Verify Lockups

[harmonson]

thanks Kenneth Potter. im so glad to see that we are not the only people so frustrated by this. when i called cnc about our problem, which by the sounds of it, was nothing compared to others here..., they told me i should have known when purchasing mastercam that it may require a better video card, and that i was just out of luck. so thanks agian.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

I'd like to see more development time spent on Graphics Related issues as well.

The general rule of thumb I have told people is "If it's a 'gamer' card, don't buy it".

This forum is a perfect arena to speak about these issues. CNC Software can then hear what the word on the street is regarding their product(s), which in turn will drive development in the present and in the future.

Another way you can have a say in what gets developed is to become a Beta Tester. There's no pay, no glory but you get to have a say in how things work, etc, AND you get to use it before anybody else does.

 

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James M.

[Bullines]

I guess we'll have to wait and see what CNC will implement. In the meantime, James gives good advice in suggesting to stay away from "gamer" cards. I totally agree. But if we see more of OpenGL implemented in future versions of Mastercam, a "gamer" card may not be such a bad low-cost and SAFE solution. A good example is [GASP] a game; Quake 3 Arena. It's totally developed with OpenGL (it doesn't even have a software rendering mode) and with a gamer card like a GeForce, the way those masive numbers of onscreen polygons scale, rotate, respond to lighting, etc is VERY impressive.

Of course, James is still correct in saying that a non-gamer card is the way to go. Nothing can be dedicated CAD/CAM work-horses like Oxygen and Quaddro cards

[bhyde]

As far as the "Gamer card" issue goes, I run a 1ghz Hp Visualize with 768mb ram,SCSI drives,Fx10 graphics card, I see virtually no difference in the graphics on my work computer to my home system that I built very nearly the same with the exception of the processor and the graphics card!(Geforce2mx).. Works great, but I think that is subject to the limitations of the computer as a whole. (architecture)....;P

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Bill Hyde

Hewlett-Packard Model Shop

Boise,Id 83714

[Kenneth Potter]

Wheew thanks guys I know i was sticking my neck out on this issue. But i I wonder if this video card problem with Mastercam is also related to the poorly design interface that cant even do a simple one click mouse drivin dynamic pan & zoom. Is it because if they tryed to make this interface do dynamic pan & zoom it would cause more crashes & lockups ?????. The current if you can call it a Pan & is sloppy & a pain. Not even close to a modern pan & zoom .

Kenneth potter

[This message has been edited by Kenneth Potter (edited 06-22-2001).]

[Guest]

Multax, how many times a week do you run the kind of verification similar to the pocket rough.mc8 file?

[Bullines]

I wouldn't say it's the interface per se. Maybe just the graphics "engine".

[This message has been edited by Bullines (edited 06-22-2001).]

[Multax]

Dear Forum Users

I hope that Mr. Meyette, Mr. Stephens, Mr. Jay, and Mr. McKay will pool their resources and talents in a collaborative effort to produce and establish THE Mastercam benchmark. The test part for the Mill Benchmark should include all of the mill toolpath capabilities of Mastercam except five-axis toolpaths. For example, the completion of MasterBench level one would use and generate every Mastercam level one toolpath, level two would use and generate every Mastercam level two toolpath, level three would use and generate every Mastercam level three toolpath, including rotary fourth axis, both positioning and simultaneous. At the end of each level of MasterBench, the benchmark would automatically use MPFAN to post the toolpath and generate a benchmark in seconds? The C-axis part, tutorial number six, could serve as the Lathe Benchmark and follow the general outline of the Mill Benchmark. The completion of MasterBench entry would use every Mastercam lathe entry level toolpath. Level one would use every Mastercam lathe level one toolpath, including C-axis positioning. MasterBench should also include a video benchmark that tests rendering or shading as Mr. Meyette has mentioned, dynamic rotation, and zoom in and out.

 

Consequently, a properly constructed MasterBench could give users an insight into a motherboard’s stability and performance, the CPU’s FPU unit, memory subsystem, quality of the AGP implementation, and hard drive performance. Finally, Mastercam users will know which CPU has the best FPU and calculates Mastercam toolpaths in the shortest time, whether DDR RAM actually performs as advertised, the best budget and cost no object video card, the fastest hard drive, which OS, Windows 98, 98SE, Millennium, NT 4.0, 2000 Professional has the best benchmark.

I hope that CNC Software will write Mastercam V10 as a native, fully multithreaded 32 bit 2000 Professional Advanced Server application, or possibly as a 64 bit XP fully multithreaded application that can use two, four, or even eight CPU’s to give near instant toolpaths. UG, the creators of Parasolid, announced the multithreaded version of their modeling kernel on December 1, 1998. Remember, the Itanium, Clawhammer, and Sledgehammer will debut in 2002.

Multax

[This message has been edited by Multax (edited 06-22-2001).]

[CycleTimeCharles]

I don't think Mastecam is the only software that complains about crappy OpenGL cards and drivers.

Here is a OpenGL benchmark.

Download the free Cosmo VRML Player

http://www.cai.com/cosmo/html/win95nt.htm

Install it and play around with their "Chomp! Learn to use Cosmo Player" or download DIE.ZIP from ftp://mastercam:[email protected]/Mastercam%20forum/

Double-click on DIE.WRL to load it and zoom and pan around on this part.

My Toshiba Satellite Pro 4300, Win98se with S3 drivers hangs unless I turn down my video accelaration a couple clicks.

Check out "relnotes.html" for their graphics card issues

 

This is just a simple viewer, were MasterCam has CAD tools, Toolpath generation and Verificatation.

 

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Quick poll,

How many people would buy/build a Multiple CPU system if Mastercam was able to run multi-thread?

I have an idea, I just want to confirm or refute it.

Thanks,

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James M.

[Kenneth Potter]

James

Heres my 1 cents about buying a Multiple CPU system if Mastercam was able to run multi-thread . NO. solve the grafixs card issues first.

A Real Mouse driven one click Dynamic Pan & Zoom.------> WHEN?

 

 

 

 

[cadcam]

James after talking with you i am still thinking about changeing my 1gig system into a dual 1gig.

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jay/ aka cadcam

Precision Programming

cnc programming &

Predator reseller

email: [email protected]

web: www.ppcadcam.com

Mastercam forum FTP free file support

ftp://www.ppcadcam.com

User: mastercam

Pass: forum

[This message has been edited by cadcam (edited 06-23-2001).]

[Toby]

Jeremy,

Craig Madsen, Local dealer for San Jose, Has done a number of tests using different video cards and cpu's. Although testing is limited it could shed some light on your earlier question.

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Toby Baughman

Programming Supervisor

Saint Gobain Semicon Group Inc.

Vs8.1.1 LvL3 Mill + solids

[This message has been edited by toby (edited 06-25-2001).]

[gstephens]

Kenneth:

How much more mouse pan and zoom do you want?

You can already use the "T"(ranslate) and

"S"(cale) options in GView-Dynamic. That seems to me to be what you're looking for.

Personally, I would just as soon use my arrow keys and PageUp/PageDown keys, but if you really can't live with what Mastercam offers, go buy a Spaceball ($800 mouse in my opinion). The drivers are already built in. Plug it in and Mastercam will find it.

[Kenneth Potter]

gstephens

Have you ever use a Modern real time mouse drivin"one click" pan & zoom before? Because if you had then youll complain about our Mastercams current version of Dynamic pan & zoom. Fire up your version of autocad & play with its dynamic pan & zoom Then come back to Mastercams Gveiw/dynamic/scale/translate & key board zoom in & out . Then youll get my point. Youll want to trash it cause its clumsy to work with & flat out dumb.

Any Cad/cam system that has any Gonads, Has a true dynamic mouse driven one click pan & zoom.

Sorry Cnc software folks but this modern feature is way over due!-------> When

Kenneth Potter?

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

I've always liked the Arrow Keys/Alt+Arrow Keys/Pg Up/Pg Down. The CAD Systems I've used that have the features you're requesting, they felt clumsy to me. The way they do it now is precise, not as dynamic. But, as long as they don't take away the arrow key.......

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James M.

[Kenneth Potter]

James

Real time pan & zoom on all the other system still have keyboard arrow keys. But with dynamic mouse driven real time pan & zoom youll never have to use keyboard arrows.Why? cause you dont have to fumble around with keyboard arrows trying to reposition your drawing. Its right there on demand with one click, It will make your drawing sessions much faster cause you can focus more on your drawing & not fight the keyboard.

Your eyes NEVER have to leave the screen to fumble with those dumb arrow keys! cutting down on fatigue. Real time Mouse driven dynamic pan is so precise ,lighting fast an so eazy to use. By todays standard a must to have. Its used by other cad systems for years.

Its time

Kenneth Potter

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[This message has been edited by Kenneth Potter (edited 06-26-2001).]

[Webby]

Anything to add to the topic "Verify Lockups"? No? Good.