NX is 5 axis specific too
My underlying point is how with a little imagination it can be made to do anything. If injection molds are your game then NX has all the toolpaths and CAD features you will ever need.
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Nx + Hypermill or only Nx
- Thread starter Al_Ma
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My underlying point is how with a little imagination it can be made to do anything. If injection molds are your game then NX has all the toolpaths and CAD features you will ever need.
all cam manufacturers made a dedicated demo using a model I provided, I discarded esprit, mastercam, solidcam, powermill and cimatron.
The way I read it was with MC you need a new tool orientation with every 'cut' as he described, I interpreted that as needing a new tool orientation with every new toolpath or job. Which obviously you don't need with HyperMill as you can just reuse the frame.
Also that isn't strictly true. You don't necessarily need a frame with every tool orientation, if the tool path can be used with a mirror or any pattern then another frame isn't needed. Also you don't need to create the frame if you use hole, plane or pocket recognition.
I'd be very interested to hear how NX handles different tool orientations?
even with recognition, it just creates a frame for you.
with NX or fusion, tool orientation is handled in each toolpath. you just select an edge or face to set the orientation in the toolpath, no need to create frames or anything like that. takes 1 second
pretty sure NX has best fit.
and yes, barrel tools are well supported.
Oh nice! Out of curiosity, what made you go against esprit?
gkoenig
Titanium
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- Mar 31, 2013
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- Portland, OR
Best Fit, the dog-n-pony show trick where you probe in the machine and update the CAD model?
Or as I like to think of it - backwards dynamic work offsets. Yes, NX can do it:
It is a nice trick, but the real challenges are on the machine and probe side, not so much the CAM side. For simple parts in a centering vise, you just need 2 planes, feed that data back into the CAD side, and use that to orient the part. The demo above is far more complicated as the part has no orthogonal surfaces, so the Blum software is feeding point clouds back to NX, which is low-key using some of the reverse engineering tools (Best Fit surface) to match that scan data to the part model and re-orient it. In NX, all of what you see in that demo are existing tools; the work is integrating them all into one seamless package...
Which is why NX kinda blows everything out of the water on high-complexity applications. The CAD and CAM side can work together in ways that other systems simply can't. Now, how much of that messy integration work the fine folks at Siemens do and offer as turnkey solutions is another matter, but NX Open gives you the ability to solve basically any complex manufacturing issue.
Yes, NX has strategies for circle segment cutters.
this guy is starting to sound like a hypermill shill...
al yaghoobi?
gkoenig
Titanium
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- Mar 31, 2013
- Location
- Portland, OR
That's fine. I've been accused of being a Brother and Fusion shill. Funny enough, I spend 95% of my time in NX, and you won't find me shilling for it because I think the price is absurd, and getting more absurd, but that goes for all of the top-tier CAM packages these days as these companies are all trapped in a 1982 business model so hard, I'm a little shocked they don't force you to load 87 floppy disks to install their software.
The big problem is that, just like buying a machine tool, you'll never know what the ideal CAM software is for you with a demo or 30 day trial. It takes *months* to get truly knowledgable about a CAM system's issues - and they ALL have issues. The best you can do is get the most capability you can afford, sniff through the VAR's sweet talking bullshit to figure out how well they will really support you, and get as much as you can upfront when they are in deal-making mode. Post processors, for example, are something a VAR heavily discounts when you're buying your initial seats, but if you try to get one after the fact, they wanna rake you over the coals - make sure you get a post AND you get a few months of support/editing with it. As you get to know the CAM and how it changes your workflow with the machine, you'll want many quality of life edits that you won't have known to ask for upfront, so plan for that and get it in the contract.
i wasnt calling you a shill. referring to OP.
gkoenig
Titanium
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2013
- Location
- Portland, OR
I didn't think you were, but there is a deal on here where people who discuss any particular product with a bit of passion get labeled a shill. Really, we just use stuff that works and advocate for it within the bounds of our experience. More than likely, this guy got a really good Hypermill demo and a mediocre NX demo and is now trying to poke holes in those of us who are NX fans because his first impressions count hard.
That's a decent way to learn, so more power to him.
Yes it does but you don't need to create them, but then I don't see the problem with having to create a frame. It takes 5 clicks to create one and its reusable.
I've only used fusion a couple times, from what I can gather and as you mention it's handled in the toolpath, so those 2 edges that I've clicked to set the orientation need to be clicked for every tool path in that orientation don't they? So again if 5 clicks to create a frame is a problem, then wouldn't 20 clicks for 10 toolpaths in a certain orientation be an issue?
Also that's 2 clicks if the tool orientation is perpendicular to the face but what If it isn't? I really can't see why creating a frame can be such a problem?
thanks for your feeds.
i discarded esprit because it had problems in the demo, i purposely provided a junk file, specifically he had problems with combining surfaces and meshes without them forming a single object (about 10000 items).
Often I also have to work with customers or suppliers who don't even know what a solid is...WTF
I'm not interested in denigrating NX, I'm interested in knowing the actual potential and speed of both products.
An example from us in Italy some F1 teams use NX for the cad and Hypermill for the cam.
so I'm considering both options
i discarded esprit because it had problems in the demo, i purposely provided a junk file, specifically he had problems with combining surfaces and meshes without them forming a single object (about 10000 items).
Often I also have to work with customers or suppliers who don't even know what a solid is...WTF
I'm not interested in denigrating NX, I'm interested in knowing the actual potential and speed of both products.
An example from us in Italy some F1 teams use NX for the cad and Hypermill for the cam.
so I'm considering both options
I agree with this 100%
Sometimes a good VAR can be the most important aspect for support. At the end of the day, you'll be able to get a program from any CAM you choose, the issue can be simply integration and how to get to that point. Everyone takes to each software differently. If you start to struggle figuring out a tool path, a good VAR is going to ease that struggle.
And your post is important, I negotiated in 3 posts when I bought my seat of CAMWorks and with my VAR - HawkRidge, post are maintained and edited at no additional cost as long as you continue maintenance. I probably have 2 edits made a year, if I come across a part with something I need to hand edit my program, I send it back in to have whatever it is added, even if I know it could be a one time hand edit, if that part comes back 3 years from now, I won't remember that hand edit. I want to be able to open that file, simulate to refresh my memory on the program, post and go and not worry.
Switching software is hard, not a lot of us have time to put in learning something new. I've ran CAMWorks for almost 15 years now, and have used a few others over the years. I know my software, there is nothing I have came across I can't program. The only software I would ever move to from this point is NX. I've been told by other CAMWorks users NX is the closet, and better, software they have found that is seamlessly integrated full CAD/CAM system. I am a one man shop and program, set up and run 200-300 parts a year, as much as I'd like to make the switch to NX, I don't have time to.
to me, the biggest problem isnt creating a frame, its keeping track of them. in hypermill, to see the actual orientation of the frame, you have to select/click edit to see the gnomon (unless thats been changed lately). which makes it a pain in the ass knowing if i'm using the correct frame/orientation.
in fusion/nx, you see it clearly on every toolpath (the gnomon)
NX surfacing is the best in industry.
if you're thinking about buying both NX and hypermill to only use the NX CAD but hypermill for CAM... well you've just got more money than brains.
your tone is starting to tire me, having said that I think you still don't understand the point, you speak without giving experience, and I also think you've never used Geomagic Freeform.
as far as the price is concerned, the VAR of Hypermill would like to satisfy me in any way to enter my company so the price is not a problem.
we have 5 cimatron licenses, 3 powermil and 3 powershape, 2 NC graphics.
i have used geomagic. why do you dismiss everything i say about NX without ever trying it?
