The time has come – Mastercam X7 has arrived! The good folks at CNC Software have made Mastercam X7 available on their download page, ready for any active maintenance customer to, well, download.

To find out what’s new in Mastercam X7, check out the “What’s New” mini-site here: http://whatsnew.mastercam.com/

As always, if you have any questions about this software release, please contact your local Mastercam reseller.

~ The eMastercam Crew

The Mastercam X7 Training Tutorial series is now ready to order! Thirteen titles complete the lineup from the ever-popular Mill Level 1 and Mill Level 3 duo to the more specialized Indexing and Art Training Tutorials.

Head on over to the store to browse or feel free to give us a call at 800.529.5517 for more info.

As more X7 titles are launched we’ll be letting everyone know via the eMastercam.com Newsletter so be sure you’re subscribed!

~The eMastercam Crew

eMastercam community member Ben Lang (mr801) has embarked on quite a project. He calls it iMpkt (pronounced impact) – an “extreme protection” case for the iPhone 5.

Machined out of aircraft grade aluminum and weighing just 1.73 ounces, the finished product speaks for itself. It’s rugged, yet brings with it a healthy dose of visual appeal. Being funded through Kickstarter means anyone can contribute to help see this this through to fruition. The plan is to offer a number of anodized colors as well as versions for the iPhone 4/4s if the funding goal is reached in time.

Prototype versions showing off anodized colors

Earlier I encased (no pun intended) Extreme Protection in quotation marks; let’s be clear, this isn’t just a fancy name made up of marketing buzzwords – this thing has withstood over 2300psi in a press without breaking!

Ben works for Paramount Machine, located in Salt Lake City, Utah. They are a full service job shop mainly producing aerospace, medical, oil field, and tool and die parts. He took a few minutes out of his busy day to chat with us:

They have three vertical CNC’s, four horizontal machining centers with pallet systems, two 5 axis VMC’s, seven multi axis live tooling CNC lathes, two wire EDM’s and a host of other manual machines and equipment to support those machines. They also have a two CMM’s to check accuracy and positioning.

Unlike many other shops across the US, employees at Paramount Machine are given a lot of freedom to use the internet to increase knowledge and skills to be competitive in today’s market.

Production Facility

 
Here’s the video Ben submitted to Kickstarter to get the project off the ground:

The way a Kickstarter project works is this: anyone can pledge a dollar or more. If the target goal of $80,000 is reached by Monday, Nov 5, the project is considered “funded” and will proceed. If the goal isn’t reached, no one owes anything. The size of pledge will determine what you get in return (aside from helping this project get off its feet).

For example: a $99 pledge gets you a completed, final version, iMpkt billet aluminum Extreme Protection case in a matte black anodized finish, shipped to your door (intl. shipping extra). If any of this sounds interesting, head on over to Ben’s Kickstarter page to learn more (here).

Thanks to Ben for sharing his story & best of luck completing this project!
You can find more images in our Project Showcase gallery (here).

Reality Redesigned is all about innovation and inspiration. The goal of the show is to help and mentor anybody who is willing to step out and submit a great idea.  The contest is for students who design a part for a mountain bike. The better you think your design through, the better your score. This series is going to show the top designs as they go through the spectrum of what it takes to bring a new product to market.

Find Out More
Official Website
Press Release

Lakehead University in Thunder Bay Ontario started their first Formula SAE racing team back in January 2009 by assembling team members, sponsors, and equipment.  In-House Solutions & CNC software supplied a seat of Mastercam software to the team for assistance manufacturing the team’s car.

Since the team’s assembly, Lakehead has had nothing but success.  In 2009 the team entered their first Formula SAE Michigan race, competing against teams from Canada and the US placing 43 out of 91 and received the ‘William C. Mitchell Rookie Award’.  Preparing for next year’s competition, the team came up with a new design for the race car utilizing Mastercam Software.  They manufactured parts such as the mould for body cover, brakes, engine mount, and differential mount.

All of the hard work paid off as then team improved again at the FSAE Michigan 2010 event, placing 39^th out of 120, also making them 5^th out of 18 Canadian teams.  Momentum Magazine featured an article on the team in their November 2010 issue as they prepare to compete and improve again at this year’s FSAE 2011 competition. For more news and pictures of the Thunder Wolf racing team, drop by their site www.lufsae.com.

In-House Solutions Inc. is pleased to announce the signing of a Strategic Post Processor Development Partnership Agreement with Barefoot CNC, Morganton, NC.  Under this agreement, In-House Solutions will develop, sell and support Mastercam post processors and Barefoot CNC will become an integral part of the post processor development team.  Two long term and reputable Mastercam Resellers join forces to develop superior and reliable post processors along with machine simulation for the Mastercam Reseller network.

Mastercam programmers worldwide can continue to benefit from In-House Solutions’ post processors for machines such as Mill-Turn machines (multi-tasking machines), CNC Mills from 2 to 5 Axis including horizontal machines (with probing routines, rotary axis), CNC Lathes such as 2-axis turning to C-axis machining, Wire 2-5 axis, CNC Routers 2-5 axis/Point-2-Point machines (with Multi-Head, Drill Blocks, Aggregates, Pods, Nesting Functions), and 2–5 axis machines such as Waterjets, Lasers, Plasma Cutters, off-line programming of 6-axis Robots and specialty machines.

In-House Solutions’ professional post processor development team will work closely with Jimmy Wakeford, President of Barefoot CNC to ‘write and field test’ post processors for popular CNC machine tools.

eMastercam.com and its Forum will be a focal point for post processor communications and eventually post processor distribution.  This will improve communication between post processor developers and Mastercam end users with the intent of simplifying the post processor modification process.

In-House Solutions is proud to add Barefoot CNC as a ‘Post Development Partner’ with its many years of Mastercam and post processor development expertise.

About In-House Solutions

In-House Solutions Inc. is the Canadian Mastercam Distributor, a Developer of Mastercam Post Processors, and a manufacturer of Mastercam training tutorials and training videos.   It is also a North American Distributor of Robotmaster used for Off-line programming of 6-axis Robots.  In-House Solutions has been a CAD/CAM solutions provider for 23 years and holds a proven sales track record of performance ranking #2 or #3 worldwide in the Mastercam community.  It has accumulated a significant amount of Mastercam and related manufacturing experience.

In-House Solutions is 50 people strong with 7 offices in North America.  It provides Mastercam based CAD/CAM solutions to both manufacturers and educational institutions and is extremely service oriented.

About Barefoot CNC

Barefoot CNC is the exclusive Mastercam Reseller for North and South Carolina, a Developer of Mastercam Post Processors and a Developer of VB scripts.  Barefoot CNC is a successful CAD/CAM solutions provider with over 15 years of experience.  It holds an impressive Mastercam sales and support track record of both growth and performance.  Barefoot CNC provides Mastercam based CAD/CAM solutions to manufacturers and is an avid technical supporter of educational institutions. 

Contact Information

In-House Solutions
Ed House
President
519-658-1471
Email Ed House

Barefoot CNC
Jimmy Wakeford
President
828-438-5038
Email Jimmy Wakeford

A PDF version of this press release has been made available in the downloads section. 

At last, the new eMastercam.com has landed! We have been working very hard to bring not only a pretty new face but some really cool features as well. We set out with a long list of must-haves and an even longer list of "wouldn't it be cool if…" ideas, and today we are proud to share it all with you.

But this is just the beginning!

The new eMastercam.com is a dynamic, community-centric site that begs for participation and thrives on expansion. Quite simply, we want it to be your hub for everything Mastercam. And when we say 'your' – - we mean it. We want to tailor it to the needs of the community. Today we're unveiling the platform; a platform we have some ideas for and one that we'd like to incorporate your ideas into as well. We have created a new Community Forum as a place to share your thoughts, give us feedback and ask site-related questions. 

Right now you might be asking "so what's new anyway?" Let's do a quick overview:

Homepage

As you can see, the new homepage is alive with content. We have a featured article section and it continuously pulls content from the forums, the new wiki, blogs and twitter.

Forums

Perhaps the most anticipated feature of the new site is the upgraded forum platform. Compared to the last forum suite, the new feature set is endless. Some of the highlights are:

•  Your own personal "Watched Content" for both topics and entire forums
•  A multitude of notification settings so you don't miss a beat
•  A mobile (phone) skin for the forums allowing access anywhere
•  Topic ratings
•  Members can also earn reputation points for posting quality content
•  Impressive contextual search
•  Slick uploading and viewing of attachments
•  Private conversations
•  User Profiles
•  Multiple skin support (we'll be adding more)
• Ability to both friend & ignore users
• Simple sign-in with Facebook or Twitter accounts
• Active spam monitoring

Downloads

Our new downloads section tracks revisions, allows us to easily manage the files made available and enables you to rate and comment on them. We will be looking into ways of opening this up to the community without sending our bandwidth bills through the roof!

Store 

The new store platform keeps things basic out of the gate but we look forward to adding features in the future. For now, you can browse by category, filter by version and search for anything you might be looking for. Oh yes, and it only made sense to add PayPal as a payment option in addition to Visa and Mastercard. If Google Checkout was available in Canada we might have added that too!

Wiki

Now things get really exciting. Forums are great, don’t get us wrong but sometimes you can spend a lot of time reading through pages of replies before finding the answer you're looking for. Enter the eMastercam Wiki, the place where eventually, with your help, it will be the destination for curated answers to Mastercam questions.

It gets better.

One of the key features we set out to implement was the ability to move or copy content from the forums to the Wiki. At launch we'll be limiting this functionality to moderators, resellers and administrators until we build out and define the wiki's infrastructure. What this means is that we can sift through the endless pages of content, pick out the important stuff and with a few clicks, move it to an article in the Wiki where it can be edited and added to. Oh yeah, and we have a Media section for How-To and Video tips!

Blogs

A blog is a pretty straight forward concept but what we've created is a melting pot of Mastercam blogging goodness! Out of the gate we'll have the beginnings of our blog list. Expect to see more and more added as time goes on. Our blogging platform has the ability to create blogs within eMastercam or to import outside blogs so if you know of a blog worth adding, let us know!

For starters we'll be featuring: 

•  The Official eMastercam Community Blog
•  CNC Software's Mastercam Xtras Blog
•  In-House Solution's Educational Blog
•  In-House Solution's Post new Dev Blog
•  In-House Solution's new Robotmaster Blog
•  The Future of CNC Manufacturing Education Blog by Bert Maes

Gallery

Again, a straight forward feature. We think it will be neat to see people's various perspectives on Mastercam related events through their photo taking skills. To get us started, there's an album for IMTS 2010. Those of you that were there with your cameras, feel free to fill in the gaps! Perhaps more interesting will be the Project Showcase area where you can show off (preferably non-NDA) parts and add some jargony commentary. 

Calendar

The official community calendar serves two primary purposes: one, to give you the hope of finally organizing your life through the use of private (for your eyes only) scheduling abilities and two, to make the community at large aware of upcoming events with public postings. Resellers get the special treatment of having their own (shared) calendar because they're special.

So that is the new site in a rather large nutshell! Stay tuned to the Community Blog for closer looks at various features. Now go play!
 

Be part of an exciting global event and find out how Mastercam X5 can save you time and boost your bottom line. These information packed sessions demonstrate what Mastercam X5 can do for you and your shop. You will be able to see a preview of the exciting new features; plus, those that attend get the chance to win some amazing prizes!

For more information on these upcoming events, you will need to register in a city near you. Check the reseller calendar for your local reseller's event(s). (You must be logged in to see the calendar).

Resellers – We have populated the reseller calendar with the events posted on CNC Software's site as of October 25th. If your event event isn't listed there yet, please add it! Also feel free to add event details as well. 

This is truly something you won't want to miss! 

Mastercam X5 has landed and the only thing between you and its new features is learning how to use them! Lucky for you, our tireless development team has been working around the clock to bring a lot of new and exciting improvements across our product lines.  

With this release, you can look forward to the majority of our Training Tutorial line receiving a total refresh of both parts and content. We have also changed publishing platforms yielding an overall look that we believe, is cleaner and easier to follow.

We will be changing the name of our “4/5 Axis Training Tutorial” to the “Intro to Multiaxis Training Tutorial” to better reflect its position with respect to the Advanced Multiaxis Training Tutorial. New additions to our multimedia products will include a Training CD to accompany the Intro to Multiaxis book a little later this year.  

As of today, many of our most popular titles are ready for order! We will be announcing the availability of new titles on the Educational Blog and they will subsequently be made available in the Store for purchase. Of course if you are a bookstore or school looking to order you can order through your local reseller or call 1-800-529-5517 if you prefer. 

Here is the Mastercam we know and love in action! (Video courtesy of CNC Software)

Mastercam X5 is set to be released as the latest CAD/CAM software from CNC Software, Inc. Mastercam X5 introduces significant new capabilities, including new dynamic milling techniques, multiaxis machining, Smart Hybrid Finishing, and much more. 

New Dynamic Milling Techniques

Dynamic milling constantly adjusts the toolpath to ensure the most efficient cut possible and allows use of the entire tool flute length, often eliminating the need for multiple depth cuts. New dynamic milling techniques include Dynamic Rest Mill and Dynamic Contour. Dynamic Rest Mill behaves in a manner similar to the current toolpath, only it uses dynamic milling motion instead of core mill or area mill motion for the rest operations. Dynamic Contour uses an intelligent, efficient high speed contouring strategy to remove material along walls. It supports multi-passes and can optionally include finishing passes.

Much easier multiaxis machining

Mastercam's multiaxis suite has new machining techniques and a new, easy, workflow-oriented interface. Mastercam lets you choose the basic type of work you're doing using clear illustrations, and then gives you a clear, step-by-step process for defining how you'll cut the part. Mastercam's multiaxis machining also includes a new highly specialized interface for smooth, gouge-free engine head porting.

Fast, aggressive, intelligent roughing

Mastercam's new 3D surface high speed OptiRough toolpath is a new technique designed to remove large amounts of material quickly using its successful dynamic milling motion. Large, aggressive cuts are followed by fast, smaller up-cuts, safely delivering a fully roughed part faster than ever. 

Smart Hybrid Finishing

Hybrid finishing intelligently blends two efficient cutting techniques in a single toolpath. This new toolpath evaluates the model shape and smoothly switches between Constant Z cutting and Constant Scallop machining. The result is a dramatically finer finish with less work.

These are but a few of many new features available in the latest realease from CNC Software. To see the product live during X5 Roll-out seminars, be sure to check out the reseller calendar for an event near you! (Members must be logged in to view the calendar).