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Solidworks Maker - Any questions?

Janger said:
I buy fusion annually ($700ish) and it goes up every year. It’s the cheapest CAM solution I’m aware of. The free version does do cam with some restrictions. No rapid moves and no tool changer support. That separates the hobbyist from the professional. I’m a hobbyist playing in pro space. So does SWmaker have CAM?
Click to expand...
I don't think SWM does, or at least anywhere the extent F360 does. Which is a known drawback to CNC guys. But I think the devil is in the details & admittedly outside my wheelhouse. If it can export to a file format which can be read by a separate (non-SW) G-Code generator app to feed your CNC, then you could say its 'stepping in the direction' of CAM? But maybe that is not the preferred mode. I know that plug-in CAM modules are big boy expense on SW regular. I'll have to dig into this some more because I think regular SW has some capability in this regard (but likely turned off in SWM).

I think most people who use F360 CAM rely (or prefer?) its integrated CAM module, but I thought I've also heard of others who use other CAM apps for whatever reason & therefore only using F360 for it for CAD? Sorry, wish I could be more useful. I'm sure someone on forum knows the ins & outs of this. I'm not into CNC at this point.
 
SWM to my knowledge doesn’t have the same CAM capability natively like Fusion. That is a big drawback, especially if you want an all in one solution. What some guys I know do, if they are strict non commercial and just want to hobby use and learn, is get SWM and Mastercam Educational from Titans of CNC.

The CAD side of things is better IMHO in SWM then fusion, so 100$ US ish a year, then Mastercam educational, 160$ US a year.

Half price of fusion.

I haven’t personally checked out Mastercam myself, but I know guys that have it and say it’s the cats meow.

You can export DXF, STL, or STEP from SWM so your basically good for almost any CAM.

What I do when I want to sell something that I print/make/design is use FreeCAD, and I also have a licence for SheetCAM. I don’t have a CNC anything of my own right now but sheetcam has done what I needed on other machines that I’ve used.

2.5d milling/drilling/tapping/cutting.

But I’m a rookie in all of it including CAD so take everything I say with plenty of salt.
 
Mastercam has been around for a long time & supposedly very good. Didn't know about the edu-version through Titan. Do you have to enroll in their course or something? All these products are getting very strict about the student version in the typical college/university settings, they have to show proof of enrollment & accredited program details. Makes sense I guess. I was talking to an EIT at work & his student SW stopped within days of designated graduation date.

www.mastercam.com

Educational CAD/CAM Suite | Mastercam

The Mastercam Educational Suite is used by schools to prepare students for future careers in STEM. Click to learn more about our CAD/CAM software.
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Janger said:
I buy fusion annually ($700ish) and it goes up every year. It’s the cheapest CAM solution I’m aware of. The free version does do cam with some restrictions. No rapid moves and no tool changer support. That separates the hobbyist from the professional. I’m a hobbyist playing in pro space. So does SWmaker have CAM?
Click to expand...
This tool from Tim Paterson works very well to overcome those limitations: https://github.com/TimPaterson/Fusion360-Batch-Post
 
So... @PeterT and I ran an experiment. I sent him a SW maker generated SLDPRT file which he COULD NOT open. He sent me a SLDPRT file from his 2021 Full Meal$ Real$ Deal$$ instance of Solidworks which I could open and edit in maker with no problems.

Food for thought I guess.
 
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