Need Help! Mastercam


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Thread: Mastercam

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    Default Re: Mastercam

    Quote Originally Posted by luisjesus View Post
    Good Morning
    I have mastercam 2017 and would like to know the difference between mastercam 2017 and mastercam 2018?
    Thank you for the help.
    I believe CNC Software added support for section turning, also a chip break operation added to roughing which I tried for ID work and just achieved horrible surface finishes and chatter with. Somewhere in Mastercam there is some kind of preview for one of the dynamic milling tools I've never seen it in actual use of the program. The improvements were not noticable for me- 2017 was essentially the same as 2018. I just read an 80 page document on what's new in Mastercam 2019, and I was hoping there would be:

    1. A major planes simplification (like a WCS being a work offset selection (G54) a simple directional arrow for indexing an axis and qualifying a milling operation in lathe or mill turn (driving an operation by selecting G54 and the qualifying arrow)

    2. A simple way to drive a Y centered milling operation parent feature directional arrow selection to index original operation for Y centered machining code, and then a circle pattern tool that had a "Drive Y centered" click box to keep the whole operation posting indexes and Y centered code so that people don't have to do it in Cimco by hand. (I know there is some really terrible way to do it, and at 1.75 years in the software I don't know how so I use CIMCO).

    3. That lathe and mill stock would talk to each other, eliminating redundant stock model requirements (which I haven't learned how to do, and which represent wasted time that the software shouldn't require)

    4. that better solid geometry driven operation support would occur (so that people could avoid using the CAD which sucks horribly)

    5. A stock move check for transform to allow stock to be moved without using the broken PICO tool

    6. A stock and model export tool to allow the stock and model to be exported for use in another machine definition such as a mill

    7. An improved CAD like Solidworks, where a circle can be drawn in space and given a driving dimension, and where people in modern CAD can pick up CAD in a day and a half instead of not understanding CAD at nearly 2 years in the software, and seeing no point in trying to understand something antiquated and in need of immediate replacement.

    But none of those things happened. They did break out some of the 8 or more functions of the ****ty trim break extend tool that is like a waste basket where software engineers through several ideas into a confusing pile for customers to try to sort through. So moving some of the functions to different tools with their own names was a nice move toward the way it should have looked in the beginning. 2019 3D lathe tool builder wizard- interesting and something a program like Topsolid could really benefit from, but pointless for Mastercam, because they aren't machine environment based systems- even my mill turn license, which has a machine environment, wasn't supplied with correct holders or chucks so it's not capable of using 3D tools for any functional purpose. I don't even have half index holders, so my machine could put 15 or so tools EASILLY into a job on one turret and I can only load 12 in the Mill Turn environment, so I often have to pull tools out, and put tools in and post pieces of program code, breaking the other operations to get the program code posted, disabling the Millturn simulation and sync code functionality.

    I tried solidworks for mastercam yesterday, hoping it would solve the CAD issues and allow me to work in configurations and I couldn't figure out how to get the coordinate system settup. Initially I realized my model wasn't built in the right orientation which is stupid for the software to want to require, so I tried to build an assembly in the right orientation, allowing me to change the orientation of the model. My first guess Z and X having a normal relationship was wrong, so I edited that. Then I ran into a problem realizing it couldn't turn with 3D geometry, so it needed a turn profile and I couldn't find the turn profile button almost like Mastercam was embarassed of it's ancient 2D wireframe requirements and hid or didn't include that tool, so the end result was a realization that Mastercam had failed to make the transition simple and that Solidworks for Mastercam wasn't going to be functional for me. Maybe thats why there are like 10 videos on that online- like no one ever used it. Sad. Could be really powerful.

    Last edited by Green0; 04-22-2018 at 02:52 PM.


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    Default Re: Mastercam

    A planes wizard would have been awesome. Ask the customer questions to create and manage planes for operations instead of expecting the customer to know the answer. A system to remove planes from the picture as a potential reason an operation won't post a path. Sometimes I'm trying to work in G55 and the software wants to post code in G54 or in G55 relative to G54 Z and the code is coming in -30" in Z, and it's a chaotic trip to a solution and I can't really put my finger on what solves it. It just leaves the user confidence at low when it could be a lot higher.

    If they can have a real upgrade one of these years, I can get back to enjoying my job. Less depressing days feeling like I'm barely getting it done. Get that winning feeling back.



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    Default Re: Mastercam

    http://zenex.fi/tuki/files/2018/WhatsNew.pdf

    I guess there were 83 pages there too for 2018. I noticed 2 items in my work, but haven't functionally used either for a process benefit yet. I guess the work is being done in obscure corners of the software that don't regularly interact with the customer? Oh 2019 brings Sandvik Prime from a hook (a place where the normal user knows nothing about it) to the actual software. I haven't seen a prime tool in person. A Solidworks integration like the sandvik one would be cool- it would solve the inferior CAD problem.



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