GoEngineer Blog

Introduced in SOLIDWORKS 2018, SOLIDWORKS CAM allows you to fully integrate design and manufacturing processes under one system by leveraging your 3D CAD model to generate programs for CNC machines. However, for users who already have CAMWorks installed, you will need to be intentional on what “Add-Ins” you want currently active.

Lots of great enhancements have been added to the latest version of SOLIDWORKS to simplify your CNC machining setup in SOLIDWORKS CAM 2024. Let’s get started with these sneaky additions.

Before we get started, it is critical to know that clearing your CAMWorks registry is generally a troubleshooting last resort. We take some caution in this article, but being informed is essential. It is possible to put yourself in an unfortunate situation by poking around in your registry, so please don’t experiment while doing this.

CAMWorks has four different licensing options: Dongle, Standalone, FlexLM Network, and FNO. These four license options are all used through the CW License Manager utility. To access this utility, go to the Start menu and search for the CW License Manager. 

If you start SOLIDWORKS and encounter the message Could not obtain a license for SOLIDWORSK CAM. Error: Invalid block name (-5,147,0), here are a few considerations. 

When creating stock in CAMWorks, there are several options to choose from, each having unique benefits. In this guide, we'll walk through each of the CAMWorks stock types. When editing stock, a dialogue on the left-hand side of SOLIDWORKS, called the Stock Manager, is available. Within the Stock Manager, users can choose Bounding Box, Sketch, STL, and Part file.

For years, both MasterCAM and GibbsCAM offered SOLIDWORKS users the ability to use their tools in a familiar environment via the SOLIDWORKS add-in. With these developers announcing a 2024 discontinuation date of the add-in, those who rely on these combined solutions are beginning to ask themselves...now what? 

Have a suggestion that could make CAMWorks even better? Submit an enhancement request. An enhancement request is a suggestion to the creators of CAMWorks by you, the customer. This can be a recommendation of expanded capability, feedback on what works and doesn’t work, or anything you would like to see in the software.  

Importing files can be a hassle in any CAD or CAE environment. Different vendors utilize different kernels, and while STEP files are nice, everyone has encountered at least one that didn’t quite behave as expected. Starting in SOLIDWORKS 2017, Dassault Systemes introduced 3D Interconnect, a “CAD Translator” that can take native CAD files from other vendors.