Mastercam X5 - Your Opinion

[MFG'R]

Here at my company we are a maintenace customer of Mastercam and we are currently running Mastercam X4 MU2. In order to upgrade to any new version of Mastercam or any software in general we are required to "validate" it and prove that it does what it is supposed to do. I don't necessarily agree with this process but we must do it regardless.

 

I would like to know anyone's opinion on upgrading from Mastercam X4 to X5 to see if it is worth all of the work we must do in the engineering department to implement this new version. If there is nothing special or you don't recommend it then I may just wait until X6.

 

Any suggestions will be helpful.

 

Thanks

 

 

[Thee Rickster ™]

Personally, We had to protocol to wait for MU1 on all MC releases.

 

IMO, you should Be running X4 MU3...@ the very least

[Reko]

While it might be wise to wait until MU1, I'm a fan of current technology. I say go for it and make the switch ASAP and work through the bugs, then when MU1 updates, you'll be up to speed and fully understand why each fix was applied.

 

Personally, I like to try all of the new updates as soon as they come out, work-arounds and all.

 

I always leave a copy of the previous software on my system until I'm certain the new software does everything I want it to do. With X5, looking back, I had very few issues and didn't find it necessary to go back to X4 for anything.

 

JM2C.

[Reko]

.

[gcode]

I'm a beta tester and usually start using the beta for simple stuff about the middle of the beta cycle.

As the beta progresses, I use it for more complex work.

By the time the beta cycle is complete I'm using the beta almost exclusively and have all our machines def/posts

updated. When the beta is released to the public, I move it out to the rest of the programmers.

Some people have had problems with X5, but here, it has been rock solid and well worth the effort.

It has a few quirks, most of which are adresses in MU1 which should be released to the public before too long.

[Thee Rickster ™]

I can wait....hell I cut 300+ molds with the earliest version of Smartcant,

as complex as a torque converter part, back in the day....

 

Thanks for the update.....when is 'before too long?

[Jayson Kramer]

I am with Gcode almost word for ward. I feel it is really stable and I would move.

[CJep]

IMO, you should Be running X4 MU3...@ the very least

 

second that!

 

I would try to get McamX5 installed and start the validation process and finish the validation with MU1 installed

[within a thou]

We got X5 about a week ago and before that the last version of mastercam I used was X3 so I am getting use to this tree system compared to the old tab style. There are a few bugs which are quite annoying the one with the tools always changing everytime you write another path which I am being told will be fixed with MU1. Other things may not necessarily be bugs but a problem with my settings or a problem somewhere in between the keyboard I am typing on and the chair I sit in.

One thing I dont understand is why is there a Inch to MM tool library but not the other way around. I am sure if it we were polled a lot of us use standard measuring tools, machines that run in inches but tap a lot of metric holes. Sure we can create the tools. But we can't use the feature in the tool create page to set our feeds directly off of our rpm. My reseller explained the best thing to do is to create the tool save to library then go set the rpm use that to set the feed copy that number edit tool and change the feed to what it should be and save again. Which is fine but now open your Tool library you have 2 tools named the same one with the correct feed one with the incorrect one. After speaking with In House about this they told me to go into the Tool manager to edit tools and resave to not get the multiple tools Seemsd like a lot of unnecessary steps. So if you edited your tools like I did in the toolpath variables and have the multiple tools. Go into your Tool manager from the Toolpath pull down at the top see your multiple tools that are named the same now right click and edit from there don't change anything just close the edit window and watch your duplicate tool move around in your list. Makes finding which tool has the correct feed and which one doesn't a major pain since I don;t know if the highlighted bar is whats is moving or if the tool is moving in the list.

[neurosis]

My personal opinion, I would wait for the MU. It may be late enough in to the cycle that it may not be necessary?

 

I will be adopting Ricksters protocol from here on. My reason for that is, with the bugs and quirks that have been experienced I start to find workarounds and after months of use those work arounds start to become habits. Habits that will hopefully not be necessary in the future release.

[MFG'R]

I think if I can get everyone to buy in on the upgrade then we will most likely wait until the MU since this seems to be the most robust version of each of the releases. I greatly appreciate all of the feedback and advice. Hopefully we can get the newest version as soon as the MU releases.