Any Pelicanheads use SolidWorks?
 

I need a CAD/CAM project finished due to vendor flakiness.

:-(

PM'd ya.

Bill, I had a SolidWorks program written for my TypeIV VW sump plate/sendin unit project. When I took it out for bid, the majority of the machine shops wouldn't touch it. Either they didn't want/use SW, or they would preffer to write their own. After reviewing the process, I can see there is more than one approach to each project that will produce the same product. I ended up writing the whole project off. The SW fees were totally waisted and contributed to the project's demise.

Talk to your manufacturer(s) before going any further is my advice.

SW '03 and '04 here. Let me know if you need any help.

Milt - odd that the machine shop didn't like it ... pretty universal stuff. CAM should take just about anything - even IGES or STEP which are the true universal standards.

Yeah Milt, what 935 said. SW doesn't write tool-path code; that would be more machine specific, and would be generated from a Solid-model (such as SW) in a program other than SW.
Otherwise, SW is great for producing drawings. If a machine shop can't read a drawing, you likely don't want them on your proect anyway.