Speaking of Autodesk, Fusion 360 has a capable CAM package, and the whole thing is free for hobbyists. I tried to sell my AutoCAD 14 on eBay and Autodesk came along and had eBay remove the listing. OneCNC deserves special mention because they let you sell your license to a third party, unheard of in the CAD world. I saw a web price for SprutCAM of $8,000, but I am not sure it was valid.ĬAMWorks is a mid-range package, as is Visual CAM, BobCAD, OneCNC, EZ Mill, and Smart CAM. Other high-end packages include GibbsCAM, HyperMill, Unigraphics/NX, SolidCAM and Esprit. MasterCAM dominates the market, but costs over $10,000. That is a bit out of my price range of $5,000, but worth looking at.ĬAM programs are expensive. If you buy CAMWorks Mill program, that is full 3D, at a cost quoted to me in 2020 of $5500 for the program, $1500 for maintenance, for a total cost of $7,000. This gets you VoluMill and some other enhancements, but it is still not a 3D program. If you upgrade to Solidworks CAM Professional, which is the same as CAMWorks Premium, you get a perpetual license, at a cost of $2400 ($3000 with maintenance). If you stop paying your Solidworks maintenance, the CAM stops working, despite Solidworks having a perpetual license. The biggest problem with the free Solidworks CAM is that it does not have a perpetual license.
This is still very slow for a pretty small part. By deleting the redundant operations, making practical decisions on how to hold and make the part, the time got down around 200 minutes. Even when I changed back to large end mills and a 2-inch face cutter, the program predicted about 700 minutes of cutting time. There was no consideration for how to the hold the part, and an order of operations that would allow a real workflow. The program could not make one 0.25" feature because it did not have anĮnd mill small enough. It made toolpaths that were unneeded, like cutting the outside periphery from the bottom after already cutting it from the top. It would make toolpaths around the part that cut all the way into the vise. This is because I let the program automatically recognize features, and then automatically generate operations to make those features.
The first impression of Solidworks CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) made CNC tool-paths that were unusable or useless. Rako Studios » Media » Suffering-with-software » Solidworks CAM, CAMWorks second impression Solidworks CAM, CAMWorks second impression SolidWorks 2018 and later has a free CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) add-in to make G-code for milling machines.
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