An Engineer Walks Into a Machine Shop...

“An engineer walks into a machine shop...” is how many machinists’ jokes start. They certainly have a lot of fun at engineers’ expense. But we make it almost too easy.

You want me to make what? Engineers and machinists often have trouble communicating, according to a recent Business Advantage survey.

Picture a young engineer brimming with all the knowledge of a bachelor’s degree. The engineer has designed a perfect part and is now striding into the machine shop with a rolled-up drawing under his arm.

“Now, make this,” the engineer says to the grizzled shop foreman. The foreman looks at the bright young engineer over his bifocals, then back to the drawing of the part. He sighs. He doesn’t know where to start.

Here are just a few of the thoughts going through his head.

Why Are You Giving Me a Drawing?

You made this drawing in a CAD program, so why not send me the 3D CAD model? How primitive do you think we are?

Over 60 percent of machine shops use CAM software, according to a recent research done by Business Advantage (download the eBook). If the engineer sends him the CAD file, then the foreman and his team can hit the ground running.

Wrong CAD Program

Thanks for the CAD file, kid; too bad I can’t do anything with it.

When you come back with a CAD file, make sure it’s the right one.

Many hotshot engineers use SOLIDWORKS, Inventor or AutoCAD (57 percent, according to the survey).

The most popular CAM software is Siemens NX. (Image courtesy Business Advantage survey.)

The most popular CAD software is SOLIDWORKS. (Image courtesy Business Advantage survey.)

Even after you realize that machine shops have entered the modern age with CAM software, would it occur to you ask which software works best for the shop? Do you ever wonder which CAD is best for manufacturing or what your machinists have the most experience with?

If you’re like many engineers, you picked out CAD software that is best suited for you: something you used in school or a program popular with other engineers.

It may surprise you to learn that the CAM software used in the shop is from a different company than your CAD software. Note that the CAM market is fragmented. The survey shows that the most popular CAM programs are NX CAM, Mastercam and InventorCAM. However, these three programs only make up 36 percent of the market.

This raises the possibility that the engineer’s CAD programs and the shop’s CAM programs will not play well together. In fact, lack of integration between CAD and CAM software is the number one problem cited by machinists.

Related to this issue is that 22 percent of machinists have felt the pain of file format compatibility issues. Of course, this issue would not exist if CAD and CAM shared the same author, code base and database.

Are you having CAD to CAM issues? Download the eBook by Business Advantage for more information and feel free to add your comments below.