% of people using X for cavity machining in toolmaking

[darren]

We currently use mastercam V9.1 sp2.Im intersested to know how many users use mastercam x for cavity machining of plastic injection, high pressure dies, sand corebox and complicated 3d surfaces. Also does it have a feature like powermills 3 + 2 Machining for 5 axis machines.Is the generating of x far better then v9. Management are leaning towards Powermill so I need some help to tell them the pro and cons of X against powermill

[DavidB]

In my opinion MC is far to slow for toolmaking.

I used Powermill and MC making plastic injection moulds and large press tools.

Back then Powermill was 8 times faster than MC to generate the excact same toolpath.

 

Even now with MC's "new" HS toolpaths the generation time is very slow, it's just to dam slow for this day and age.

HS Toolpaths

 

If it was my $ for your application I'd go Powermill.

Do a search theres plenty of info for you.

 

HTH

[darren]

Thanks david, how did you do your 2d paths when toolmaking did you use powermill,or did you program on the machine ,also was the verify on powermill as good as mastercam, eg colour coding where material is left

[Yogesh K. Raman]

quote:

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cavity machining of plastic injection, high pressure dies, sand corebox

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I'd say 75% of my Malaysian customer who use MC do this.

They might not finish it with mill, but still its MC for the electrodes...

You need to Define complicated surfaces...

[darren]

We mainly specialise in making cylinder head dies,and files are usually around 1200 surfaces

.We m/c most dies fully on the one m/c down to 2mm ballnoses in 48 r/c with minimun draft on the walls.We very seldom edm the dies now.. the problem is mastercam v9 is i feel slow to generate, mainly restmill programs .I need the pro's & cons of X compared to Powermill for this sort of applications. At this stage i think we are better off using our ver 9 for 2d and powermill for 3d any other feed back would be appriecated thanks

[DavidB]

Get the Delcam rep to come out I'm sure they will give you Powermill for a valuation period,they did for us.

 

Or download and evaluate here Powermill

 

We had MC as well so all 2d and drilling ops where done in MC.

[Teh Bear without Brains kinda idiot]

I never had a problem with MC making molds ,yet there are some issues you need to know ,though .

Like in any program .

I was fast too .

[darren]

has anyone else used both powermill and mastercam x, please help with this info. which prog do you prefer for 3d surfacing thanks

[Jack Neelands™]

Used both in Brisbane ....Powermill is great for 3D work ...and fixes up holes better than you could with mastercam but the 2D sucks

[lynnz]

Never used powermill, but we've used Mastercam since 1995 with good results. About 90% of our work is 3D surfacing type work producing foundry patterns and coreboxes.

Mastercam carries the mail for us.

 

lynnz

[Müřlıń®]

Mastercam for forging dies here, all 3-d, cavity/core work.

[New Job]

I've found X to be as good or better at handling any surf/solid you can throw at it. I do wish it was easier to modify some surfaces, but is still far cry better than my alternative (MCAD). We use it for 3/D machining of mold cavities and have not had any complaints about how fast it would process a file.

[Roger Peterson]

Adaptive Clearing for Mastercam

 

Check it out, there are some sample files you can download right from the website. Many people are only interested in the Adaptive Clearing strategy. It has very fast generation times for roughing and rest roughing. And tool life on the first few times you use it will pay for itself.

 

 

HTH

[medaq]

I would check out tebis for this kind of work, everything I have seen in major surfacing 3d type work I have been very impressed with how fast and how much control they have on surfacing...

 

Jim

[Ocean Lacky™]

Same as Murlin, here...We're happy with it.

[tpreb6]

Darren,

 

My suggeation would be to evaluate Power Mill. When doing this evaluate how well the finished product looks, its accuracy, the proccessing time and thing of this nature. Try not to evaluate the interface too much because any software that you use every day is always going to be easier and quicker to operate. You can not learn a new tooling software in 30 days. It will take a few months of programing to learn the different settings and how they affect your tool path. Even your machining time will get alot better the more you learn. So, when evaluating think past the learning curve. Everything gets easier everytime you use it.

 

Power Mill is pricey and there is a reason for it. You will have more options to control the tool. Better path editting and faster proccessing time.

 

It would be my suggestion to have both Mastercam and some other type of high end cam package. This would give you alot of options to make your job easier. Not to mention that you will become more valuble as an employee and marketable if looking for a were ever an option.

 

I would like to add that do not overlook and option in any software! I have seem many people that program every day that do not use toolpaths or options in their toolpath because they never used it before. The worst part is when I come back at a latter time they are back to the same old thing. UUUUUGGGGGG! I just mentioned this because it is really easy to do when learning a new software.

 

The bottom line is that in todays market you have to meet the demand, "I need this tomorrow!" If you can't keep up with your costumers demands they will go to someone who can. I am not your competition, and nobody on this board is, China is. Our company has stole many production tools from China, not because we were cheaper but, because we were able to do it quicker. I think that says alot.

 

Hope I was able to help in some way.

 

 

Tom

[Lee.]

Mastercam is the only program we have needed since 1999.

 

All of my work is 3-d surfacing, some jobs are 8 feet by 4 feet.

 

No problems here.

[darren]

Tom we also have UG for all our designing and 3 seats of cam in ug, But currently we just use mastercam for our cam programming on the shop floor, do you use UG for any of your 3d programming. Myself i have never used UG

Thanks everyone for your feed back it has helped me greatly. I have just recieved a trial version of X and Powermill, I just need to make some time and work out how to use them.Does the holder collision checking on X work well?????

[DavidB]

quote:

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.Does the holder collision checking on X work well?????

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Not as good as powermill. Powermill can split the toolpath up and tell you tool extension needed.

 

The toolpath editor in powermill is very powerful

[Jack Neelands™]

Ug rocks for 3d and 5 axis+ machining ...used it for 3 yrs at EGR ...2d is a bit long winded when you want to just cut a curve ...but also dam expensive ...the learning curve can be long for the those that havent been properly trained in Uni-Graphics..... where abouts you located darren?

[tpreb6]

Darren,

 

We only use UG for design.

[Roger Peterson]

A buddy of mine was laid off after 9/11 (join the club) and started a new job using a new software (he was a pro manufacture use). He kept telling me how awesome the toolpath editor was. After he used it for a while (about a month) he then told me that it had to be a good toolpath editor because you had to edit every single toolpath you created. You could not create the toolpath you wanted, you created what it wanted and then modified it with the editor. I don't remember what the software was, I don't beleive it was Powermill though. Watch out for perceived "features".

 

 

HTH

[Jack Neelands™]

edit?

 

 

what the heck would you possilble want to edit?...god if i cant get it right the first time around i need a new career....might change a tool number or something because it doesnt jive with the machine right at that moment but edit?

[darren]

Jack I'm from Adelaide, South Australia.Thanks all I'll have a good look at X , the price is a lot better on the hip pocket and we have been using mastercam since ver7.But if powermill has the goods who knows??? maybe both ??? WE dont have a 5 axis but down the track we will be.On X for 5 axis positioning do you use the wcs for different positions and post off all ops and the post proceses tells the machine the angles.This may seem a dum question !!!!!Currently we use jigs to obtain our different positions and rotating model with wcs then post off that set up

[darren]

Hi Colin , Thanks for explaining it to me ,is this correct. The post will take care of the rotating of the axis for 3 + 2 and you dont need the 5 axis add on

 

darren