O/T Changing from Mastercam

[jdempsey]

I have a great opportunity to change jobs. The only problem is they use surfcam. I just want to know how close is surfcam to mastercam? Will it be close enought that the learning time will be minimal or big enough that it will take a long time? Any replies will be appreciated. Dont send the flame thrower this way, I have no choice on their software.

[crazy^millman]

Good luck from what I seen in a Demo looked alot a like. Maybe once you get in there you can get a Demo of Matercam and show them what it can do then you will only be away a little while. Sucks but soemtimes you got to do what you got to do to make a living. Best of luck.

[jdempsey]

Thanks Millman, I appreciate the reply. I will give it my best shot on changing over to mastercam.

[mold100]

I had to make that trnsition once and coming back to mastercam was one of the biggest factors in leaving that place. The learning curve is minimal, It took me about a day and half get where the paths were what I wanted.With surfcam 2002 your really limited on surrface toolpath capability, I heard 2004 gots bugs.Just remember a Mans got to do what a Mans got to do.

[jdempsey]

Thanks for the reply Mold100. Im sure it will be a big change for me. It will be mostly 5 axis programming. Im looking at it as being a chance to learn another software.

[cadist]

Hi jdempsey

I was on surfcam for six month, really it is very limited options from my point of view . Don't know much about it's 5 axis capablity but never saw it with any 5axis machines.

[Greg Williams]

Hi,

 

Your new sysytem will be powerfull enough to get the job done and it is not that different to your current one. Like most things it has it's little problems and it's workarounds, which the current programmers will no doubt help you with so Good luck.

 

My advice is too keep coming back here for a look every now and again as there are a lot of engineering wise people here

[Scott Bond]

jdempsey

 

I used it untill 1988, it worked , we all make the same parts. Get the best job you can.

[Phil Orenstein]

I was working for a mold shop a while ago that used Surfcam. They had me use Mcam and we compared apples to apples and I found Mcam can do it all with some workarounds. Surfcam had some pretty wild features as I can recall especially for detail mold work, like surface intersection spline creation and ramping down at plunge rate on 3D contours. You will no doubt enjoy some of those finer features of surfcam, being an Mcam user.

 

Good Luck,

Phil

[MIL-TFP-41]

From my limited experience with Surfcam, it is very close. As far as its capabilities compared to Mastercam...they are close, at least it seemed so. Surfcam does have a GUI post editor...something Mcam was planning a long time ago but we have yet to see ( V10 I hope??? )

 

I am sure that it has its weak points, but then so does Mcam. (cough) post support (cough)

[Rekd™]

James, what you mean, meng?

 

You've got the best post support in the free world right here at your fingertips..

[lou]

Maybe you can see what the guys have to say on the esurfcam forum..

 

Just kidding

 

Good luck at the new job.

[herbert west]

I used it for awhile also and it was pretty close. This was back in 98"/99". It's SEedit is kick xxxx and the post config. tool is good. It has less choices for toolpaths though kinda like an automatic camera vs a manual one with Mcam being the manual one. Been wanting to try it's "step reduction" milling toolpaths where each sucessive tool machines only the cusps of the previous one.

[timco]

we have been using surfcam for the past 7 or 8 years now we are changing to mcam. you got alot more toolpath capability in mcam. we have been using mcam for about the past 2 years and i like it alot better than surfcam. the switch over didnt take very long learn but we are still learning what all we can do with mcam. good luck