Mastercam X - User Interface Survey

[Thad]

Peter,

 

I think you have very valid points. Offset contour and Save Some are 2 examples that I can think of that won't allow you to preselect. I agree that there are inconsistancies on how some features work. That's just how it is, John. That's not operator error.

 

I certainly hope MR1 is/was checked better than the survey or the calander request form. If not, it'll be another embarrassment for CNC Software.

 

Thad

[mayday]

John, slow down,

I have been using MC since 1990. I am also not happy with X. V9 was almost rock solid. now its square 1 again is it better?? hell no, same thing with an icon crazy screen. mayhaps for someone who came from SW or Acad it may be easier. but for me? a veteran MC user I still can romp with V9. when your dealer.......... I'll leave it at that

[Thad]

quote:

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Now that Mastercam X has been out for several months, we’d like to get your feedback on the new user interface.

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quote:

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I find x to be less intuitive, more cumbersome in the creation of 2d geometry

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Seems like a legitimate answer to a legitimate question. If you've got a problem with that John, you're probably better off leaving this thread. Go home and have a beer, will ya?

 

Thad

[Bruce Caulley]

Analyze >> only is another thing that doesn't work without pre-selection.

 

Overall I think the positives outweigh the negatives 60/40.

 

Bruce

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

I like preselection. Sometimes I still forget but 10+ years doing someting one way does not go away overnight.

 

I'm still of the opinion that CNC went in the right direction on 90+% of things. Since the survey cam up it got me thinking though. I'd like to see for them to have a generic setup with a post and no MD/CD. Of course you would loose future functionality by going that route but for the guys that don't need what the MD/CD was created for... it would be an easier setup and would remove a layer of complexity. Personally I like the MD/CD but I do hear grumblings from people about it.

 

JM2C

[Wade White]

quote:

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you are expected to pre select geometry for many actions,i.e. delete, but for other functions such as xform you have to select after opening the dialog window.

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Delete is one of my favorite functions in X! Hold down the delete key and start clicking stuff off! There are a lot of things I really like about version X. The zoom/pan/rotate fetures are MUCH better IMO, and the RMB menu is just plain great. Being able to rotate and zoom my model while verifying is another great feature.

 

Overall however, I tend to feel clumsy while using version X and tend to find my way into frustration easily. I don't remember that happening with version 9. I also don't remember hammering away at my ESC key like I do now. I'll catch myself beating up my keyboard now and then just to make sure I'm completely out of however many functions might be going on that I might have possibly forgotten about. It's become a habit for me. Anyone else doing this?

 

I do think there have been some nice improvements made, but overall I would say the negative to positive ratio is about 50/50.

 

 

I'm acutally pretty bummed about the whole lost survey thing too. I took the time to fill it out honestly and then just like a crashing McamX, the data was lost.

 

Hey, what'd you guys do, try to print the survey or something?

 

[ 12-20-2005, 09:35 AM: Message edited by: Wade White ]

[Jim ..]

I was looking forward to having more than one window open so I can work on similar jobs at the same time by cutting and pasting my tool paths and features to each window, this is how all my cad software works, all my other windows software works this way, I hate having to close and open files all the time.I was really disapointed about this basic Windows feature not being there.Thats what I thought I was buying.

[Chris Rizzo]

And another subtle ergonomic observation....

 

ribbon bars are horzontal in format. dialogs boxes (i think that's what they are called?) open verticially. The toolpath and solids manager are also vertically in orientation.

 

Your eyes (and brain) are having to continually "re-orient" themselves from reading a changing horizontal hieroglyph, to a vertical one. Once again making the beaten-to-death comparison to 9, but just about all dialog and variable user interface inputs happen in one portion of the screen- the upper left corner (well, sometimes the bottom bar, too).. Point being at a quick glance to always the same area, the user could see exactly what was being asked from a function.

 

I might be grasping at straws, but there's just something about the X interface that I'm trying to pin down. I feel like my eyes are constantly "scanning" all over the screen for information..

 

[Saultspics]

I have been using for about 3 months now and for the most part I like it.

 

They are some inconsistencies in the the way some thing work.

 

I find that I am moving the mouse all over the screen to get to Icons or the green or blue accept button and A LOT of mouse clicks.

 

I do not like the way you need to hit the green button or enter after selecting something to machine I think that if you hit the green check after selecting some thing it should machine it. I can not count the time that I have selected something then hit the check no tool path.

oops forgot to hit the green button or enter. Start over.

 

When doing surface tool paths on a solids you need to select the solid icon in the bar but not with surfaces that is extra moving and clicking to me.

 

 

Stepnen

[Saultspics]

quote:

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I was looking forward to having more than one window open so I can work on similar jobs at the same time by cutting and pasting my tool paths and features to each window, this is how all my cad software works, all my other windows software works this way, I hate having to close and open files all the time.I was really disapointed about this basic Windows feature not being there.

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I agree 100%.

Stephen

[Thad]

I don't like the way operations stay selected in the toolpath manager. If you copy geometry from one op to another, the original op is selected along with all the other ops that you've copied geometry to (drilling ops). Now when you click on an op to select it, it promts you to change the name. (This is sporadic.) Then you have to click on something just to unselect everything so you can then click on the op that needs editing.

 

If an op is selected and you right click on another op (to delete it, for example), the op you just right clicked on does not get selected and you'll delete the previously selected op. You have to click to select it, then right click and delete.

 

Try copying geometry, copying ops, moving, right clicking...anything you can think of to manipulate various ops in the toolpath manager and see what happens. You'll see it's very easy to move or copy more than you anticipated, or delete things you didn't want to.

 

Importing ops always puts them in the toolpath manager in reverse order of what you selected them.

 

The customizeable RMB has it's advantages, but it adds a minimum of one extra mouse click to EVERYTHING you do with it.

 

I wish the scroll mouse dynamic rotate would funtion just like the "normal" dynamic rotate does. Snap to and rotate about the point you click.

 

Maybe I just don't know how, but I wish there was an easy way to change WCS and keep the T/Cplane to top without so many mouse clicks. 2 clicks would be nice.

 

Maybe I'm getting a little off track here.

 

Thad

 

[ 12-21-2005, 06:19 AM: Message edited by: Thad ]

[Saultspics]

I see why am having trouble with tool paths drill mask on arc you must hit the green button or enter but if you use entities or drill points the check button works.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

I would like to see "Ok", "Cancel", "Apply", and "Help" buttons. After using X since Alpha releases, I've come to the conclusion I don;t like the icons. I gave them the old College try but, I like Words. I'm a word guy, not an icon guy. That's why I have only the View Icons up in my Mastercam X since yesterday. Much cleaner, not like a cartoon, and Alt+ is fine with me. Almost like the older versions for key strokes. Now to work on my hotkeys.

[beej]

quote:

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I might be grasping at straws, but there's just something about the X interface that I'm trying to pin down. I feel like my eyes are constantly "scanning" all over the screen for information..

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this sums it up for me too.

 

And I asked my reseller about opening up multiple windows in X before it came out and he said nobody has ever asked for that, that he knew of. Good to see I'm not alone in this. I'm one programmer, programming multiple machines. Everytime there is a question it's either open up another window of X (really slow) or quit what I'm doing and open up another file, answer a question then close and reopen orignal file.

 

In realestate they say there are only 3 things that are important.---Location, Location and Location.

 

In Cam software there are only 3 things also--time, time, and time.

[steve f]

I agree with James on everything he said. I really miss the customizable hotkeys...my productivity in X is way down just because my mouse does all the work. V9 and previous was fast because I could work through the commands on the left side of the keyboard by memory and use the mouse for geometery selection, etc. Yeah, "create, line, horizontal, endpoint" is drawn out if you're just using the mouse but those commands can be made in one second on the left hand keyboard if it's done by memory.

[heavychevy2155]

i just took the survey, and made a suggestion about adding different right mouse modes. One for drawing and one for toolpathing does anyone else think that may be a good idea. or could come up with other suggestions. I think it would speed things up, and keep from looking everywhere to find different fuctions all the time.

[John13]

quote:

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adding different right mouse modes.

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your already able to customize and create your own right mouse button menus

[heavychevy2155]

i know i can customize them im just saying have some standards like with the tool bar states ie., 2d tool path, 3d tool path, lathe tool path and so on.

[Roger Peterson]

One quick thing about pre-selection. Personally I love it, but I do get this same question asked a lot, why can I preselect on some things and not others... It is actually tied to wether or not the direction of a chain is important to that function. For example xform translate allows you to pre-select. Xform offset contour does not allow pre-selection because the direction of the chain is extremely important. I hope this helps.

 

Oh, as far as analyze only, you can setup your "only" mask and check the box that says "maintain only mask" and then go into analyze and select your geometry. I too hope this gets addressed but it does work.

 

 

HTH

[Thad]

Roger,

 

Save Some and Create Line Parallel have no relation to the direction of the chain and you can't preselect them. I don't believe chain direction affects Offset Contour either, since there is no longer a Left or Right offset. You either take what pops ups, (which *is* based on chain direction) or you flip it.

 

THad

[Müřlıń®]

There are several functions where pre-select does not work.

 

I am sure that they were intended to work but just haven't been fixed yet.

 

Sometimes it takes a very long time to debug...

[Guest]

the more i use x, the more i like it. i started in

version 6.for me it is just taking the time to get use to x. i hated autocursor in 9.1 , but like it in x.i am waiting for wire x to come out.

my opinion could change.

[Jody]

quote:

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i am waiting for wire x to come out.

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http://www.mastercam.com/ENews/December2005/

That says that wire is out. We should be getting it also.

 

Jody

[J. Rod Rood Warmoth Guitar]

beel said...

And I asked my reseller about opening up multiple windows in X before it came out and he said nobody has ever asked for that, that he knew of.

 

I asked for this feature many years ago and a representative from CNC Software who was out here giving a demo in Gig Harbor, Washington told me they were reluctant to move to a Windows interface because of the large DOS base they had as customers. Yet, even then, the writing was on the wall, but CNC Software couldn't read it. Now, today these many years later, who is running DOS? And while competitors have ramped up very quickly with programs that use the full Windows interface and features, CNC Software is way behind the power curve. When I knew X was on the distant horizon about a year and a half ago, I pressed my Distributor to jump up and down on the desk of CNC Software to incorporate multiple Windows under X, but for some reason it didn't happen. You can open two instances of X and copy and paste geometry between the two instances which is certainly better than the 9.1 way of save some geometry to a temporary file, make sure the geometry in the temp file is on the right level, and then merge the temp file.

[Tinny]

We have 3 seats of Mastercam and we are all displeased with it. I have used it the most, but I still find the interface cumbersome, and at times baffling and illogical. In my opinion MCX have been far removed from the seamless transition it was hyped to be. Most baffling to me is the apply and end chain icons - exactly the same, whats that all about?