just a few seconds and a couple clicks this way.

[jaybird22]

Great idea. Thank you.

[camguy]

I use Solidworks professional for Design, assembly and drawing.
It is one of the best in its range. Professional has got Feature works and Toolbox add on


I have seen HSMWorks (CAM) working within Solidworks at my friends place and it is very user friendly and powerful. You can try a demo of all the partner CAM programs of Solidworks.

[xclr82xtc]

solidworks 2011 with the master cam plugin and you cant go wrong..