delcam help

I have been lucky enough to have had access to programs such as solidworks and alphacam at college and at work ,the solidworks is very quick to get to grips with imho , i no longer have access to this program but have downloaded the free solid modelling software called delcam. It seems to be a great program but i am having problems getting started with it.

Does anyone have any experience with this program ? or would anyone have a link to any tutorials ? Its frustrating to have such a good program and not to be able to get the best from it.

Ronan,

Where did you get your free version? I've had a look on Google and can only find downloads of evaluation or demo versions which will probably stop working after a short period.

Jim.

Hey jim

http://www.delcam.com/intlresp/powershape_dl.asp?from=PSHAPE

Hi Ronan,

I was curious so have just downloaded the program and started playing with it. There is a downloadable manual, not sure if you've seen that already, called "Help Manual".

**LINK**

On the help menu there is also a Learning Assistant.

Regards,
Ed.

If you can use SW you will be ok with the delcam product

download the manual or a tutorial what you want to do will be very similar to SW just behind a different icon or workflow,I switch between SW Catia Unigraphics and Pro E for Cad and powermill and mastercam for Cam they pretty much all do exactly the same thing and once you learn the location of the button that does the similar thing in SW it makes sense

Its just a case of finding out where

Thanks ed and mike, i see the manual now mike. I was thinking this program was like sw in that you for instance , draw a line , after you have drawn that line you dimension it and work on, it appears to be slightly different on delcam.

regards .

p.s , just found the tutorials.

http://www.powershape.com/tutorials/

Edited By ronan walsh on 04/10/2012 23:54:20

Ronan,

Many thanks. I hadn't dug around enough to find that page.

Jim

Ronan,

I've just installed the program and also had a bit of a look around. The learning assistance within the program looks not too bad. The other manual file that you can download is actually a Windows help file in the .chm format, so not really a manual as such.

Also, the program is not really free. It is free to download, install and work on it, but it stores the work in its own format and it looks as though you have to purchase a voucher to export this work through another application into whatever file format you require. It looks as though a voucher for each project will cost you £34.

Jim.

Jim a lot of stuff delcam do is based on vouchers ,the company i used to work for licensed the translator but before, just as you said Delcam used to make it so that if you wanted a catia file to be used in powermill you could do that but had to run it through exchange and it would also output the catia file as native they called it "exchange'

However most models or files in educational versions of software cannot be opened by the full commercially licensed programs for example if i were to try and pen a file created in the educational version of PROe or Creo it will tell me the file type is not supported, similar with solidworks ,there is no way round this unless "you know what to amend in a txt editor" they expect you to buy a full 4-5k worth of software

so delcam saying the good projects you want to use "commercially" it will cost 34 quid is a good-ish deal imho.

Hi Guys

Rowan, Thanks for your post, this Powershape looks a good 3D package and on first babble seems relatively easy to learn and very flexible.

I note your comments on vouchers above.

As a hobby user, is there a free or economical route to take a powershape model to G code maybe via an economical cam package. For example I don't see away of exporting as an stl file for example. If it can only be done by vouchers then the cost seems high, for me anyway.

Currently I am using Meshcam which can take stl files and works very well.

If this is not possible on a small budget then there is not much point me learning to use the program.

I tried Viacad, but the 2 week trial period was not long enough for me to get to grips with it so I was not confident to purchase. Plus it did not seem to have a design tree so,in the short time I had it, I found editing confusing.

Thanks

Nigel

Nigel.

Here's a few videos of me using ViaCAD that might be of use to you. Using the Concept Explorer and A simple Alloy Wheel.
ViaCAD2D/3D is on sale now for $64.99, which works out at a little over £40 and in my view there's nothing to touch it for that kind of money.

Martin.

Nigel sorry i can't answer your technical question , what i learned in college evening classes was modelling in solidworks, opening the model in alphacam , then sending the dxf file to the milling machine. I never used cnc much at work so haven't really kept in touch with what most programmes can and cannot do. I did however briefly use a program called topsolid which was able to generate the g-codes as you worked, i did find this programme to be cumbersome though and a poor substitute for solidworks.

Has anyone tried alibre design p.e. (personal edition) ? I did download it for the free thirty day trial and found it very simple to use , the licence is around $199 which i think is good as its a one off payment .

P.s just checked the alibre website and it appears it does allow a stl export . Determine for yourselves.

http://www.alibre.com/products/hobby/

Edited By ronan walsh on 06/10/2012 17:08:30

Mike,

I noticed when digging around on Google that a £34 voucher might be obtained for a project which might contain a series of files, so the £34 might be able to be divided between several output files.

I dare say it depends on how much work you want to do with the software. If you aim to do a lot of work then multiple vouchers might bring you close to the cost of some other 3D packages. At least you have full use of the application to see if you can make it do what you want.

Jim.

While I think that Delcam would be a bit too much of a good thing for me, I'm always interested in learning a bit about these programs. So I had a look around when this thread started, and somehow, somewhere I found a couple (dunno exactly how many, but at least 6-10) short videos (1-2 min mostly) explaining the features of this program. Now I tried at least 3 times and cannot find them again. Not in the video section of Delcam/Powershape, and not on Youtube. Maybe I askked the wrong question, though...

Someone knows where these videos are hidden?

Greetings, Hansrudolf

if you download the tutorials in the link below , when you open the program you have three choices how to view them , one of the options is video.

**LINK**

another modelling software is creo elements, which may be of interest to someone, link below.

**LINK**

Hansrudolph, can you not use your 'History' button to see where they are. if they are there then you can click on them and go from there.

Clive

Hi Ronan

Thanks for your reply. I think that Decam is a very flexible design tool if design is as far as you want to go but for a hobbyist wanting to take 3d models to G code it look not so convenient. There voucher scheme looks a good option for a commercial manufacturing outfit. It's a shame because I really like the look of it.

I have tried Alibre, as I am familiar with Auto Desk Inventor and Alibre is fairly similar in it's methods, I found it very good and easy to use, plus you can save stl files so for me this is an option worth considering.

Martin,

Thanks for your links showing your demo video, very helpful indeed. My demo version of Viacad is somehow active again, after watching your videos a few times and replicating what you were doing I am starting to get the idea of it. I had not previously seen the Concept Explorer box which makes all the difference. So this is beginning to look an option also and maybe a refreshing change to what I am used to in my work.

Nigel

Hi Ronan

Autodesk have released a 3D solid modeling tool, free trial for a while (it expires march 2013) so best to get it soon. It is called "Autodesk inventor fusion". It can open Autocad files or create DWG files from scratch. apart from Autocad; it can also open about 20 other file types and edit them.

Export to a dozen different formats including DWG, STL, SAT, and DXF. is supported

Well worth a try. Just Google it by name.

It also works fine stand alone. There is a number of tutorial videos on YouTube. and at the Autodesk site.

A version is available for the Apple Mac (No expiry date at the moment).

Cheers

John

Thanks for the input everyone.

Its a shame that most of these companies , with the exceptions of alibre and delcam, don't do a home version of their professional software. I would happily pay for an older version of solidworks, they cannot sell it to engineering companies as its out of date ,so abandon it where as they could get some income from it by selling it to model engineers or other people with a private need for this type of software.

Thanks for the endeavour Gents.

Clive, using the browser's history is a hopeless thing, at least in Opera.

Ronan, that's not what I saw. in your link , under 'Videos', are 3 videos, two of them are 'what's new...' types, the third is about a customer. The link 'Delcam TV' has nearly the same...

Well, it's not too important for me. I tried a bit of SolidEdge in the last days, and maybe will look into Creo also.

But for all those who would like a simple CAD program (and are happy with the fact that it cannot do all...) just try Solvespace.**LINK** Many limitations as I said, but what it does in a program of less than 1 MB is simply astonishing. And it is not 'installed' , just a .exe file like in the good old times. It even produces G-Code for the CNC people...

Greetings, Hansrudolf