MasterCAM Wire

[MachineSMMC]

We just purchased a Fanuc Wire EDM. I was wondering how people like MasterCAM's wire package. Does it work well for the fanuc Wires? Has anybody used Fanuc's software for programming the wires? How do they compare?

 

Thanks

Chris

[CAM-mando]

We use Wire, it works pretty well. Not familiar with the Fanuc software.

[Harryman]

Hey Chris, we are going to go look at a Fanuc next week.

 

Why the Fanuc?

 

Got time to talk? Email me if do.

[mold100]

Well, I am going to take a flameing on this one but its my own opinion which may mean nothing, As a die hard mastercam machining center person and not actually running a wire I have, and this is the 3rd shop in row MC just can not compete with Esprit when it comes right down to it. What Mastercam does for a mill Esprit does for a wire, 3 shops in a row had tons of issues 2 with charmilles and one with agies okay on most 2d but lost it in 4ax. I am sure that all three programmers may have been an issue but they were able to really get it together with esprit. The differance is cost and software differances if you

want to keep all machining software in the same format then go with MC, I compare the same with solids and Solidworks, no one can argue that. No one software is the best at everything but milling we got that locked down IMO.

[CAM-mando]

Yeah Corey from what I have seen I couldn't really dis-agree with anything you said. I looked at esprit waaaaayyy back when I bought our Mastercam 10 years ago. Esprit was wellknown for wire then and their mill / turn functionality was coming along. They had just ported their unix version over to NT at that time. If we were only concerned with wire, we probably would have gone with it. But we bought Mill, Turn and wire. Their pricing structure was set up in a way that took them out of the picture for us when we looked at 3 separate seats.

 

98% of our work is 2 axis MC has been fine for us.

[Jimmy Wakeford from Barefoot CNC]

Corey,

 

j/k

 

Mastercam Wire is a very good product, and has come into its own in V9. (Pre-V9?) Espirit was a wire package that went after mills and vice versa Mastercam was a strong mill product that went into wire. The capability is definatly there in the software now. Mastercam wire is where Mastercam lathe was in V7. It is a good product that now has to prove itself to industry (which it will.)

[Roger Peterson]

I'll stick in my 2 cents. I am not a wire guy but have done many a wire post. A lot of the "issues" people had with Mastercam wire were taken care of when V9 came out. It gave us the ability to easily define different thread and cut points, which was an issue for many. Also when it gets to 4 axis, the ability to chain geometry that is not planar is a huge timesaver, and insures accuracy. Having to make 3D geometry planar with the geometry creation available in some of these other packages wasn't confidence inspiring to say the least.

 

JM2C

[jimspac]

I use MC 9 Wire and have no complaints other than my own unfamiliararity with it. Only use it for 2D at work but was impressed with the 4 ax caps in MC training with it. Our Fanucs are early 90's, vintage FAN 16 newest and code is close for what we do from Fan Wire post.

[d00d]

I can't compare since we only have Mastercam Version 8 for wire. But I honestly can't imagine anything being any easier than MC wire. And we do ALOT of pretty complex 4 axis as well as 2D programs with .0005 tolerances. With a good machine and small wire I've seen tolerances held to .0002 using MC wire. BTW We are using a Mits FX 10, and another branch of our Company across the street, has 21 wire machines (3 or 4 different brands) Including fanuc, sodick(sp?) Mits, and charmiles. As far as diversity goes we prefer the Mits.

HTH

[George A.]

Weeeellllllllllllllll

 

This is only 4 months after the fact but.........

 

I learned Esprit cold in August 2004 for our Mits. I had no programming experience before this. I put in about 80-100 hours of trial and error, and about 20 phone calls. Now it is 6 months later and I feel pretty comfortable with it.

 

I have a new boss and he wants to scrap Esprit and go with MC. He has never ran an EDM machine, but he knows everything!

 

The boss is always right.

 

George

[Matt Berube at Ferron Mold]

We have Mastercam 9.1 Wire and a Fanuc Alpha1-IB and I don't have any complaints about mcam wire. And I totally recommend Fanuc WEDM's.

 

We never even considered Fanuc's software. Seems so much better to keep it all in one package...

 

Too bad you have to learn something new but you'll be fine.

 

It could be worse... At least you don't have a Charmilles.

[Roger Martin from CNC Software]

MachineSMMC,

 

Yes, You certainly can use Mastercam Wire to program your Fanuc EDM

BTW, Which Fanuc machine/control do you have?

 

 

George A.,

quote:

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Now it is 6 months later and I feel pretty comfortable with it.

---

It probably would have taken that much time to get going in MC wire!

I can say this with confidence, since I’ve personally installed, supported and trained many new Wire users.

 

quote:

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I have a new boss and he wants to scrap Esprit and go with MC.

---

Yes, it is tough changing to any new system, but you’ll be able to do it. You’ll be able to program whatever wirepaths you need with MC Wire.

 

FYI, There are hundreds of MC Wire systems users in MI (and I do mean hundreds) and many in your G.R. area!

 

Local knowledgeable support for whatever product you have is invaluable and you’ll have that with your MC Dealer. (Axsys).

 

 

Roger Martin

CNC Software

[Brent Wilkerson]

Use MC Wire with our Ona Prima with no problems. Machine could with a lite version of Esprit which was crap. We cut almost everything 4-axis with and never really had a prob yet.

[cadcamjim]

quote:

---

It could be worse... At least you don't have a Charmilles.

---

Don't understand the flame on Charmilles ?

I have a Charmilles Robofil 240 and 90% of my work is 4 axis and holding to .0002 Once I got my post dialed in with a few adjustments I have never had anything Mastercam could not do on this machine.

[Matt Berube at Ferron Mold]

I recently ran Charmilles sinker EDM's for about 18 months. (a 55 and a 20) I will not soon put myself in that position again. I found that the mechanical side of the machine is nearly flawless but the control and associated software is ridiculous. They couldn't have made it any more confusing or irritating if they tried. Even simply jogging the axes around... You can only move one at a time ! Why ???? These machines move slow enough without restricting movement to one axis at a time. I probably shouldn't have put that in there but I have trouble resisting... If my comments can convince a few people to get Fanuc, Makino, Sodick,Mits, etc. instead, I think the world will be a happier place...

[George A.]

Roger M.,

 

Thanks for the encouragement! I start absorbing MC wire next week. I found Esprits support and discussion board very helpful. It looks like this one will be even better!!! There seems to be a larger knowledge base here.

 

I'm hoping that MC deals with "bridge punches" better than Esprit did. What a pain in the a**!!