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Is anyone using CAM Studio Yet? I'm having a challenging time.
rob_haworth
Member Posts: 2 ✭
Hello,
I teach high school manufacturing and am switching my classes from Fusion to OnShape. I really like OnShape CAM in Part Studio. But now we are trying to use CAM Studio and it is really kicking our butts. So far I have been teaching students how to set up a job in CAM Studio and we have made it all the way through creating tools. I was also able to reproduce our standard aluminum tool library in OnShape and share it with my students.
The challenges start with creating tool paths. I've been through all of the CAM Studio videos. I've read several blog posts. It just seems to me that everything is touting the possibilities of CAM Studio, but no actual projects are being demonstrated here. We are using the Titan-2M as our subject for introducing CAM Studio. It would be really great if there was a John Saunders/NYC CNC out there for OnShape.
I have created a facing toolpath that I can live with. I created a drilling toolpath that seems pretty good. But roughing and any kind of finish profiling is just awful. The best I could get while roughing had a full-speed slotting operation with a 3/8 endmill 0.4D through aluminum. That would just load up and break. It feels like there is no control over selecting specific pockets to machine, how deep to machine them, and the stepovers are ignored. It is also frustrating that in the Education Enterprise version there is no Adaptive or Trochoidal toolpaths; just "dumb" offset or parallel toolpaths. Adaptive and Trochoidal toolpaths promote progressive and then constant tool engagement which extends tool life. If we use "dumb" toolpaths, students will have loaded and broken tools more often. I prefer my students to succeed first, and then improve their skills.
Is anyone out there in the same boat?
-Rob
Answers
Hey Rob. I'm a regular user that has been making parts with CAM Studio since release this past spring. When using CAM Studio keep in mind that it's a beta version which has limited tool paths/features. Adaptive and Trochoidal are features that will eventually be coming in the advanced version.
I sense the frustration. I've been there. It gets easier but it's a lot(←can't stress this enough) of trial and error to get there because of minimal information/documentation available. Generally, for initial roughing, I pretty much always default to starting with bodies (type), rough (pattern), offset (sub-pattern). If the tool paths don't pan out, then I'll try other strategies. I use heights to control overall tool path depth. This might be obvious; use step down to divide that depth into specific depths of cut. In the speeds section there is an adaptive feed rate toggle. This is helpful if the tool has to slot in to something during roughing. It slows the feed-rate down based on tool engagement.
Hopefully this helps a bit. Feel free to post up more specific questions and I'll try to help.
-Andrew
@rob_haworth Would it be possible for you to submit a ticket so we can take a closer look at some of the parts you are looking to machine? We can help provide some examples using your own parts.
It is possible to adjust the options you mentioned above. It depends on the operation type and constraints applied. In the future, we will be refining the operations to be more concise and direct. For example, a pocket operation, or a rouging operation as its own entity. CAM Studio is still in beta, and we are working hard to expand the product to include additional toolpath strategies and workflows to make it easier for users to create toolpaths.
Here are a few quick tips that might help with constraining toolpaths, and adjusting stepdown / stepover.
In this example, I made a sketch and converted the sketch to a composite curve. This curve can be inserted into cam studio and used as a containment.
Using the bodies + rough operation with offset, I enabled edge containment and selected the curve as the boundary.
Once calculated, the toolpath is constrained to the containment. In the future, we will have additional containment and stock recognition features that will provide more options for isolating toolpaths to specific regions. Today, users can use containment curves or silhouette containment to help control the placement of the toolpath.
Step down and step over can be controller by changing these settings in the toolpath.
Thank you for your feedback!
Hi everyone,
I feel the same way—the UI is really unintuitive, and I’m completely lost with some of the functions. I used HSM Works for SolidWorks before, which was much more user-friendly.
Right now, I’m trying to figure out how to cut a thread with CAM Studio... and I’m already stuck at setting up the tool. How to actually generate the toolpath is a complete mystery to me.
I'm afraid to say I also find the UI unintuitive, so much so that I have reverted to old software.
I feel like the UI doesn’t feel like OnShape at all. It’s completely inconsistent compared to the OnShape UI. With HSM Works for SolidWorks, that was exactly the great part—it was an add-on that blended seamlessly into the UI and felt like it was natively part of SolidWorks!
By now I’m a convinced OnShape user and I think the software and the whole philosophy behind it are fantastic! So please don’t get me wrong—OnShape is great, but Cam Studio is still far from being truly usable.
It seems as though there a quite a lot of steps just to get a simple pocket to cut correctly, which is not Onshape at all.
I'll have another look at it when I have the right mind set, but for now I'm not using it.