Surfcam's SRM

[moldcore]

I was just pointed to this forum and thought I would see if I could get things going here.

We have a trial of Surfcam's SRM and haven't seen a need for this program yet. Has anyone tried it in a real world application? I really have to question its worth. $6,000 for a roughing program? Give me a break.

[Turbine]

Way over priced. Surfcam is good at Feature Recognition. That's about all that I liked in the short time I played with it. Over all, the program seems to TELL YOU how you ARE going to machine a part. I didn't like that. I save my processes using Gibbs and am better off IMO. Then I'll be using something I created, exactly the way I want it, and know it's a proven effective method and not be using the "supposedly optimum" computer generated toolpath. Those kinds of "I'll figure it out for you" processes never went over well with me. Often times it may take the shortest route, even if it means conventional milling along close to a feature you'd otherwise want to stay away from.
It's too concerned with "efficient" toolpaths but doesn't take into consideration tool deflection and cut direction as a machinist would. So you'd end up editing and changing the thing anyways.
I think plunge roughing is the new fad now anyways

[moldcore]

Thanks for separating this forum from Gibbs, these two can hold their own on separate ground.

Turbine,
Not sure what you mean by feature recognition. The direction of the cut can easily be changed with one click of the mouse so I'm confused with that statement also. As an old manual machinist, I like the ability to be flexible and have control and I believe Surfcam gives me that option when I need it. However, 90% of the time I'll accept what Surfcam puts out the way it is, if the data and cut parameters are entered correctly. I make molds and 99% of the programs are run once and never run again. Most molds require dozens, sometimes over a 100 programs before they're finished and are done on the fly so to speak. My computer with Surfcam on it sits right next to the machine and while one program is running, I'm programming the next operation. I don't have time to edit every program or even run it through a verification program. In this business, speed is everything. If I were in production of a thousand parts than I would want to spend more time fine tuning each program to make it as efficient as possible. From my 7 years of experience using Surfcam, this can be done easily if one chooses to.

I witnessed a demo of SRM at Westec and was impressed, but I have yet to use it here. I believe there is a use for it, but I also believe that the market is so small, it's going to be hard to justify all this hype. You almost have to have mold cavities designed to take advantage of it and in the real world that is not going to happen. I can't think of one mold I've done in the past 5 years where I could have had a use of this tool. It's just one more specialty tool that's advantageous in some situations, and the tools Surfcam already has can do just fine in most others. Surfware is living in another world if they think they can sell this for $6,000.

[CNCadmin]

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[scubanick]

i use surfcams SRM
sometimes it works great
sometimes it a pain
does not work well with all applications
but can be very helpful

[mdlmkr]

I am a model maker and I have used SRM a couple of times. It is good when you have a lot of bosses that you need to rough around. Also, if you have certain areas that are tight and deep in the part. But for the one offs that I do, I cant see a real use for it on a daily basis. It seems to be geared towards a more production shop where you can set the perameters one and use it every day.