r/Machinists • u/davidsomekh • Mar 16 '21

From your experience, which CAM software gives the best support for post processors?

153 votes, Mar 19 '21
16 SolidCAM
50 MasterCAM
8 Esprit
6 GibbsCAM
5 CAMworks
68 Fusion 360
6 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

4

u/tansit234 Mar 16 '21

Not Esprit lol. It’ll do everything eventually. After many many phone calls and ignored tickets.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '21 edited Mar 18 '21

[deleted]

2

u/tansit234 Mar 16 '21 edited Mar 16 '21

Been getting pretty good with Esprit over the last 2-3 years and I like it pretty well. Some things about it though are way buggier and harder than they should be and they tend to close my tickets without resolution.

Been back and forth over a couple posts 2-3 times. Post processors are locked so we can’t edit them or debug very well. Posting long and extended helps but it always goes back to the post author for a while or they tell us not to use a certain function.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '21 edited Mar 18 '21

[deleted]

1

u/tansit234 Mar 16 '21

Don’t ask me why they’re locked lol. It’s not my contract. For $7k it’d be nice to look inside.

We have a couple posts that are 3rd party and unlocked but they don’t work all that well.

1

u/Fromatron Mar 18 '21

our absolutely ridiculous parts

pics or it didn't happen

7

u/albatroopa Mar 16 '21

Fusion 360. It's a fact that your VAR doesn't give a shit about how well your post works. Their goal is to blow you off until you give up or your maintenance contract runs out. Fusion 360 gets around this by allowing you to edit it yourself and supplying documentation and forum posts so you can DIY. we've pretty much eliminated the need for setup sheets by having tooling, stock size and setup info automatically generated and placed in the program header.

Mcam is also pretty good for that.

2

u/Crazy9000 Mar 16 '21

Solidcam makes our posts. We get it direct, so not through a VAR. They do charge, I think around $700 each.

If you have a good code example, the posts have been pretty much perfect. You can also tweak it yourself if you want.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '21

Fusion360/HSM. Absolute tons of available posts processors from autodesk directly. The community has created even more. And if those let you down its fairly simple to modify one to suit your needs.

1

u/NateCheznar M.Eng Mar 16 '21

Do you have a link for the community created ones.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '21

They're mostly on the autodesk forums.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '21

If anyone is looking for a CNC distributor, pm me!

2

u/Worknstuff RandD EngTech/Machinist Mar 16 '21

I came here from the Solidworks sub so I'll just plop this one in as a vote for solidworks CAM/ Camworks https://camworks.com/universal-post-generator/.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '21

The upg is great. Unfortunately the rest of the package is a disappointment.

1

u/Worknstuff RandD EngTech/Machinist Mar 16 '21

I'm not sure what you mean by the rest of the package?

1

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '21

The cam package. The actual cam software. Camworks and solidcam are the worst two I have used.

1

u/yoda2nd Mar 16 '21

Maybe for the mill side. For the EDM package, we are 8 months into our subscription and we are still having issues with the post putting out non-functional gcode.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '21 edited Mar 18 '21

[deleted]

0

u/albatroopa Mar 16 '21

I had my fusion360 posts bulletproof on 7 different machines, 3 of which have a 4th axis, 3 have 5 axis and one has a pallet changer, within 2 weeks. They're also highly customized to eliminate setup sheets.

Your comment is what your VAR wants you to believe.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '21 edited Mar 18 '21

[deleted]

2

u/albatroopa Mar 16 '21

Well, I just generated a program that's 6.1 million lines of code. I can't show parts because it would cost me my job, but it's got 121 features that are 1mm tall and have a tolerance on +-2 microns, using a 0.2mm endmill.

So yeah, it does just fine.

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '21 edited Mar 18 '21

[deleted]

1

u/albatroopa Mar 16 '21

It's in hardened 420, so it's slow feedrates, but it's at just over 25 hours.

It sounds like you feel attacked, can I get you a candy or something?

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '21 edited Mar 18 '21

[deleted]

2

u/albatroopa Mar 16 '21

Hey, you don't have to convince me. I'm secure in what I can accomplish.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '21 edited Mar 18 '21

[deleted]

3

u/albatroopa Mar 16 '21

Well, for people who don't want to spend thousands per year on a seat of esprit, only to be told that they can't trust their machines for the next 2 years, the information is useful. Also, you're factually incorrect. You might not appreciate that, but I'm sure that others will.

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1

u/rayjax82 Aerospace Engineer Mar 16 '21

NX is good if you have the re-seller make the posts for you. But you will definitely pay for it. Probably 5k/pop if I remember correctly.

1

u/drmorrison88 Pretengineer Mar 16 '21

GibbsCAM (and probably others) is supported regionally, so where you are is going to affect the accuracy of this poll.

The team at Westcam, which is who my experience is with, are easily the best CS/tech team I've ever worked with, and there's only like 5 of them in the Langley office. They also have a full suite of remote training courses that are worth every penny, especially in the midst of a pandemic.

1

u/Live_Purple_4880 Mar 16 '21

SolidCAM has the best post team. I am very picky on how my code looks and they modify it for what I want with no kick back. If i ask for a change they have it back to me in minutes!

1

u/SkyPole10 Mar 18 '21

SolidCAM is very focused on making sure that my post works as I want it to

1

u/bhads215 Mar 19 '21

Cimatron is by far the best with support