Fusion360 or GibbsCAM?

[Anonymous]

Help!

I'm trying to make a case for using Fusion360 vs GibbsCam in our shop and could use some help with specific areas that Fusion360 (CAM primarily) out performs GibbsCam. I already know there is a cost advantage to Fusion360 but what other benefits can I list?

The people doing the programming are very experienced machinists but have only been exposed to conversational programming.

We use SolidWorks as our primary CAD software, changing that is a separate topic for another time.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

GG67

[Laurens-3DTechDraw]

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GG67 wrote:

Help!

I'm trying to make a case for using Fusion360 vs GibbsCam in our shop and could use some help with specific areas that Fusion360 (CAM primarily) out performs GibbsCam. I already know there is a cost advantage to Fusion360 but what other benefits can I list?

The people doing the programming are very experienced machinists but have only been exposed to conversational programming.

We use SolidWorks as our primary CAD software, changing that is a separate topic for another time.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

GG67

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If you don't want to change CAD go for HSMWorks it's the same CAM built into Solidworks.

Apart from that I don't really know much about Gibbs, just that the ease of use in Autodesk CAM products is way better than any other system. Especially HSMWorks because the selection there still are better than in Fusion 360 or Inventor HSM.

[Lonnie.Cady]

The only real advantage in fuiosn is price.

Have you tried HSMWorks Express?  Its free and would let you get a good feel for the HSMWorks work flow.   

You don't mention the kind of work you do.  If you do 2.5, 3, 3+2 work one of the ADSK products may be a good optoin for you.  If you need to do Turning, 5Axis, 4Axis you may want to look else where for software.

[Anonymous]

Laurens,

Thanks for the feedback.

The people using Fusion360 do not have SolidWorks licenses and investing $6-$8k per person plus annual maintenance fees into CAD software does not seem to make sense at this point. I have one person in a different area of the shop that is using SolidWorks with HSMWorks; he is my most senior guy (40+ years) and he loves it and it’s the reason I started investigating Fusion360 for the other areas.

GG67

[Anonymous]

Price is definately a big factor but I would think there must be other major factors as well?

Engineer to order/Job Shop work.

We do mostly 2 1/2, 3 and some 4 axis work and and have used HSMxpress and HSMWorks. 

We do turning as well but I can wait to implement something there.

GG67

[Lonnie.Cady]

If you are getting along with HSMWorks and HSMWorks Express I would think it would be a good fit.