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Workstation PC is not working properly with Mastercam 2018


KORLOY
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Hello guys!

I need the recommendations how to set up PC and MC for proper work. I just don't have no more patience with Mastercam calculation times, it's just too long. Even small and not really complex parts/surfaces/stock model creation takes lot of time for calculation. The PC itself is a BOMB:

Intel Xeon E5-2667v3, 8x3.2GHz 20MB Cache 3.6 GHz Turbo, 135W, Hyper Threading

32GB RAM

NVidia Quadro K4200, 4GB

1.2 TB SSD Intel S3500

500GB HDD

Windows 10 pro

Hyper threading and all cores are enabled in BIOS

Memory buffering is set to 85% in MC system:

 Capture.PNG.09fb2144eea263e1bc50f07cbbd445c4.PNG

 

 

During calculation Task manager shows that ONLY ONE CORE of CPU IS WORKING at HIGHER INTENSITY while average load on the system is only 5%. Why is that and how to activate other seven(+8 virtual) CORES of CPU?

 

Capture55.PNG.ac72071594bd3d4b89b72049c94f0982.PNG

 

Where the problem can be, what other settings I need to change to get best performance? I am wondering what PC is necessary for really big and complex parts to program with Mastercam?

Waiting for your thoughts and answers!

Kind Regards

 

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Check out View/Multithreading

Set the cores to 8.

This will help with the newer high speed toolpaths that use multithreading

There is not much to be done for the old legacy surfacing paths.

You should also set Maximum available ram to at least 50% in System Config.

You might find this thread interesting

Benchmark 3.0

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The real answer to this question is going to depend on which toolpaths you're actually using and what the parts look like.   I had a quick & dirty summary of the issues here, which may help you figure out where the bottleneck is.  But like the others said above and the benchmark threads have proven, for a lot of people a lot of the time, clock speed & memory frequency are king:

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Here is what Dell has for $15K with an I-9 with SSD, Video Card and Memory I would like to try out.

Quote
Processor
Intel Core i9-10980XE 3.0GHz,(4.8GHz Turbo, 18C, 24.75MB Cache, HT, (165W), DDR4-2666 Non-E [338-BUNQ][389-CGEV][412-AALF] / G4ELUQ0 1
Operating System
Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit, English [619-ANUF] / G2CMHGP 1
Chassis Options
Precision 5820 Tower Core X 950W PCIe FlexBay Chassis CL [321-BFGM] / GVDPU2H 1
Graphics Card
Nvidia Quadro RTX 8000, 48GB, 4DP, VirtualLink (xx20) [490-BFOT][492-BCQN] / GVCGYZ5 1
Memoryi
256GB 8x32GB DDR4 2666MHz UDIMM Non-ECC [370-AFET] / GY7KXW3 1
Systems Management
No Out-of-Band Systems Management [631-ABML] / NOVPRO 1
Operating System (Boot) Drive
Intel NVMe PCIe SSD (Front PCIe FlexBay) [414-BBBV] / FFPCIE 1
Storage Drive Controllers
Intel Integrated controller (RST-e) with 1-2 Front FlexBay NVMe PCIe Drives [321-BDWI] / GCDH8PJ 1
Hard Drive
M.2 1TB PCIe NVMe Class 50 Solid State Drive [400-AVDR][401-ABGV] / 1TC50ME 1
2nd Storage Drive
M.2 1TB PCIe NVMe Class 50 Solid State Drive [400-AVDR][401-ABGV] / 1TC50ME 1

 

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Would be awesome to run a desktop, but I live the mobile life so I'm stuck with having to run a laptop. 

As of right now, this will probably be my next rig. We'll see where the chips fall in January. I'll probably drop down one level on the video card. That one is probably overkill for what I do. But we'll see. That SSD will be gone immediately. I'll drop in my current EVO most likely. 

Dell Precision 7740 Configuration

image.png.2412acaf0d9484e19aa193e2a5a4ffc9.png

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1 hour ago, cncappsjames said:

Would be awesome to run a desktop, but I live the mobile life so I'm stuck with having to run a laptop. 

As of right now, this will probably be my next rig. We'll see where the chips fall in January. I'll probably drop down one level on the video card. That one is probably overkill for what I do. But we'll see. That SSD will be gone immediately. I'll drop in my current EVO most likely. 

Dell Precision 7740 Configuration

image.png.2412acaf0d9484e19aa193e2a5a4ffc9.png

I got the 7740 i9-9880HK, 128Gb of Ram and the RTX5000 and been happy with it's performance. I ordered the 2 of 256 gb Class 40 drive and replaced then with the Pro 970 Samsung 1TB M2 Drive and my Pro 960 from my old laptop and took the additional 256GB class 40 and just kept it for email storage. I have seen some towers choke on files I have been able to do with my laptop. I did get the WD19TB unit to run my 3 monitors and been happy with it. I waited for the credit points from the Laptop to order it and a Swiss Gear Backpack.

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  • 2 months later...

I am having the same issues....I get max speed and 25% max utilization if i'm lucky. this shot was taken during a high speed scallop regen in 2020.  why does the cpu not max out while crunching numbers?  i would think it would use all it has until it reaches completion. This may be a problem since windows 10, i don't remember an issue with windows 7 but i may not have been looking as hard as i am now.

image.png.bc720eff35382633d147be3ee329d90e.png

 Precision 5820 Tower X-Series
 Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9800X CPU @ 3.80GHz, 3792 Mhz, 8 Core(s), 16 Logical Processor(s)

 Windows 10 / 64GB RAM

 NVIDIA Quadro P2200

 SSD 512GB

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On 4/24/2020 at 2:19 AM, KORLOY said:

Hello guys!

I need the recommendations how to set up PC and MC for proper work. I just don't have no more patience with Mastercam calculation times, it's just too long. Even small and not really complex parts/surfaces/stock model creation takes lot of time for calculation. The PC itself is a BOMB:

Intel Xeon E5-2667v3, 8x3.2GHz 20MB Cache 3.6 GHz Turbo, 135W, Hyper Threading

32GB RAM

NVidia Quadro K4200, 4GB

1.2 TB SSD Intel S3500

500GB HDD

Windows 10 pro

Hyper threading and all cores are enabled in BIOS

Memory buffering is set to 85% in MC system:

 Capture.PNG.09fb2144eea263e1bc50f07cbbd445c4.PNG

 

 

During calculation Task manager shows that ONLY ONE CORE of CPU IS WORKING at HIGHER INTENSITY while average load on the system is only 5%. Why is that and how to activate other seven(+8 virtual) CORES of CPU?

 

Capture55.PNG.ac72071594bd3d4b89b72049c94f0982.PNG

 

Where the problem can be, what other settings I need to change to get best performance? I am wondering what PC is necessary for really big and complex parts to program with Mastercam?

Waiting for your thoughts and answers!

Kind Regards

 

There is nothing wrong with your PC specs.

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1 hour ago, pro grammer said:

During calculation Task manager shows that ONLY ONE CORE of CPU IS WORKING at HIGHER INTENSITY while average load on the system is only 5%. Why is that and how to activate other seven(+8 virtual) CORES of CPU?

upon further research....im thinking that  mastercam software is not written to use more than one core. it appears that it is using 100% of one core, spread out over all....so you would have 100/16  (8 +8virtual) would be 6.25% which is close to the 5 and 8 we are seeing.....just a theory

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6 minutes ago, dzwahlen1 said:

upon further research....im thinking that  mastercam software is not written to use more than one core. it appears that it is using 100% of one core, spread out over all....so you would have 100/16  (8 +8virtual) would be 6.25% which is close to the 5 and 8 we are seeing.....just a theory

It depends which toolpaths are being crunched....the older legacy paths are single core as you note....all of the newer highspeed paths as well as many of the 5 axis toolpaths do use multi-core processing

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20 minutes ago, JParis said:

It depends which toolpaths are being crunched....the older legacy paths are single core as you note....all of the newer highspeed paths as well as many of the 5 axis toolpaths do use multi-core processing

ok, so that throws that theory out the window!!

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And, to make it more complicated, it's not only toolpath dependent, but part dependent as well.  Check out my link above as an example, but I can make a toolpath that was written from the ground up to be multi-threaded only use one core by giving it the right combination of geometry.

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1 hour ago, Aaron Eberhard - CNC Software said:

And, to make it more complicated, it's not only toolpath dependent, but part dependent as well.  Check out my link above as an example, but I can make a toolpath that was written from the ground up to be multi-threaded only use one core by giving it the right combination of geometry.

I'm interested, what is the criteria for using multiple cores for lets say 2d dynamic hmm?

Multiple pocket boundaries?

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39 minutes ago, byte said:

I'm interested, what is the criteria for using multiple cores for lets say 2d dynamic hmm?

Multiple pocket boundaries? 

Yes, that's the easy way, but also if there's natural boundaries (I.e., your single boundary chain naturally forms pockets or islands). 3D is the same sort of thing, except that depths make natural good points to hand it off as well.

The first pass any toolpath engine (2d or 3d) will do is to determine what the true boundary is after offsetting for the tool (whether you're keeping inside of your containment, or outside, etc.).  This kinda thing can be threaded if there's clear separation of boundaries and models, but is often single-core because there's overlaps or other interference from the various selections.

Now that it has the offset boundaries, the next step is to figure out if any of those offset boundaries that created a natural pocket/island that is truly separate, and passing those off to be multi-threaded if possible. 

Edit: typo and minor clarifications

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1 hour ago, pro grammer said:

Whenever someone mentions dell I want to vomit.

I've had good luck with Dells

I bought at least 5 workstaions from the Dell Business Outlet store  over a twenty year period and never had a bit of trouble with any of them

Several of them have been given to young guys wanting to learn Mastercam and are still in service today

I'd probably still be buying Dells if they made work stations with i9's. these days

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