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Mastercam popularity

empower

Titanium
Joined
Sep 8, 2018
OK, some have pointed out key *business level* issues - training, safety, risk.
Yes, people can learn new CAM systems (and to some extent should), but WHAT IS THE RETURN????

So your new staffer wants to use WeirdCAM, so buy them WeirdCAM. But nobody else in the shop knows how to use it, and new staffer took months to really learn it - which you paid for (or they paid for - somebody paid.) How long to earn that back? (empower *already knowing* several CAM systems will be an advantage going forward, but what did it cost empower to do that?)

What if instead you or your staff developed elite skills using libraries, tables, macros, fixture modeling, post refinement, etc., for the tool already in use? I know for solidcam (which is NOT mastercam) these things can have a big return.

Would your resource (time, money, attention) be better spent adding something like vericut or ncsimula (sp?) to the workflow?

One DOES hear of people buying something like an Integrex or a Multus and then buying CAM specific to that machine.

That chart claims to be *installed* seats - one question is what are their sources??? - could easily be some large users ignore them. There are also likely environments (esp aerospace) where it's part of the "environment" and they aren't allowed, or are very loathe, to change it.

[Decades ago in grad school fellow student told me that for work on a aircraft system, the compiler used to write the control software was frozen, along with other tools. Bug in the compiler? Tough - work around it. By the way there are very real security as well as stability reasons to do this. But point here - how many environments are there where "change the CAM system" makes as much sense as "change the break room fridge from 120volt 1ph to 208volt 3ph".]

That doesn't mean mastercam is wonderful or awful, any more than haas ngc is best or worst - it just means that context matters a very great deal.
cost me lots of time after work. nothing is free, ever. but that time i put in after work learning different softwares has definitely paid off for me.
 

goooose

Hot Rolled
Joined
Nov 14, 2007
Location
canada
HLE has an expiration date now and you have to jump thru hoops to get it...kinda.
It expires when the newer release comes out. They started that 2-3 years ago.
Last year was the change. They changed to a licensing system, still free, you just have to put your email in, takes about 2 minutes.
So now, the software doesn't expire, your license just needs to be renewed. You would do this yearly.
 

DouglasJRizzo

Titanium
Joined
Jun 7, 2011
Location
Ramsey, NJ.
It's "Big Daddy" for a few reasons.
Its interface is pretty straight forward, and its pricing was a bit more reasonable than many of the others.
There are alternatives and they fit certain places that MC doesn't.
I use PowerStation for most of my basic work. Inexpensive, you write your own posts, and it gets the job done.
When I worked for Doosan, I used GibbsCam. It worked well enough and packed a lot of power.
 

Volitan

Hot Rolled
Joined
Sep 16, 2006
Location
Long Island, New York
I usually dont jump in these cad cam wars threads, but I just got a quote to add a mastercam seat for a guy here to take some load off me and I have to say, I'm seriously thinking of giving him my Mastercam and I'll just use the Inventor cam we already have...

$9k for a seat of 2D + wire
Yikes
 

JSL_MFG

Aluminum
Joined
Apr 24, 2022
nice thing about fusion posts is that they're stupid simple to modify to your liking.
Small edits and whatnot, I agree. However, for big stuff like multi-axis linking and positional logic, it's a bit wild. About a year or two ago they changed the function calls to different functions. Meaning, the posts we had dialed in no longer functioned as they always had because the kernel was looking for different function commands. To make matters worse, they didn't release an updated post manual so there was no way of even finding which function calls were changed. This is how we crashed a 5-axis machine, and yet another reason F360 sucks in terms of reliability. Don't even get me started on the Powermill and Featurecam technology they're attempting to stuff into fusion. Even the software engineers know it's not working well.

I guess at the end of the day, fusion isn't reliable enough for shops where time is money. It's buggy, and the technology is constantly changing without any real oversight and testing. They just throw stuff at the wall and wait for users to report issues. Personally, I can't afford to deal with that crap.
 

DouglasJRizzo

Titanium
Joined
Jun 7, 2011
Location
Ramsey, NJ.
I usually dont jump in these cad cam wars threads, but I just got a quote to add a mastercam seat for a guy here to take some load off me and I have to say, I'm seriously thinking of giving him my Mastercam and I'll just use the Inventor cam we already have...

$9k for a seat of 2D + wire
Yikes
The GibbsCam I had was closer to $50k with everything.
 

goooose

Hot Rolled
Joined
Nov 14, 2007
Location
canada
$9k for a seat of 2D + wire
Yikes
This is how we crashed a 5-axis machine, and yet another reason F360 sucks in terms of reliability.

Do you want to pay $9k to fix the broken machine or pay $9k to not break the machine :D


...before the fusion gang attacks, this is just a joke based on the two quoted comments. I shouldn't have to point that out but I can already picture the next 3 pages in this thread if I didn't.
 
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Volitan

Hot Rolled
Joined
Sep 16, 2006
Location
Long Island, New York
Do you want to pay $9k to fix the broken machine or pay $9k to not break the machine :D


...before the fusion gang attacks, this is just a joke based on the two quoted comments. I shouldn't have to point that out but I can already picture the next 3 pages in this thread if I didn't.

These threads always go bad. Every software seems to have it's evangelists. I was just suffering from sticker shock when I happened to see this thread so I chimed in.
I did put in a call to Bobcad though to see how much 2 seats of wire would be
 








 
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