Is Surfcam Traditional still viable?


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Thread: Is Surfcam Traditional still viable?

  1. #1
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    Default Is Surfcam Traditional still viable?

    I have been using Surfcam since 1996. Until about 2009 I paid maintenance to keep up to date. Surfcam was absolutely perfect for my business and could go from art to part in 15 minutes in many cases. Now I would like to have the thread milling options which would apparently require 2 axis advanced. OK. But when I look at the Traditional product and compare it to 4.0 or 5.0 I am not seeing enough to warrant the costs (going by memory here but my last quote was just under $6,000 maybe?)

    I have started looking at other options like OneCNC but a brief cursory look and I decided OneCNC would not be as efficient as my old Surfcam product.

    My Surfcam 4.0 (and I like this because all my defaults are squared away and haven't done this with 5.0) works fine on Windows 10 (a "thank you" to the folks at Longbow Software for making this possible).

    I would love to upgrade to something that makes chamfering and thread milling easier than what my old version allows. I think paying $6,000 is a bit steep for software that seems to be treated like the crazy uncle under the stairs at Hexagon. In this bracket I could consider Mastercam and get training from a place 100 feet from my own front door - I just am not keen on investing the time to learn a completely new package.

    I have an old Haas vF3 and an old Haas VF5XT. I do not do any 3D profiling. I am a semi-custom automation designer specializing in adhesives and sealants. Most of my machine design involves parts and pallets that are pretty much 2.5 axis stuff.

    Is there any CAM software anyone can recommend as a reasonable transition from Surfcam? I do not want to get wrapped up in Fusion 360 as some of my customers are ITAR and I think cloud based CAM is not a good idea?

    Is there something new and awesome for me to reconsider Surfcam that I am missing? For example are the Haas VF posts better now? Is there a good option for nesting parts? Is there now a tabbing function (hop over on final milling pass)?

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  2. #2
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    Default Re: Is Surfcam Traditional still viable?

    Short answer is no...you're not missing anything by staying with your current version of Surfcam (unless you like multiple PC crashes per day).

    However I'm not sure how Surfcam handled chamfering and threadmilling in your version. The last version I used was 2015 R2 but 2 of the programmers here are on 2020 now. Chamfering was still basically a contour with offsets that would run all over a sidewall if the geometry wasn't drawn correctly to avoid it. Threadmilling was fairly straight forward.

    Posts are probably still the same with the exception of some rapid logic added but for a 3 axis Haas you can't find an easier post to modify to your liking.
    No automatic part nesting has been added. You still need to transform/ copy.
    No automatic tabbing feature has been added.

    When we started doing more 5 axis and millturn work some of us transitioned to TopSolid. It wasn't an easy transition but it was worth it in the end for us. Surfcam is still faster for the easy stuff though.

    I honestly wouldn't bother upgrading for 2.5 axis stuff.

    Another thing to consider is if you do upgrade, you may not be able to open your older Surfcam files with the new version. I believe they changed the extension type to .scprt in 2014. There were hacks to get around that but they weren't reliable.



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    Default Re: Is Surfcam Traditional still viable?

    Quote Originally Posted by Cre8ivdsgn View Post
    I have been using Surfcam since 1996. Until about 2009 I paid maintenance to keep up to date. Surfcam was absolutely perfect for my business and could go from art to part in 15 minutes in many cases. Now I would like to have the thread milling options which would apparently require 2 axis advanced. OK. But when I look at the Traditional product and compare it to 4.0 or 5.0 I am not seeing enough to warrant the costs (going by memory here but my last quote was just under $6,000 maybe?)?
    Please forgive me for sneak in, I'm a Surfcam Dealer in my country since 1992; I can see that you're happy with Surfcam, then why don't you talk to your representative in the area?
    In Surfcam 2020.1 2 Axis you'll have all you'll need and even more.
    Let's see, Waveform, to rough out any profile
    ThreadMill for your holes
    It will open your old DSN files with a click
    And for this you don't need a 2 Axis Plus.
    May I suggest that you go in the Surfcam web site, download the lates version, run it as a DEMO and try different ways of machining, and THEN you'll be able to decide your future.
    Mario



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Is Surfcam Traditional still viable?

Is Surfcam Traditional still viable?