Mastercam vs. Esprit

[Jay Kyle]

..any thoughts?

 

It seems that Esprit has a lot of the features of Mastercam and is strong in the MATTS functionality.

[Guest]

Guys will tell for the Multi axis turning it kicks arse, pretty good

 

For milling and EDM, not so good

 

If you do a search you'll find several discussions about it.

[Hardmill]

Ive currently been using Esprit for the last 4-5 months.

It does do alot of the Mill/Turn stuff nicely but the

easy stuff is quite the opposite.

Its also really unpredicable to say the least.

 

If you got any specific ???s feel free to email me.

 

 

PEACE

[gcode]

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Ive currently been using Esprit for the last 4-5 months

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It takes a big man to admit that..

Have you tried counceling ???

[cadcam]

quote:

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It takes a big man to admit that..

Have you tried counceling ???

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LOL!! Thanks Gcode

[Hardmill]

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It takes a big man to admit that..

Have you tried counceling ???

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Hey I neva said I was happy about it

 

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LOL!! Thanks Gcode

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:EYE GOUGE:

 

 

PEACE

[pronc]

I implemented Esprit here last year. Very happy with it. The posts are excellent. Their web support is top notch. The software is very easy to learn. Esprit 2008 will be shown at the conference here in Newport next week.

[Watcher]

Period.

[Gorn_TY]

I am currently training is Esprit and I like it more each day. I was amazed to discover how strong Esprit is in 5 axis. Example: Mastercam does not support tool comp in 5 axis moves. Esprit does. I know few machines support this but I thouhgt it was cool esprit has already addressed it. I also hated the fact I had to go around and make "feature" before I programmed, now I am seeing some advangages to it.

 

I am also training in Pro-Manufaturing and I would just like to say what a after thought piece of *%$@ package that is.

[Gorn_TY]

"For milling and EDM, not so good"

 

Esprit owns the EDM market. It is and has been the number one EDM product in the US. I remember buying a Wire back in 1993/4 time frame and both the Mit and Sodic salesmans told me Esprit was the best out there hands down.

[Guest]

I based my opinion of several guys that I know that are into both of those applications. ALL of them have gotten away from Esprit.

 

Might be the service in this area but they were not happy with several aspects of the software and it's failures in those avenues.

[Hardmill]

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Might be the service in this area but they were not happy with several aspects of the software and it's failures in those avenues.

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Response to software issues is good, it the issues

that I have an issue with.

 

 

PEACE

[Guest]

One shop I know, their Milling package kept choking and crashing on some intricate pocketing. Their support answer was Yup it's crashing, it's a problem, "maybe" in the next release it'll be fixed.

 

MCAM chewed them and spit them out in "about" half the time it was taking to get through the ones that weren't crashing Esprit.

 

YMMV

 

Any guesses what they are running now?

 

[mikeqes]

In EDM circles Esprit is to wire as MC is to

Milling. I have used both. Somethings work better

in Esprit then MC and vise versa. Esprit tends to be more customized for individual machines while

MC is more generic...at least for Charmilles.

Also support can be tough for MC wire because a lot of resellers don't have much experience in wire. Or as in our case none. Great benefit of Mastercam was that it was easy to transition to progamming cnc milling machines and make myself more versatile.

[Gorn_TY]

I know this is an older thread but I am now better trained in Esprit and can say with a fair amount of confidence "Mastercam Rules". Esprit is a nice 2D package but when it comes to handling solids, 3d surfacing and multi axis solids it sucks. In five days of training I must have heard "make a wire frame and machine from that" or you need to "create surfaces to machine that" 20 times.

 

Imagine picking Drive surfaces and Check surfaces and getting only one chance to get it right. You can not edit it. When I asked how to add a check surface I was told I should save the operation to the hard drive delete it in my ops manager call in back in and re-pick all the surfaces. Even the teacher had little idea how many of the 3D operation would react on parts he had not done before.

 

Basic stuff like control planes in an operation can not be changed. At one point I wanted to machine the profile of a part, due to pockets on the sides of the part, the profile only existed on the bottom of the part. When I used the "Bottom edge" to define my profile the system assumed I wanted to machine from the bottom (A180) even though the machine definition had no 4 axis defined and no control plane defined at 180. I asked for the teachers help, 15 minutes later he said “got it” and moved on. He had to convert it to wireframe!

 

The verify in Esprit makes for a nice demo and it works great if you want to use a couple of clamps and maybe a stop but if you do much more then that it blows up. I spent a half an hour setting up a horizontal fixture just to have the software crash to the desk top 90% of the time I verify. No one at Esprit can tell me how much is too much in verify. There is also some really stupid stuff like I used a check surface on a roughing 3D move. The software let me pick check surface but the mill crashed into the check surface. We sent the file in and the reply was. “We don’t support check surfaces in roughing.” Well maybe you should think about graying out buttons that are not supported. Aggggggg.

 

I programmed 5 axis in Mastercam and I can say not being able to change work planes or edit Drive/Check surface combined with unpredictable 3D machining operation would make for a nightmare. When I think of how many times I have gone back and added check surfaces or changed work planes I wonder how long it would have taken to program those parts Esprit.

 

Could you program anything in Esprit: Yes Could you do it as fast as Mastercam? Not me, no way. I understand the Esprit guys think there software is as good but they simple don’t know how easy it could be

[Hardmill]

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I understand the Esprit guys think there software is as good but they simple don’t know how easy it could be

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Thats the problem, they think

The mill/turn stuff does kick arse.

 

 

PEACE

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

I'll be going to my training next month for Esprit... yes I had to succomb.. Mastercam has waited too damn long so I had to move on. All i gotta say is when they finaly do it well, it better KICK @$$ because my boss has forbidden i MC for mill turn stuff. Kills me to say it but I gotta speak the truth. Contrary to popular belief, I'm NOT a Mastercam toady.

I had the choice between partmaker, gibbs or Esprit. Esprit seemed to be the logical choice, beside I know more people that use it for their mill-turns and I got some (allegedly) kick xxxx posts for the machine's I'm looking at supporting for my job.

 

 

JM2C

[Hardmill]

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I had the choice between partmaker, gibbs or Esprit. Esprit seemed to be the logical choice, beside I know more people that use it for their mill-turns and I got some (allegedly) kick xxxx posts for the machine's I'm looking at supporting for my job.

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I should have a few myself, let me know what your gonna need.

If need be I can make a phone call for ya.

 

 

PEACE

[Pat-TGM]

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Kills me to say it but I gotta speak the truth.

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I got the same problem here. My BOSS said "He don't give a F*** what software we use. He told me looking to Esprit or something else.

[Mike-T]

Same Problem here as well. Very Sad.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Thanks for the offer Steve. Since I work for a Machine Tool Distributor, the Esprit folks have been VERY helpful but if I can't get something I'll hit you up.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

One thing I will say though, Mastercam is in ABSOLUTELY NO DANGER of loosing me as a Milling proponent. It kicks way too much @$$ to go to a WAY lesser system in ESPRIT for milling. The guy that came in a brought me the software was pushing his milling package... I said that I have a VERY competent milling package I work with but thatnk you for the offer.

 

JM2C

[Post dept]

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Example: Mastercam does not support tool comp in 5 axis moves.

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It most certainly does!

 

We can do G41.2/G42.2 style comp for swarf machining and also 3D compensation for ball cutters doing surface machining on many different controllers.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

:smack:

[Hardmill]

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:smack:

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PEACE