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Mastercam popularity
- Thread starter OVodov
- Start date
- Replies 52
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implmex
Titanium
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2002
- Location
- Vancouver BC Canada
Hi OVodov:
It was one of the first around with a usable GUI and fewer of those godawful command lines that you had to memorize and type.
It had a few different toolpath strategies at a time when that was not all that common, and it could do a reasonable job of surfacing.
It was mid range priced at a time when CAD and CAM were mostly insanely expensive.
MasterCrap made a big effort to get into all the trade schools, so kids coming out of school were familiar with it.
CNC machining was still pretty magical and mystical, so if you could turn on the machine and drive it without crashing it you were some sort of God and could make whatever demands you wanted to...if MasterCam was what you knew, and Mastercam was what you wanted, your boss would likely obediently buy it for you.
They recognized that early and made sure they were in the forefront of every new CNC machinist's mind.
There were better more powerful CAM packages even back then, but the choices were few and very expensive.
So they wormed their way into the premier position and then sat there with their legacy code, falling further and further behind as they rested on their laurels and competitors began to eat their lunch.
Now they are still relevant but a lot of people who have become accustomed to more powerful or more user friendly or both, are unimpressed and not afraid to say so.
Cheers
Marcus
www.implant-mechanix.com
www.vancouverwireedm.com
It was one of the first around with a usable GUI and fewer of those godawful command lines that you had to memorize and type.
It had a few different toolpath strategies at a time when that was not all that common, and it could do a reasonable job of surfacing.
It was mid range priced at a time when CAD and CAM were mostly insanely expensive.
MasterCrap made a big effort to get into all the trade schools, so kids coming out of school were familiar with it.
CNC machining was still pretty magical and mystical, so if you could turn on the machine and drive it without crashing it you were some sort of God and could make whatever demands you wanted to...if MasterCam was what you knew, and Mastercam was what you wanted, your boss would likely obediently buy it for you.
They recognized that early and made sure they were in the forefront of every new CNC machinist's mind.
There were better more powerful CAM packages even back then, but the choices were few and very expensive.
So they wormed their way into the premier position and then sat there with their legacy code, falling further and further behind as they rested on their laurels and competitors began to eat their lunch.
Now they are still relevant but a lot of people who have become accustomed to more powerful or more user friendly or both, are unimpressed and not afraid to say so.
Cheers
Marcus
www.implant-mechanix.com
www.vancouverwireedm.com
Sorry, didn’t understand you
Shipp
Aluminum
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2022
- Location
- Northern California
It's slang. He's basically saying once people got on it back in the day, they didn't want to change to a more powerful or easier to use software because they were getting the job done with Mastercam already.
It was about 20 years ago.
Since then most of those people could switch to something cheaper, or something more powerful or something more suitable
I guess you are just smarter than everyone else.
All us dumb simps here using Mastercam making bank like a bunch of chumps!
knowing multiple cam systems, as well as being not just willing to learn new ones, but taking the initiative to learn new systems, is a MAJOR reason i'm in a position i am today - which is VERY nice. dont ever limit yourself by anything.
nobody is saying it doesnt work bud...
I’ve never touched EDM,
But MasterCam lathe is a nightmare
and MasterCam mill is mediocre overpriced
mhajicek
Titanium
- Joined
- May 11, 2017
- Location
- Minneapolis, MN, USA
It's popular, so it's what people know, and since it's what people know, it's what's popular.
I think very few people are in the position of being able to buy several different seats of CAM to learn them and find their strengths and weaknesses.
I'm in the position of choosing a CAM system for a new venture. I know for a fact Mastercam will meet our needs, so it's the lowest risk option. There are many other options that might be better, but I can't know for sure that they'll meet needs unless I buy them, learn them, and try using them for a few months, which simply isn't an option. It's not like ice cream where I can have one flavor one day and another the next until I decide on a favorite. I have to pick one and go.
I think very few people are in the position of being able to buy several different seats of CAM to learn them and find their strengths and weaknesses.
I'm in the position of choosing a CAM system for a new venture. I know for a fact Mastercam will meet our needs, so it's the lowest risk option. There are many other options that might be better, but I can't know for sure that they'll meet needs unless I buy them, learn them, and try using them for a few months, which simply isn't an option. It's not like ice cream where I can have one flavor one day and another the next until I decide on a favorite. I have to pick one and go.
dont need to buy a seat in order to learn the software. most of them have something like a student edition or educational edition that you can get for free. then there are the less moral ways...
Now question to you.
Do you use any CAD system at your place? Which one? If this is SW why you didn’t take CAMWorks or SoliCam?
SW is the most popular CAD in the world up to now. So why people don’t want to have CAM which will be compatible to SW?
mhajicek
Titanium
- Joined
- May 11, 2017
- Location
- Minneapolis, MN, USA
I could get a one month trial, which isn't nearly long enough to learn the software to the level needed to compare, especially when I'm spending most of my time cranking out work on the system I already know, because I'm in a hurry.
mhajicek
Titanium
- Joined
- May 11, 2017
- Location
- Minneapolis, MN, USA
Yes, I / we use Solidworks for design. I talked about those CAM options briefly with my SW rep; he asked what kind of work I was doing, and when I told him, he chuckled and said "nope, those won't meet your needs."
As far as CAM which works within Solidworks, Mastercam made a half effort to do that, but since it wasn't feature complete, no one used it. And since no one used it, they dropped it.
Strange, I liked SolidCam much better than MC.
Mastercam for SW has some nice features but overall, it's useless.
HyperMill and GibbsCAM (GC) have standalone and SW versions.
Are they better than MC? I don't know. I believe HyperMill is better in 5x.
For most cases GC can do the same as MC with better price.
So why MC sells better than GC?
mhajicek
Titanium
- Joined
- May 11, 2017
- Location
- Minneapolis, MN, USA
Various CAM systems may be better than Mastercam in certain niches, but Mastercam is capable of doing just about anything. It's a jack of all trades, if you will. I know that if I'm using Mastercam, I won't be backed into a corner with something that it can't reasonably do. And sure, one or more of those others might be better for my needs than Mastercam, but I can't afford to spend weeks or months to learn one, figure out its best way of doing all the different things I need, and then do the same for the next six options to find out. I have 28 years of experience in Mastercam; it would take a lot to outweigh that.
That's the answer. You choose MC only because you know it for long time and most probably learned it in trade school or college.
Now, I know for sure for 2+1 or 3+1 axis you could choose any budget CAM system and it would be cheaper solution,
for 3D most of this CAM system still would be cheaper, for 5x still most of them uses ModuleWorks platform.
People choose MC only because CNC Software invested in colleges.
And believe me MC cannot do things that many of others system can.
For example GibbsCam can simulate broaching tool and still can do all other things that MC does.
