Mastercam vs Cimatron

[dta17aug]

which sofware to buy for a moldmaking and production shop from theese two softwares? Please help!

[weaston]

Hi There,

I have used both mastercam and cimatron. My personal opinion would be to go for Cimatron.

There were problems with cimatron but I was working on their first windows based release (Think it was Cimatron E3.1 or something like that) so problems could be expected, these should hopefully be ironed out by now. We also did not get much support from the dealer as they were not locally situated and our company was not willing to pay the annual maintenance.

I found mastercam to be very weak in terms of 2d draughting and only ok in the 3d modeling capabilities. Having said this the cnc programing with mastercam was user friendly. Bear in mind that once again I was working with the release which came before Mastercam X. So they too have perhaps improved. In the end we were using Solidworks for design and drawing and Mastercam for machining.

Just to throw a spanner in the works, what about solidworks with solidcam.

A word of advice if you can afford it is to opt for annual maintenance with which ever package you choose.

Hope this helps.

[dta17aug]

Thank you weaston! It does help.
I must say also that we use allready Catia 5 for 3D modeling and the leadrship doesn't want to change that. So we need a software for only CAM. Is that change anything in your opinion. Still Cimatron?

[joecnc1234]

I would say go for mastercam. If you're only using the cam mastercam is an awesome tool. The support you can get for mastercam is unparalelled if you can't get it from your dealer you can get it on forums like this before I used mastercam I used procam it was great for drawing and detailing and even machining but you couldn't get support other than a dealer who had no idea how to machine same with pro-e so complicated they don't even call you competent until you reach 2000 hours of use. Stick with the mainstream it's alot easier to have a couple of thousand people to help you instead of a couple. good luck

[dta17aug]

Your final argument, joecnc1234, I'm sure will turn the balance to mastercam. So thank you.

[hairball]

When you say the word “Mold” I would pick Cimatron Hans down.

[patrick71100]

We Are Journeymen Patternmakers,by Best Friend And His Dad Have Pattern Shop Design And Machine Propellor Matchplates,intake And Cylinder He Desighed Viper Heads And Intake Years Back For Crysler,
Cad Man For 15 Years 5 Years Using Cimatron In His Shop,i Would Say Cim Is Stronger In The Modeling Side,they Both Have Good Toolpaths,i Though Layout Of Mastercam Cam End Was A Little Illogical