Industrial programing opportunities?

[Chuck Keysor]

Hello Shopbot Friends: Can anybody post some pictures of small industrial applications of Aspire projects? Examples would be of logos or embellishment designs cut into aluminum or steel?

I visited a factory early this week, where they make industrial products for welding plastics (ultrasonic, vibration, laser, etc.). Their machines sell from $40,000 up to $250,000 and they all have lots of big machined surfaces, with numbers machined on surfaces. They use Mastercam, but don't do 3d modeling or anything artsy.

I was wondering if there would be any opportunities for me to program specialized tool path programs using Aspire for logos. I would just create files and provide the files that they would use in their CNC machine centers. This company machines aluminum, titanium and steel all day long. But again, there are no fancy extra touches. Their own corporate logo is simple text, but all of their work is for big companies, and almost all of their work is customized for specific applications. Maybe the customers would want their fancy logos engraved,,,,,,, just wondering....

Does anyone do anything like this where I could see some pictures for inspiration, and to get a handle on what I might propose? Or does this sound like a dumb idea, where my providing a little embellishment file would be problematical for reasons I don't know (as I am not familiar with industrial CNC machining).

Thanks for your help and suggestions, Chuck

[Brady Watson]

Aspire as versatile and wonderful as it is, lacks specific milling strategies found in MC. Unless there is a stack of money to be made (it doesn't sound like there is) - then I would plant the seed and let it brew. See where it winds up.

One possibility would be to generate whatever artwork is required in Aspire & then save it out in a format that can be imported into MC. Then let them toolpath it themselves. STL and DXF are pretty universal.

-B

[Chuck Keysor]

Thanks Brady.

I took a semester class in Mastercam back around 2001, and in 2004, I "bought" a seat of Mastercam with their "Art" package (over $10,000). This was before there was Aspire, and the only other choice was Artcam, which I didn't like when it was demo'd for me. And, while I kept paying annual maintenance, I never used Mastercam, as I didn't get my Shopbot, until I had gone crazy with the money I had wasted on Mastercam, and by the time I got my Shopbot in late 2009, I decided to abandon Mastercam, in favor of Aspire, which cost far less and had no annual maintenance fees. (And by that time, it was clear that NO ONE but me had jumped onto the Mastercam Art bandwagon, which was another big reason for me to drop it.)

But, with that distant and painful memory/mistake, it seems as though Mastercam itself was not capable of doing organic modeling or toolpathing. All those functions were supported in the "Art" package. So that is why I was thinking I would be doing art modeling and tool-pathing in Aspire.

I may well be confused, or maybe Mastercam is different then it used to be. In any event, I hope that if anyone does such artwork for industrial machine applications, that they can post some examples. That would be of help to me in making a possible pitch on this idea.

Thanks again, Chuck

[Brady Watson]

If it was me, I'd use Aspire for the CAD. Let THEM use MC for the CAM. MC is perfectly capable of generating whatever code is needed to machine 3D or engraving or anything else on a milling machine.

ArtCAM was the only thing around back then & it was leaps and bounds better than that MC Art albatross. These days Aspire is hard to beat for ease of use and power, however the CAM side is aimed at routing - not milling. If a customer was paying me to do what you are talking about - that's the exact path I would choose to A) Ensure success and B) Not to look like an idiot over his head when I crash their $250k milling machine. But that's just me.

-B

[Chuck Keysor]

Thanks Brady! I am totally convinced after being straightened out on MC being able to do organic toolpathing. (Can you still sense my pain over that MC terrible purchase decision? With maintanence, it cost me as much as my Shopbot, or about 20% of the cost of my house. And I can sell my Bot or my house and get my money back, but not the MC. :()

Thanks again and again, Chuck

[Brady Watson]

No problem Chuck. MC is okay if you can legitimately exploit it's usefulness in your business. You shouldn't beat yourself up. I'm probably $25k in the hole on software that didn't work the way they said it would or one's I refused to learn because the interface and clunkiness were designed by boobs. You just have to move ahead and decide to make more money. There's nothing else you can do...

-B