Mastercam vs Unigraphics

[JIMMY]

I would like to have your opinions on Mastercam vs Unigraphics.

My shop is having me look into learning unigraphics for manufacturing. I would like to get some input from you guys if I could.

[JIMMY]

Nobody has anything to say

[tobyaxis]

Hey Jimmy!!

I have heard that UG has Superior CAD, GUI, and Functionality over MC.

Sorry, I was very busy today, just got home.

[Mike Mattera]

What kind of work do you do? High end 3D maybe, but If you already own Mastercam I wouldn't waste my money. Yes they have excellent modeling capabilities. They'll talk about the the associative integration of Cad & Cam. But the truth is there are still many times where you'll still have to re-chain/re-select the geometry in en existing toolpath.

Mike Mattera

[weirdharold]

Truth in what Mike says & I think JP sums it up pretty well in the emastercam forum. Trying to learn NX5 at work for close to 12 months now & still don't have a solid handle on it. Use Mastercam at my part time day job, & was tool-pathing in a couple of week's & simple 3D & 4 axis stuff in 6 month's. Only work with mill & wire. my2c
Harold C.

[CNCRim]

Unigraphic is very expensive, but much better software. More learning curve.

Mastercam easier find programmer for it, cheaper and can get job done just like every other Cad/Cam.

[DMF_TomB]

In my opinion Mastercam is faster,better, easier than Unigraphics for CAM. For CAD I prefer Solidworks. My company was using Unigraphics but laid off most of the Engineers. Other equipment we buy from other companies was done on Solidworks which I learned and prefer now.
........Mastercam is better for 1 part or at least very few parts in an assembly. After all when fabricating you usually make parts one at a time. Solidworks and Unigraphics are better for larger assemblies with more parts. Also programs like Solidworks can show bent or rolled sheetmetal and also what the piece would look like before bending and rolling. So I prefer Solidworks or Unigraphics for CAD and Mastercam for using the CAD model (part) for doing CAM.

[John Holmes]

Has Mastercam improved it's model associativity in X3 or do you still have to reload model and start over?

[tobyaxis]

Originally Posted by John Holmes Has Mastercam improved it's model associativity in X3 or do you still have to reload model and start over?

You may have to do some reading on the Emastercam Forum.

[HAR THA]

I think master cam is suitable for small plant and this software is cheap.
Unigraphics is better software for engineer. But for me I like master cam most.

[JIMMY]

I asked the same question in emastercam. I work in a mold shop. I do full 3d work. With today's market everything has to done as fast as possible, with mastercam I can get the job done pretty fast. Nx looks to be very slow to get the job done. There is to many dialog boxes to go to just for the simplest thing.

[tobyaxis]

Originally Posted by JIMMY I asked the same question in emastercam. I work in a mold shop. I do full 3d work. With today's market everything has to done as fast as possible, with mastercam I can get the job done pretty fast. Nx looks to be very slow to get the job done. There is to many dialog boxes to go to just for the simplest thing.

Jimmy,

Have you looked at SW 2009?? They are doing some pretty wild things these days.