Old school machinists vs. new school programmers, who's right?

I heard a guy at a shop in Fort Worth last week say that anyone relying on CAM software to generate toolpaths is 'just a button pusher', and it got me thinking. On the flip side, I've seen guys who refuse to even look at a simulation and end up crashing a 20k spindle because they trusted their gut. We all know we need both hand coding skills and software skills, but which one actually matters more when the job is on the line? Curious if anyone else has worked with a purist who finally got proven wrong, or had a young kid save their ass with a macro.

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the_lee26d ago

Admitting the purist side has a point, but taking it further, the real issue is that hand coding and CAM are solving different problems. The old guys can write a perfect G-code loop in their sleep, but they often can't visualize the tool holder hitting a fixture or the part flexing under a finishing pass. That's where simulation and the software's collision detection saves real money, not just time. Seen a 20-year veteran argue with a 22-year-old about a safe retract height, and the kid was right because the model showed the exact clearance. Software doesn't replace knowing speeds and feeds, but it does catch the dumb mistakes that experience can't always predict.