Linking ERP with Autodesk Inventor

[Anonymous]

We are a small manufacturer of bespoke furniture items and have recently invested in the Autodesk Inventor. However, currently I feel we are not fully utilising the software.

For some time we have been searching for a suitable ERP system but so far haven’t found something that ticks enough boxes.

On a daily basis we quote for bespoke items, therefore an ERP system that would speed up the quoting process with links to Inventor such as the BOM would be very useful.

Also a system that allows us to quickly move information from Inventor to CAM, and recommendations on best CAM software to do so.

Any recommendations for suitable ERP and CAM software for bespoke furniture manufacturers would be greatly appreciated!

[PaulMunford]

Woodwork for inventor plugin?

[mcgyvr]

2D or 3d CAM..

hsm Express is free (2.5D milling) (I use it and LOVE it)

hsm full version is not free but a great CAM program..

http://cam.autodesk.com/

Linking ERP to Inventor = $$$$$$..  Small company here too and we could not justify the cost at all.. 

We use Made2Manage as our ERP software.. I'm very happy with it but the higher ups really aren't.. Yearly costs are quite a bit and support absolutley sucks now that they were bought out by a bigger company (Aptean)

I can't see the need for a "paid for" ERP system for a small woodworking company.. Any of the free/opensource ones should be just fine.. And Inventor integration costs would probably be far lower than going with a "professional/paid" ERP big dog. 

[blair]

We use Syspro for our ERP system. The have intergration to CAD and Inventor used to be one of them. We looked at it the intergration but it assumed all the parts IPT have matching Stock Codes in the ERP system.

[Anonymous]

Many thanks for your reply. You mention using HSM express, we have added this free software to Inventor but have been unable to find anyone who can create or provide the post processers for our CNC machinery. Did you have this issue?

Currently we use Aspan for CAM, this does not allow us to move drawings from inventor to CAM so we still use 2D Autocad.

[mcgyvr · Accepted solution]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Many thanks for your reply. You mention using HSM express, we have added this free software to Inventor but have been unable to find anyone who can create or provide the post processers for our CNC machinery. Did you have this issue?

Currently we use Aspan for CAM, this does not allow us to move drawings from inventor to CAM so we still use 2D Autocad.

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The guys on the cam forum are usually more than happy to help write a post processor for you.. or let you know which one works..

We have a Haas VF2 so we don't have any problems but they always seem to be helping others work/develop appropriate processors. 

go here.. sign up.. provide details on your machine and voila.. (ask nicely 🙂 )

http://camforum.autodesk.com/index.php?board=3.0