Jump to content

Welcome to eMastercam

Register now to participate in the forums, access the download area, buy Mastercam training materials, post processors and more. This message will be removed once you have signed in.

Use your display name or email address to sign in:

CAM future?

Watcher

By Watcher,
in Industrial Forum

 Share

Recommended Posts

Watcher Newbie

Watcher

Posted
Posted

Hi folks,

 

Just stopping by to share an old new and a point of view regarding where the CAM future is going to... It was published in July - I just bumped into it... ;-)

 

PTC Pro/Engineer already supports distributed computing for toolpath calculations since 2001 if my memory serves me correctly... however PTC hardly explains how to configure it so that 98% of the user don´t use it... sadly...

 

Well, now there is a well-know product offering it... The great new about this product is that it offers the possibility to split the a toolpath calculation among several machines... that is, the same toolpath is splitted to be computed at several machines... (PTC solution will send one toolpath or a entire operation to a single calculation server)

 

These days, the fast-paced innovation in the software/hardware arena makes our resources outdated in a matter of weeks... and I believe that not every company can afford to change its equipament that fast... a good calculation server can last longer... and spliting the toolpaths between the current workstations may also save some a$$es... in Pro/Engineer I can send the toolpaths for calculation while I´m working on new ones... I suppose X4 supports this, doesn´t it?

 

So it seems to me that this is the future for CAM software... and I guess that this is going to be the standard pretty fast... JM2C

 

Thoughs?

 

 

Distributed computing for toolpath calculation

Link to comment
Share on other sites
gcode Experienced

gcode

Posted
Posted

Yes.. its the same people.. not sure if

HSM Works is a subdivision of Cimco or a

seperate entity..

Check out the updated pages for Cimco products

and HSM Works.. those folks put out updates and

patches almost weekly..

I reported a bug in Cimco Edit one time.. and they

had a fix on thier webpage 3 hours later..

Its first class outfit.

 

[ 11-05-2009, 01:16 PM: Message edited by: gcode ]

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Watcher Newbie

Watcher

Posted
  • Author
Posted

quote:
I reported a bug in Cimco Edit one time.. and they

had a fix on thier webgae 3 hours later..

Its first class outfit.

I did it last week... 1 hour after the release of the version (5.60.02) I reported a bug and 2 hours later I got the fixed version (5.60.05) in their website... their support it´s very impressive... Tom helped me dozens of times through NetViewer... and Peter is one of the most friendly guys I ever knew... in fact the whole team is awesome...

 

In the past 3 years they have fixed more than 60 bugs I have spotted and added at least 70/80 enhancements that I personally asked for. (NC-Base, DNC-Max, Cimco-Edit, CNC Calc.)...

I wish other CAM suplliers could do the same for their customers... Our companies spends fortunes every year with maintenance...

Today I would say that the only supplier of our company that deserves every penny of their maintenance fees is Cimco... period.

The market is wise. Support, functionality, innovation and response time to fix problems will say who stays and who will leave... That´s my bet...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bob W. Apprentice

Bob W.

Posted
Posted

Just out of curiosity, is Mastercam programmed native to Windows, DOS, UNIX, or whatever the mainstream operating system was 25 years ago? I have noticed over the last several years that the programs designed to run on a Windows platform are much more stable, user friendly, and faster than those originally written for UNIX and translated to run on Windows.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bob W. Apprentice

Bob W.

Posted
Posted

Right. I am trying to find out if Mastercam was originally written in Unix and simply adapted to run in Windows over the years, or if it was ever reprogrammed from the ground up to run in Windows.

 

You can run Mastercam in the Mac with a translator but it would never run smoothly or quickly as a version designed and programmed to run on a Mac from the ground up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
William Grizwald Newbie

William Grizwald

Posted
Posted

"Well, now there is a well-know product offering it... The great new about this product is that it offers the possibility to split the a toolpath calculation among several machines... that is, the same toolpath is splitted to be computed at several machines..."

 

If we're thinking of the same product (NX), it distributes the processing of several operations using separate cpu cores. Select 4 operations to generate and it can assign the 4 cores of a quad to process at once. The catch is if one operation is dependent on the results of a previous operation, that must be done first.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bob W. Apprentice

Bob W.

Posted
Posted

quote:
I believe it is the exact same dos kernal they use today.

I believe this is the culprit in 95% of the bugs users are experiencing everyday. I also think this gives other companies developing CAM a huge advantage over Mastercam in that their code is much cleaner and crisper. Time for a ground up rewrite of Mastercam native to Windows?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
The_Evil_Machinist Newbie

The_Evil_Machinist

Posted
Posted

quote:
Time for a ground up rewrite of Mastercam native to Windows?

.

Sadly, it is native to windows as it is. They write it as a version to cover modern supported Microsoft os's. Thats the problem with microsoft having the market share they do. Their os's have to be designed around supporting software that is to old for it's own good. With mac, they have room to experiment. The fault doesn't entirely lie with bugs in mcam or windows. The nt windows kernel has outlived it's intended lifespan. Along with that, the dynamic link library needs to die and same with the registry. But if you take all that away, you have unix. Were doing things on windows that probably weren't intended to be able to do. So we substitute efficiency with raw power. The macintosh os isn't a minimalist os either. Certain versions of linux are and same with bsd. But windows will always be the mainstream os just because of the market share and amount of software developers. I like windows. But I like macintosh better. Apple is always making their os more efficient and smaller. Windows 7 is xp with different theme packs and a "newer" nt kernel.

.

Oh no.. I'm starting to sound like jb frown.gif

.

Right now, I'm trying to get mastercam to run natively on the macintosh os. The .dll conversion is the easy (sort of) part. The user interface is the hardest part cuz it has to link back to those converted .dll's. While being able to keep them separate from each other in the main .app mac file. If it is implemented right, install should just be mount a .dmg as a drive and drag the mastercam .app file to your applications folder. In theory. Man I have a weird hobby.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest CNC Apps Guy 1

Guest CNC Apps Guy 1

Posted
Posted

I soooo wish I could find one of the developers that explained that MC is not a DOS App shoehorned into Windows, nor is it a UNIX App.

 

Some guy actually said out loud that because he could not re-size one of his windows it "... was because Mastercam was not a true Windows app...". People with no clue should just remain silent, lest they speak and remove all doubt.

 

People for whatever reason just can't seem to let that Urban Legend go. I guess it's convenient. Regardless, it's untrue.

 

I'm going to go back to watching Capricorn one now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bob W. Apprentice

Bob W.

Posted
Posted

quote:
People with no clue should just remain silent, lest they speak and remove all doubt.

I guess I would fit into that category with respect to the software makeup of Mastercam. I am just trying to get a handle on where all of these bugs originate. When they (Mastercam) come out with these new releases they are like a bull in the china shop with regards to the older features. Features that worked flawlessly for years all the sudden have issues and it is extremely frustrating.

 

The most recent was the issue I had with transform toolpath. It didn't retract correctly from one part to the next and it trashed both the tool and parts. This was in a program that had been proven moments before but I reposted with only the operations that used one specific tool that I had adjusted for wear on the machine. Transform toolpath is a valuable feature to me and it has always been bulletproof. Now I am afraid to use it.

 

It seems that if the code for Mastercam was clean and crisp these issues would not be so prevalent. I guess I was wishing that it was a kernal issue because that excuse would explain it. I have sent the file into Mastercam though even if it is a bug I get to wait eight months and spend another $1500 out of my pocket on maintenance to get the next release that hopefully has it fixed. Then I get to hold my breath while I find out which previously bulletproof feature now has issues and hope that when I do find out it doesn't cost me a new spindle.

 

It is depressing to hear about HSM works that posts fixes for bugs on the day they are reported. They seem to know a little about customer service...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest CNC Apps Guy 1

Guest CNC Apps Guy 1

Posted
Posted

CAMplete is the same. I routinely get a bug fix within a day or two at most. It's nice.

 

When X was first "pitched" back in the V7 days IIRC, the idea was to have MC's functions driven by dll's. The Mastercam executable was supposed to basically just point to the dll to accomplish the requested task. It was supposed to make bugs easier and faster to fix. Seems like now it is the opposite. frown.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

Join us!

eMastercam - your online source for all things Mastercam.

Together, we are the strongest Mastercam community on the web with over 56,000 members, and our online store offers a wide selection of training materials for all applications and skill levels.

Useful Links

Contact Info

Subscribe to eMastercam News

 

Legal

Privacy Policy

Store Terms & Conditions

Forum Guidelines

Follow us

×
×
  • Create New...