Is 2024 working well or should we stick with 2023?

[amw]

Hey guys we just bought 3 seats of mastercam (2 mill, 1 lathe). This is one shot deal, I dont plan on buying maintenance ever. We are entitled to the first release of 2024 but no updates past that, so want to make sure there are no major bugs.

I would like to use the updated stock features in 2024.

So is it safe to switch to 2024 or should i stick with 2023? 

 

 

[MrFish]

Personally I would stick with 2023 as the bugs have "mostly" been ironed out and for me the lack of thought for stock/fixture management when programming second operations in the same machine group is a real no go at this stage.

[OVodov]

10 hours ago, MrFish said:

Personally I would stick with 2023 as the bugs have "mostly" been ironed out and for me the lack of thought for stock/fixture management when programming second operations in the same machine group is a real no go at this stage.

I don't believe they will fix issue of stock/fixture in 2024. Maybe 2025, maybe 9 years later.

[OVodov]

14 hours ago, amw said:

Hey guys we just bought 3 seats of mastercam (2 mill, 1 lathe). This is one shot deal, I dont plan on buying maintenance ever. We are entitled to the first release of 2024 but no updates past that, so want to make sure there are no major bugs.

I would like to use the updated stock features in 2024.

So is it safe to switch to 2024 or should i stick with 2023? 

 

 

I use 2024 and find it pretty steady, no annoying bugs so far.

There are some minor improvements to make your life easier and some improvements to make your life harder.

Updated stock is become easier since you can run simulation having updated Stock model at beginning of your ops.

Fixturing became stupidly harder to use.

 

[cncappsjames]

My personal opinion FWIW, is ALWAYS update unless there is a mission critical reason not to. "Bugs"... definitely NOT a reason to not update. All software has them. And if HyperShill or GibbSCAM boy tells you it theirs doesn't... they lie like rugs. Programmers should be able to work around obstacles, it's the nature of the job IMHO.

[Aaron Eberhard]

11 hours ago, cncappsjames said:

My personal opinion FWIW, is ALWAYS update unless there is a mission critical reason not to. "Bugs"... definitely NOT a reason to not update. All software has them. And if HyperShill or GibbSCAM boy tells you it theirs doesn't... they lie like rugs. Programmers should be able to work around obstacles, it's the nature of the job IMHO.

That's generally been my opinion too, BUT, there are two releases that I actively recommended people stay away from.  X4, I think it was, and 2023 for multiaxis work.   I believe most of the issues are now patched up for 2023, but I did my best to avoid it until the last update.  Sooo many hours lost.  So far, 2024 seems pretty solid, though!

[OVodov]

10 minutes ago, Aaron Eberhard said:

That's generally been my opinion too, BUT, there are two releases that I actively recommended people stay away from.  X4, I think it was, and 2023 for multiaxis work.   I believe most of the issues are now patched up for 2023, but I did my best to avoid it until the last update.  Sooo many hours lost.  So far, 2024 seems pretty solid, though!

I liked 2023 for multiaxis over 2022.

2022 was really unstable for me. Maybe it just wasn't set correctly.

 

[Aaron Eberhard]

7 minutes ago, OVodov said:

I liked 2023 for multiaxis over 2022.

2022 was really unstable for me. Maybe it just wasn't set correctly.

 

I had multiple problems with it, some involving planes, many involving solid selections.  The MW toolpaths have a unique issue where if you change the collision control solid selection for one operation, all MW toolpaths that reference that solid will go dirty.  2022 worked really well for me.

[cncappsjames]

I actually didn't have too manuly issues with 2023. That said, I don't use Mastercam/IHS/Postability posts nor do I do design work in it either. Only what I need for tooplath. I do ALL my post processing with CAMplete. Even 3-Ax. It's just SO easy to edit posts, even 5-Ax. 

[Jobnt]

On 7/3/2023 at 11:40 PM, cncappsjames said:

And if ... GibbSCAM boy tells you it theirs doesn't... they lie like rugs.

GibbScam not only has bugs... they JUSTIFY them!

For example, imagine having 10,000 entities across 250 levels and over 5,000 operations (HAHAHA, made you look, nobody in their right mind would use GibbScam for that) and you had to delete a bunch of geometry. One of those pieces of geometry was associated to a toolpath but GibbScam won't tell you that when you try to delete it. They'll just quietly delete it just like you asked. But if you try to regen that operation GibbScam will quietly delete it because it has no geometry because it didn't tell you it was associated when you deleted it. 

When I went after tech support they said it was a desired outcome. They literally told me that it would take too much processing power for GibbScam to scan everything you were trying to delete to see if it was associated to a toolpath. Literally. 

That single incident had some bearing on my deciding to leave that job and go somewhere with Mastercam. 

[sharles]

In 2020 or 2021, they had some stupid bug in machine simulation so that it couldn't read bullnosed tools correctly and gave false collision warnings. We had literally spent 6 months updating our abilities to use machine simulation with custom models of our machines and adding all our tools and holders and extensions into the library in 2019...only for them to break something so simple. We found the bug as soon as we moved up, but it was already too late, and CNC Software had moved on to more pretty bells and whistles for the next year, and so we were stuck in 2019. I'm kind of surprised no one else in the entire world found that glitch...are we the only ones using machine sim with bullnosed cutters??? Anyway, there was another game stopping, stupid bug the other year of 2020 or 2021, can't remember what it was at this moment, and so we had to skip 2 years until 2022 finally came out. But I learned to try and move up before they move on to the next year's version, if possible. 

Right now I can't even move us up because we need an external post enabler file...and my reseller said it isn't ready yet, sigh...

[gcode]

2 hours ago, sharles said:

Right now I can't even move us up because we need an external post enabler file...and my reseller said it isn't ready yet, sigh...

We've got a half dozen Postability Machine Sim's here.

I've updated several of them to MC2024 with no issues.

I asked Postability about a 2024 Post enabler install and was told it is not necessary.

All of the Machine Sims and Postability posts I've updated so far work properly.

That doesn't necessarily mean your machine sim does not  need a Post Enabler

but I would certainly try updating to 2024

[sharles]

1 minute ago, gcode said:

We've got a half dozen Postability Machine Sim's here.

I've updated several of them to MC2024 with no issues.

I asked Postability about a 2024 Post enabler install and was told it is not necessary.

All of the Machine Sims and Postability posts I've updated so far work properly.

That doesn't necessarily mean your machine sim does not  need a Post Enabler

but I would certainly try updating to 2024

Thanks, Gcode, I'll give it a try!

[gcode]

5 hours ago, Jobnt said:

That single incident had some bearing on my deciding to leave that job and go somewhere with Mastercam. 

 

well yes... that could get very exiting when pocket roughing op #2242 gets quietly deleted

and your finish endmill dives into solid stock to finish the pocket.

[TFarrell9]

The issue I'm experiencing with 2024 is Stock Flip is not working in Verify, which is really annoying. I haven't created a file in 2024 with Stock Flip yet to see if there is a different result, but every file I've saved from 2023 so far, the Stock Flip does not work in 2024 Verify. 

Another issue I've encountered in Verify from updated files is when using 2d Contour Ramp, it will show the tool continuing to ramp on the last depth rather than making a full pass on the final depth. Backplot and the G-code are correct, yet Verify just makes something up. Only noticed in 2d Contour Ramp so far, Lathe module. 

Edit: I just made a mock file in 2024 and Stock Flip worked in Verify, so it seems there is an issue when updating a file. 

 

[cncappsjames]

Just uninstalled 2023 and installed 2024.... and we're off.

On 7/5/2023 at 9:50 AM, gcode said:

 

well yes... that could get very exiting when pocket roughing op #2242 gets quietly deleted

and your finish endmill dives into solid stock to finish the pocket.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

[neurosis]

5 hours ago, TFarrell9 said:

The issue I'm experiencing with 2024 is Stock Flip is not working in Verify,

It feels like they've changed the way that works.  I've always used TOP for creating sock models and then moved everything around as needed.  I've noticed a difference between 2023 and 2024 but couldn't put my finger on it because of the way I use it. 

they've broken some of these things so many times that I try to find something that will work long term and stick with it. 

[cncappsjames]

Uninstalled 2023 and Installed 2024 on Friday. I haven't run any substantive tests yet. Monday I've got a few 5-Axis fit-checks to run so we shall see. 

[TacoMachinist]

On 7/8/2023 at 9:39 PM, cncappsjames said:

Uninstalled 2023 and Installed 2024 on Friday. I haven't run any substantive tests yet. Monday I've got a few 5-Axis fit-checks to run so we shall see. 

Did you get CAMplete 2024 plugin to install correctly?

[Ben Wood]

4 hours ago, TacoMachinist said:

Did you get CAMplete 2024 plugin to install correctly?

 

I just installed CAMplete 2024 and selected the 2024 Mastercam plugin.  It didn't work for me.  I checked in add/remove programs and the installer says the plugin is installed.  I'll mess around a bit more to see if I can get it working.  Just came here to check here to see if anyone else was having trouble.

[Ben Wood]

Now when I use the CAMplete plugin out of Mastercam 2023 it takes me to CAMplete 2024.  Not what I wanted.  Life was much simpler back when I used a post processor.

[TacoMachinist]

1 hour ago, Ben Wood said:

 

I just installed CAMplete 2024 and selected the 2024 Mastercam plugin.  It didn't work for me.  I checked in add/remove programs and the installer says the plugin is installed.  I'll mess around a bit more to see if I can get it working.  Just came here to check here to see if anyone else was having trouble.

Ah, I had the exact same problem. The autodesk installer is broken and doesn't put any files in the mastercam chook folder.

So the way I fixed it was going into the C:>Autodesk>CAMplete_Truepath_2024_2024_1_02882_win_64bit_dlm > x64 > Plugins > Mastercam > Mastercam 2024

Then uninstall then reinstall using the  .msi program in there.
 

Autodesk support kept asking me to uninstall and reinstall 100 times thinking it was a registry issue.

[Jobnt]

11 minutes ago, TacoMachinist said:

Autodesk support

Autodesk and Support?

Surely you jest.

 

[Ben Wood]

17 minutes ago, TacoMachinist said:

Ah, I had the exact same problem. The autodesk installer is broken and doesn't put any files in the mastercam chook folder.

So the way I fixed it was going into the C:>Autodesk>CAMplete_Truepath_2024_2024_1_02882_win_64bit_dlm > x64 > Plugins > Mastercam > Mastercam 2024

Then uninstall then reinstall using the  .msi program in there.
 

Autodesk support kept asking me to uninstall and reinstall 100 times thinking it was a registry issue.

Thanks,  That fixed it for me also.

[volitan71]

On 7/4/2023 at 9:54 PM, cncappsjames said:

I actually didn't have too manuly issues with 2023. That said, I don't use Mastercam/IHS/Postability posts nor do I do design work in it either. Only what I need for tooplath. I do ALL my post processing with CAMplete. Even 3-Ax. It's just SO easy to edit posts, even 5-Ax. 

I'm totally ignorant about this process.

Are you saying you toolpath in Mastercam and then use another software to post it?