I have been programming with MasterCam for a few years now and have become fairly good with it, but now I am considering a new job wich is set up with SurfCam. I have never used SurfCam and was wondering how similar or different these two programs are? any info. or experience would help. Thanx. :confused:

I been to more shops than i care to remember. But the one thing
i take with me is experience. If your quick to learn then nothing
stands in your way. Everyone has good and bad to talk about
software, your only worry should be can you make it work.
Who moves the mouse and pushes the keys. Are we not in
control of the computer? Of course we are. Surfcam has been
Around for quite awile, so they must have a prog. that works.
OK i'm done venting. Hope you make the right decision.
Lots of luck. PEACE!!!:p :p



And by the way, if you have any Mastercam ?'s feel free to
ask me.

As Hardmill has stated you should be able to make the transition, there will be some hard times just because of the logic of the system you have been used to.

I have been on site at shops that use surfcam and found that I have been able to help the programmer with getting around in surfcam and I have used MC sense Version2.

So as stated earler Good luck if you decide to take this change in life.

Thanks for the info! I think I'm going to try to get some training thru this new job prospect to speed up the transition. I have not found a lot of info (books,manuals) on Surfcam, but they do offer a lot of training programs.

badRandle I say contact the local surfcam dealer and ask for the demo disk,this is a full working software except for saveing the file and posting.

This alot like the mastercam demo disk I give my students.
Ps I would look in to one of the MC ones too so you can keep up on it just in case you come back to the MC side. :-)

If you have any trouble finding the surfcam dealer to get a disk let me know I have contacts there and they are local out here the main office.

I have used both and I prefer Surfcam. The transistion is not hard. It should not take more than a couple of weeks to become proficient.

I've only played with the demo of Surfcam.
Been using MasterCam for a year or so now. As the other guys stated, once you learn one, the transition to another is not too tough. I've used about a dozen CAM programs over the years and once you learn the syntax and the menus you're good to go.

I just got an email from SurfCam announcing it's online interactive training. That may prove to be helpful.
You can veiw the details at this link:
http://www.surfware.com/news/2003/SURFCAM-news-2003-0421.htm

If you want to buy any type of technical books go to OPAMP I am sure you will find Surcam books in that place. Is located in L.A. county in California, but you can do it through to the web. Go to Google,type in opamp and follow thw instructions.

Gomez107

The demo program also includes the online manual, which I might add is quite extensive, complete with video clips.

Ken

There is also a 3rd party book called Maximizing Surfcam but it runs about 70 bucks.

Brian

I am very proficient at both softwares I used Mastercam for about 4 years and Surfcam for the last year to cut complex surface geometry mold cores, cavities, design and cut eletrodes, and I feel I am good at what I do, not the best by far but good.I dont even put these 2 softwares in the same class, Mastercam is far superior over surfcam IMO the most difficult part of the learning curve is you dont have as many options in surfcam having to go back to some old school methods of machining, which isnt fun considering 90% of my programming is for high speed machining.

Any word on when their going to get Mastercam?

PEACE:D

I dont know were really busy right now and the guy whos right above has been there 8 years and is dead set on cimitron, he dont even want to look at mastercam yet, I am working on him pretty good though.

mold500, I've used cimitron. It's very good. Hard as he|| to learn, but very powerful. I still prefer MC because I know it better.

'Rekd teh $.02

Rekd, Hardmill, Cadcam,
What do you think about MCX (so I've been told) comming out more windows oriented in the next release. Rekd, you mentioned "I know it better", do you forsee see any problems, learning curves, bugs, etc., etc., being a factor, or just good things happening for MC because of it?

I forsee a better user inter face.
By what I have actully seen of it.There will be a small learning cure if you all ready know it.

I like Reked have watched the changes over the years sense Version2.

As for bugs Well what can you say all new release of ANY software have them.So I expect at least one or more.

Majore one Not really.

SRT, I see mostly good coming from it.

As cadcam said, there's GONNA be bugs in X because it's always a major change when changing a GUI. I suspect there will be several small annoyances that you'll be able to work around, and likely 1 or 2 (or more) that will require a patch quickly.

I've seen much better upgrades come from the folks at CNC than I've seen with most other softwares in the past, so in general I think it will be a good upgrade.

And the best part is that CNC listens to their customers, and are usually willing to try and integrate features we'd like to see.

'Rekd teh (singing in a child's voice) "I am stuck on Mastercam, 'cuz Mastercam's stuck on me.."

MasterCam is a GREAT SOFTWARE.

Rekd,
The VB Scripting that seems to have been recently introduced in MC, was that due to CNC listening to their customers or was that there own doing, without any nudging along. I have talked to several other software dealers and it seems that they have no intentions of including VB Scripting in the future. In conversations with them it seems that "possibly" they believe their software is "superior" enough without VB Scripting already. I have to smile as I write that, but that is the impression that I got from them. I've had some experience with VB Scripting in BC18 (their own version) and have found it very helpful at times, I for one am glad to hear MC is using it, if it works similar to the BC results that I was able to get.

SRT, I believe it was something they did on their own.

I wouldn't be able to hold back the laughter if a rep said that to me. LOL.

The scripting is MC is not complete yet, but there is enough to do many things. They say they will be adding new features as they find out what we want.

I think it's great, because I love VB and I love MC. The only thing VB scripting can do to software is make it better. Frustrated cuz you can't do that simple little thing like a date-based backup copy of the current file? VB Script it yourself!

'Rekd

Thanks all.
I'm sticking to MC.

in Surfcam 2002; you can save everything; it just wont post; I've saved as DFX and DRG the default is DEM
I'm thinking thats short for demo; there are 12 ways to save the file

If you can open the file with another software like turbocnc the drawing interface in Demo mode will be a wonderfull free cad tool; I haven't tried to open with another party software yet

If any out there who just don't like Surfcam and the company changed to MC; I'd sure like the Dongle and password for my home set-up hehehehe

Edit Edit; it will save and you can open it; I used my Rhino to open a test file; but strangly Voloview would not

Well I am going to put my 2cents in here. I used to use Virtual Gibbs extensively. I have also used several others. I started playing with mastercam a couple of months ago, and I find it very clunky.
In my opinion Vitual Gibbs is far far far superior. No demo for it though, so you will have to trust me on your $15,000 choice.
co

Originally posted by yukonho
I started playing with mastercam a couple of months ago, and I find it very clunky.
In my opinion Vitual Gibbs is far far far superior.

I started with Virtual Gibbs as well. I used it for several years before I ever saw anything else. There are still a few things I like about it. The Geometry Expert is a great tool for creating complex shapes, or for modifying existing shapes. Also being able to create several tool processes and apply them to the same geometry at the same time.

But after making about 2 parts in Mastercam, I soon realized that the performence of Mastercam compared to Virtual Gibbs is like comparing a BMW to a Yugo. Mastercam flows extremely well when you get used to it. And with c-hooks and vbs it's unlimited what you can do with it.

The thing about VG is that it's easy. It's designed for machinists. It's somewhat limited in it's capabilities because of it's simplistic approach. Even compared to the original GibbsCAD/CAM/NC on the Mac platform, VG is lacking in the versitility/complexity arena. (Before any of you Gibbs gurus start flaming me, I know both platforms very well, I have spent many years on both making complex 3 and 4 axis parts.. ;) )

If you're a machinist that needs to program simple things quickly, and complex things they way VG wants you to, you'll find VG fairly easy.

If you're serious about programming, and take the time to learn something else, like Mastercam or Cimitron, you will quickly see the shortcomings of Virtual Gibbs.

'Rekd

No demo for it though, so you will have to trust me on your $15,000 choice.

My advice, based on my experience with Delcam, is not to trust a software that won't give you a demo.

I won't make that mistake again.

Dan

actually Gibbs will give you an evaluation copy if you are serious about the purchase.(contact Jason Heyse- Texas offline 888-21gibbs or 281-376-2003 )- ... Our company uses Cimitron E for the engineering side. I came onboard about a year ago, and they guys before me had never even used the manufacturing side of cimitron (bought and paid for it, just never used it).

I am now faced with trying to get it up and running as my project. I find cimitron to be very powerful, to a fault. it is so powerful that it has trouble doing simple operations. I am in the process of an eval on the lathe portion, possibly adding it as a solution. What I find is that fikus (the third party lathe /wire package) is also over "tweeked" and needs more support documentation inside like Cimitron E .
I used Gibbs cam from version 3.1(dos version) through v 5.507 and it is by far the most powerful easiest to manipulate easiest to learn cad/cam on the market ...but at a cost of nearly 17K $ us for full blown version, on top of our need for the engineering side ...I am struggling to fork out the PO for the money.


And to Rekd ...hey bro from what I have seen in my short time on this site you DA MAN !!!! ....but the AVERAGE shop doesn't do "complex machining" the average shop does complex set-ups based on machinetool limitation and does 2-2.5 and sometimes 3 axis machining