Just received an offer from Dolphin that may be of interest to the group. A little spicy for hobby shops, but may be just what the plain vanilla cnc shops need.
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10 years ago
CAD/CAD packages for lathe and mill
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10 years ago
If you win the lottery, try Tebis.
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Cost is only 80K per seat with $2k a 1/4 support.
For those that know, my son has been a CNC programmer for many years now. He is now the lead programmer for his company's manufacturing site with over 2000 employees there. he's now had three weeks training with this software and about six months use. The stuff he can do is AMAZING.
Using this, they have made tremendous productivity increases. Both for the programmer, and especially with machine time.
Many/most CAD packages make a correct part, but the code isn't optimum for cycle time/part. And it takes a lot of programmer labor to produce the code.
If you happen to work for a place that has 10,000s of hours per year in machine time and several people programming CNC code, this package might be for you.
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10 years ago
====================== good info for the other end of the cnc shop scale.
Is the main gain from the programming of complex/countoured parts, multi axis moves or optimized tool paths and feeds/speeds?
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10 years ago
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I would say both. He runs a 5 axis CNC where prototype parts that will later be cast or forged are made. He's shown me videos of parts made in just a few hours that used to take days to run. This is not for general use by other operators. Most of his work is for other machinists
They also make a LOT of die tooling. He has family of parts codes where he can say most of this is the same as a previous part and it just uses everyting previously developed. he's also set up libraries of drilled, bored, tappped holes, etc. Just define the locations and it does all the tool steps needed and optimizes the order.
Apparently they are saving millions per year in machine time. This is the only way US industry can stay ahead of the chinese low wage competion.
If anybody is seriously interested, I'd give them my son's phone number. I'm just repeating some of what I've heard.
Karl
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10 years ago
Lets hear more. I cant imagine what they could do to make this stuff more productive.
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10 years ago
The shop im at bought UG for those reasons. Years later the shop has 30-40 seats. They are locked in, and its not the right product anymore. But like I said, they are locked in for life.
This is the biggest problem facing American companies older than 10 years old. How do thay jump from one wagon to another as time goes on.