Can anyone recommend the best computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software that can address controlling machinery tools with the richest set of features!
Your question is to wide. There are several CAM systems on the market and all of them have several features. In order to know which one is more suitable for their need, companies usually set-up a benchmark tailored on their own needs. My suggestion is to have a look into some MCAD related site and to search for technical paper or case-study. Maybe you can start with MCADCafè at http://www.mcadcafe.com/. If you will try it, don’t miss the tutorials section of the site.
are the CAM tools dependent to CNC machine or they can control all CNC machine ? for example powermill and solidcam.
Which CAM tool can simulate the movement of the CNC machine to make sure everything is ok ?
The logical steps to use a CAM system are the following: first to create the tool path and generate the NC program; second to simulate the NC program with a specific machine type and set-up. Usually a CAM system can output NC programs using post processing for several commercially available machines, that it can also simulate.
On youtube you can find the delcam channel. Or you will take a look at the delcam forum and video on the delcam web site (you can also download a fee version of the software for testing).
On the net you can also find free CNC simulators, like this one: http://cncsimulator.info/
Unfortunately there is no one CAM software that can be decided as the best. Each of the software has its own advantages and applications. It depends upon the application you have in mind and what all the types of jobs that you would be interested. In fact you will find you tube videos for most of the applications for the popular CAM software. They can be classified into two broad categories:
1. Integrated software such as those that are tightly integrated with CAD software such as Unigraphics, ProEngineer (CREO), CATIA, that provide comprehensive functionality and tight integration.
2. The general purpose that can work with any CAD system and are independent. The popular general purpose CAM software are Mastercam, VirtualGibbs, DELCAM, Solidcam, etc.
There are some free software that can provide FREE solutions such as Freemill (http://mecsoft.com/freemill/); HSM (http://www.hsmworks.com/gethsmxpress/?gclid=CM-CvsLxw7wCFctcMgodcj4AHg),
Also see some websites that provide more information. (http://www.cnccookbook.com/CCFreeCNCSoftware.html,
http://grabcad.com/questions/which-is-the-best-free-software-for-generating-cnc-part-program)
The choice will be yours.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Physical Sciences
- Mechanics