Sluggish & Outdated...

[Chris@JNM]

My local MC dealer is harrassing me to upgrade to version 9 plus. As I've told them until they can show me why I should keep using this obsolete, proccessor intensive RAM hog software I'll be trading of to the competition. So far they haven't called back! I'm running a Pentium 4 2.80Ghz system with 533Mhz FSB, 1 GB of 333Mhz DDR RAM, a 80GB Maxtor DiamondMax 7200rpm drive and 3D Labs Wildcat VP760 with 64MB on the card. I frequently deal with 100MB and larger files. I've given up! No one can give me a fix for this sluggish software. I can opn the same file in Cadkey, Autocad Inventor, SolidWorks and work with it no problem. I've maxed the config file in MC with still no difference. The dealer said more RAM! So I maxed my system out with 3.5GB on the Asus board still no difference! Anyone with any last suggestions before I am forced to migrate to the competition...

[Keith Graydon]

not a nice post for your first one Chris..

 

 

have at him guys

 

 

/klg

[cadcam]

Chris one thought here is you are comparing a Cad-cam software to Cad softwares.(Cadkey, Autocad Inventor, SolidWorks )

what seems to be the trouble the file does not move fast enough or is it the crunch time?

 

A little bit of info be nice wondering.

[Scott Bond]

Hi Chris welcome to the forum, it looks like you want to cut your part in one of the softwares that you mentioned(Cadkey, Autocad Inventor, SolidWorks ) I have no problem with that.

[Jack Mitchell]

Chris,

 

Please do not despair – this forum definitely has the solution that you are looking for; 100Mb files and larger are child’s play for many on this very forum.

 

I believe you have come across a little strongly as I’m sure the members might well inform you of this.

 

I don’t know if Corey Bratten is frequenting lately but I do know that he has the answers and then some concerning your very question.

 

Let’s hope your second post might be a little more characteristic of your professionalism.

 

Regards, jack

[Guest]

What version are you using? V3 V4 V5 V6 V7 V8? How out of date are you?

[iowajim62]

Hi Chris,

Welcome to the Forum.

You might try a search on this Forum (Search Button on top of page) for Ramdisk. There are 4 results you can read about. It might help your situation. As far as opening the file in cad software only, sure it's easy it doesn't do anything near what cam software can do so you don't have any problems. Hope you don't give up.

[P_Scott]

Chris@JNM,

 

I must say that there is good reason for updating the software for the minimal investment that would take. V9 has much improved surface toolpath operations over even V8. Just the Surface Finish Project Blend 3D toolpath alone makes a world of difference to almost anyone applying toolpaths to surfaces. What version of Mastercam are you currently using? If it's V7 or older I can definitely understand your frustration. Mastercam has come a long way in the past 3 years when it comes to surface toolpaths. We have clients who regularly process code on files of the same size as yours and have never complained about Mastercam. My advice, have your reseller come into your facility and demonstrate the differences between your current version of Mcam and V9, ON YOUR PARTS. Then compare what ever CAM software you choose and have them demonstrate on the same parts. IF you find another CAM software that does what Mastercam V9 can do, in less time, and costs less than 10% of your current seat of Mcam, then by all means switch over. You won't have the excellent support system already in place that Mcam users all over the world share. The initial investment will most likely be just the tip of the iceberg. What about post processors? You could generate toolpath all day long but if the posts don't produce good code, where's your investment then? Mastercam is always improving. The value of the software never goes down unless you don't use it and there's a growing labor pool who know Mastercam. Where will some other software be tomorrow? Good luck to you sir. You've just accomplished to alienate yourself from the largest technical support network of the most widely used CAM software in the world. It seems as if the odds are stacked against you. Good Day.

[Guest]

Windows 3.1, I presume.

[Chris@JNM]

I'm not looking to bash Mastercam, however like I've stated here, the file(s) are extremely slow in Mastercam. Yes I have deleted duplicate entities, I've ran Ramsaver. When I check my system's performance my CPU is maxed at all times when mastercam is open, even if there isn't any geometry in the file. As soon as I bring in a small 8Mb file my ram usage sky rockets and my pagefile jumps to its maximum size. Zooming, panning, analyzing etc... becomes a burden (I'm talking about a minute or so to refresh the screen or analyze a radius etc..) I've tried various other video cards (ATI RadeoN 64MB, 3Dlabs Oxygen, 3D labs GVX1, Nvidia Vanta 32MB) I always use the latest drivers via the internet, no difference. I've up'ed my pagefile to insane sizes no difference. I thought maybe it was a network issue so I tried saving the file locally and disconnecting from my LAN. Still the performance is dead slow. I simply want an answer. I'd rather not have to spend more money on new software. Small 2D files 1MB or less have no problems...

[Rekd™]

Try setting the chord hieght to .1. (I imagine you're set below .005 or so from the sounds of it.)

 

BTW, way to make friends and influence people..

 

'Rekd

 

[ 02-28-2003, 06:08 PM: Message edited by: Rekd ]

[cadcam]

Just by what you are telling me this is some kind of computer problem I have and still get some large files and do not have this trouble like you are stating.

But it does sound like there is some thing wrong for sure.

 

What OS are you running this on?

[Chris@JNM]

Actually although I have Mastercam V8.1.1 Mill Level 3 with the Moldplus add-on I have already migrated on the shopfloor to Depocam (aka Machining Strategist) I'm not here to argue dollar for dollar chip for chip. However I've seen Mastercam version 9 head to head comparison with numerous other CAM packages and unfortunately I had to make a change for the shopfloor. However I hoped that the design end of mastercam would carry me on. It seems that the toolpaths generated out of Mastercam are getting much better and crunch time has substantially improved since I initially started using Mastercam V5.5 I'm more concerned about the design end of the product.

[Chris@JNM]

The system is running Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional with all the latest service packs/updates

[Jack Mitchell]

Chris,

 

You have enough of a computer to run this on five Mastercam incidences concurrently.

 

I would suggest uploading after zipping to Jayson's ftp - it's in the faq's.

 

Regards, Jack

[kyle]

Try turning the open gl off in screen config, had a puter that took forever loading files and such and that made a huge difference.

[Gary]

i have the same problem with a 9mb file right now. One one computer ( windows millinium pent3. 1 gig, 128 mb ram standard junk video card-microsoft.) but the part will rotate quite nicely when shaded. Now the other box (windows xp 1.8 gig athlon processor 512mb ram prosavage ddr 32 mb video card) will barely rotate the part and if you get mad and click it around to much to soon it locks up on me. tool path verification is alot faster on second box but the display is terrrible. I have just over half the ram allocated on both. I did a search before and took all the advice i couldfind but still no fix. This lets me no its a setting of some kind and not a mc issue but the cause of the problem has me stumped. Sorry for the long post but any possible ideas you all have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance Gary

[gcode]

I work with 100 meg plus files daily with none of the problems you mentioned

P4 2.3 meg chip

1 gig of cheap ram (266 mhz)

NVIDIA GeForce4 TI video card.

Paid $1130 for the box new last July.

I usually have Mastercam , Predator VCNC,

MS Outlook, a Spaceball and antivirus running.

I'm no expert, but there is something wrong with you computer.

[Bullines]

quote:

---

When I check my system's performance my CPU is maxed at all times when mastercam is open, even if there isn't any geometry in the file.

---

http://www.emastercam.com/cgi-bin/ultimate...ic&f=1&t=001025

 

http://www.emastercam.com/cgi-bin/ultimate...ic&f=1&t=001031

[Charles Davis]

I am a Mastercam dealer and have had a lot of success with Mastercam. The great majority of my customers are very pleased with the performance and flexibility of Mastercam.

 

I met with 3 of them today; a small job shop that does extremely complex 3-axis work, a major manufacturer of cell phones that does all their prototypes with Mastercam, and small shop with a 5-axis gantry mill. Whenever I need a boost, I just talk with my customers who rave about what Mastercam has done for them.

 

Occassionally I have lost a sale, and have even had a few cases where a Mastercam user (actually, usually a manager who knows nothing about making parts) selecting another "fad" product because of some single feature, great demo, pretty brochure, or whatever.

 

Virtually EVERY ONE of these have regretted that decision and end up dumping that product using Mastercam. Really, you can't believe the "recovery" rate. Despite the appeal of the fad system, they simply wasted a lot of time and money.

 

Your problem is unique to your computer. I encourage you to work the problem and get it fixed. At the end of the day, when you need to make real parts and meet deadlines, I'll bet you end up with Mastercam as your workhorse CAM product.

 

Again, I'm a Mastercam dealer, but that is my honest experience. Be patient, work the problem, look at the big picture, the long term, and have a little faith. People on this board will really go out of their way to help you.

 

[ 03-01-2003, 12:40 AM: Message edited by: Charles Davis ]

[Chris@JNM]

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm looking for an answer to the sluggish performance. If I need assistance with comparing cam products or cad products I'll make a new post. This should be a simple solution. As I have used Mastercam for awhile now and have used 250+ MB files in previous versions with less problems. I can only say that this problem is a MC problem because when I was running version 7.2 on the same platform I had no issues...

[chris m]

quote:

---

If I need assistance with comparing cam products or cad products I'll make a new post

---

This forum is proof positive of the #1 problem with electronic correspondence:

 

1) Everybody's a badass when they're sitting behind a monitor.

 

 

Listen up, friend

 

A few guys here have actually tried to help you even after your unnecessarily belligerent dumbass opening post; I don't understand why they wasted the effort, but that just shows that they are good, helpful guys. If you want to ignore that and continue to sit there and bash the product we all use and support and give wiseass disrespectful replies to people who are trying to help you out; go back home with Mom and play some Dungeons and Dragons instead. We have work to do.

 

OUT!

 

Sorry James, that just seemed appropriate.

 

C

 

[ 03-01-2003, 12:07 PM: Message edited by: chris m ]

[Bullines]

Maybe a good spring cleanin' is in order (read: clean install of OS and software) if it's been a while since the computer was setup. Otherwise, a good CHKDSK (all five steps) and a defrag couldn't hurt.

[Bullines]

A story that may or may not have happened...

 

A gentlemen wrote a letter to the editor in the Globe and Mail, complaining that he is being harrased by Bell sending mail and calling him about offers for upgrades to his basic phone and long-distance service. He was perplexed as to why the Globe and Mail didn't appreciate his tone and subsequently, didn't print his letter.

 

An explaination for our non-Canadian friends...

 

Bell Global Media owns Bell (phone and long distance provider) and the Globe and Mail (a national newspaper).

[iowajim62]

Hi Chris,

quote:

---

I've ran Ramsaver

---

I noticed that you didn't pay attention when you read my post. I didn't write Ramsaver ,I wrote Ramdisk which is an outside of MC software used to speed-up your system by creating a drive from available ram.

 

BTW you said earlier in this thread that you ran 7.2 on that computer why don't you go back and install 7.2 and try opening your file with it?