Inventor CAM or MasterCam

OVodov · Nov 28, 2022

Recently got a maintenance quote for next year for our Mastercam.
It came up to $4300 Canadian which includes 3D, Multiaxis and Lathe.
It seems pretty expensive.
I just talked to an IT guy, and he said that we have available seat of Inventor that I can use.
How is Inventor CAM compared to MC, worth to switch?
I know that Inventor CAM is made by SolidCam company.
I used to work years ago on SolidCam and liked it. Does Inventor CAM have same toolpaths as SolidCAM?

goooose · Nov 28, 2022

Inventor CAM costs 3k/yr, so you're gonna switch software because of $1300?
If its about the money, why don't you just stop maintenance. Then Mastercam is free. You can use it forever and not pay a cent more.

rootsandstones · Nov 29, 2022

Aren't there two different Inventor Cam? One made by Autodesk itself and one made by Solidcam, or is this the same thing?

OVodov · Nov 29, 2022

goooose said:
Inventor CAM costs 3k/yr, so you're gonna switch software because of $1300?
If its about the money, why don't you just stop maintenance. Then Mastercam is free. You can use it forever and not pay a cent more.

The post for our 5axis gantry machine is sucks so it's needed to be fixed by In-House Solution, that means we have to pay for maintenance for one ear at least.
Or start working with Inventor.
My dilemma is to get decent CAD system with unknown CAM capability or decent known CAM system with sucks CAD capability.

OVodov · Nov 29, 2022

rootsandstones said:
Aren't there two different Inventor Cam? One made by Autodesk itself and one made by Solidcam, or is this the same thing?

As per my research Inventor CAM is made by SolidCAM. CAM systems made by Autodesk is Fusion and PowerMill ( which is not originally Autodesk).
But I could be wrong.

Mtndew · Nov 29, 2022

OVodov said:
It came up to $4300 Canadian which includes 3D, Multiaxis and Lathe.

Seems a little high for those options. Do you have 2 seats?
We have nearly the same options (just added mill/turn) and I think ours was around $2500 before adding the mill/turn. I could be wrong though.

empower · Nov 29, 2022

OVodov said:
The post for our 5axis gantry machine is sucks so it's needed to be fixed by In-House Solution, that means we have to pay for maintenance for one ear at least.
Or start working with Inventor.
My dilemma is to get decent CAD system with unknown CAM capability or decent known CAM system with sucks CAD capability.

or you could get NX, fantastic CAD AND CAM.

OVodov · Nov 29, 2022

empower said:
or you could get NX, fantastic CAD AND CAM.

It would be nice,
But, nobody will pay now for NX license as we already have MC and Inventor

OVodov · Nov 29, 2022

Mtndew said:
Seems a little high for those options. Do you have 2 seats?
We have nearly the same options (just added mill/turn) and I think ours was around $2500 before adding the mill/turn. I could be wrong though.

Nope, just one seat.
Is it American or Canadian $2500?

Mtndew · Nov 29, 2022

OVodov said:
Nope, just one seat

Our maintenance is up in Feb I believe, if I remember I'll post what it costs.

CAMasochism · Nov 29, 2022

empower said:
or you could get NX, fantastic CAD AND CAM.

Buuuut that wouldn't really help them out with the problem that they are already unhappy with the cost of ~~extortion~~ maintenance, and NX would most certainly not help there.

Mtndew · Nov 29, 2022

OVodov said:
Nope, just one seat.
Is it American or Canadian $2500?

Ok it looks like we just got the bill.
All included it's around $4,750 USD. 3 posts/machine environments, mill/turn add-in,multiaxis, lathe and of course 3D milling.

OVodov · Nov 29, 2022

Polishing

Mtndew said:
Ok it looks like we just got the bill.
All included it's around $4,750 USD. 3 posts/machine environments, mill/turn add-in,multiaxis, lathe and of course 3D milling.

Which comes to $6450 Canadian.
So would you consider to switch to INVENTOR if this cheaper on $1500 USD?

Marvel · Nov 29, 2022

empower said:
or you could get NX, fantastic CAD AND CAM.

CAMasochism said:
Buuuut that wouldn't really help them out with the problem that they are already unhappy with the cost of ~~extortion~~ maintenance, and NX would most certainly not help there.

@empower will always recommend NX, no matter what! Rightfully so, it’s worth every bit you would spend but for a lot of shops it’s overkill.

empower · Nov 29, 2022

Marvel said:
@empower will always recommend NX, no matter what! Rightfully so, it’s worth every bit you would spend but for a lot of shops it’s overkill.

i suggested it because the OP was unhappy with one CAM system and the other CAD system. NX would solve both issues with 1 software.

OVodov · Nov 29, 2022

Actually I’m not happy with the maintenance price

len_1962 · Nov 29, 2022

OVodov said:
As per my research Inventor CAM is made by SolidCAM. CAM systems made by Autodesk is Fusion and PowerMill ( which is not originally Autodesk).
But I could be wrong.

There are 2 CAMs that run in Inventor the original was Inventor CAM by SolidCAM and InventorCAM formally InventorHSM based on HSMWorks, same post will work in InventorCAM, Fusion360 and HSMWorks which is pretty cool not having to have different ones for each.

metal-ica · Nov 29, 2022

I thought MasterCAM maintenance was like 10% of purchase price or something similar.

OVodov · Nov 29, 2022

I will take trial version of Inventor CAM
Just curious how it compares to MC.

Mtndew · Nov 30, 2022

OVodov said:
Polishing

Which comes to $6450 Canadian.
So would you consider to switch to INVENTOR if this cheaper on $1500 USD?

Me personally? Never.
I'm the only programmer here, and I'm fortunate to have a boss that is willing to keep Mastercam up to date for me.

Besides, I have SO many programs and Mastercam files over the course of the last 16 years that switching at this point would just create a mountain of work for me.
Here is how many files and folders I have in my NcPrograms folder:

Inventor CAM or MasterCam

Aluminum

Hot Rolled

Plastic

Aluminum

Aluminum

Diamond

Titanium

Aluminum

Aluminum

Diamond

Hot Rolled

Diamond

Aluminum

Aluminum

Titanium

Aluminum

Stainless

Aluminum

Aluminum

Diamond

Attachments

Similar threads