Mastercam with solid state drive

[Fred from Université de Sherbrooke]

I have a new computer with a standard disc drive and a solid state drive.

 

Should I install Mastercam directly on the solid state drive? Need your thought.

 

Thank's

[gcode]

Yes...the solid state drive should be used for your OS and program installs

 

and the standard hard drive for storage

[john316]

Yes...the solid state drive should be used for your OS and program installs

 

and the standard hard drive for storage

 

That's how I have mine. Some of my Mcam files are 100 meg or bigger so I put those on the SSD while I'm working on them. I work the smaller files from the HDD so I do less moving back and forth.

 

.

[Fred from Université de Sherbrooke]

Ok thank's

 

So it's better to install the OS on the SSD to get better results?

 

Fred

[gcode]

How is that new computer treating you Kevin??

[Jayson Kramer]

Fred install the OS on the SSD as stated. my new desk top and new laptop both use SSD with the os on there.

[john316]

Ok thank'sSo it's better to install the OS on the SSD to get better results?Fred

 

Yes. I believe it has to do with the faster seek rate of the SSD. You have your programs installed on the SSD so they start and run faster. As stated above, I keep my larger part files on the ssd but I also have some large files on my hdd that open pretty fast. I have some large fioles that I'm almost done with that I'm going to move to the hdd to test the difference in load speed between the ssd and the hdd. If the difference is small I might just keep all part files on the hdd and work them from there.

 

How is that new computer treating you Kevin??

 

It's working great. I did some big jobs that were slowing down my old system to a crawl and this one ripped right through them.

 

It's a Dell Precision T3500 with Intel Xeon X5650 @ 2.67GHz, 12g ram, 6-core, x64

 

I have dual SyncMaster 2443's so the graphics are real good. I'm hoping for good results when Mcam releases their x64 version.

 

.

[gcode]

I've been doing some pretty large files in the x64 beta...

 

30 to 40 meg stl files as stock for high speed rest rough toolpaths

 

X6 x64 just plows right through them

[john316]

 

X6 x64 just plows right through them

 

That's what I'm waiting for.

 

I want to see Mcam take advantage of this system's resources.

 

.

[David Colin]

I have a question, i just got a new PC (Dell T3500, 4core [email protected], 6gigs, Quadro 4000, standard harddisk 7200r/min, win7 X64) and still have power problem as i load pretty large Mcam file (around 50Mo with about 50 operations including 5x ops).

My problem is a general slow down when i edit (or create) a simple 2D contour into this file, it takes around 4 or 5 seconds to load and show the GUI.

 

So what may be the cause of this slow down? Is it a hardware problem and should i update something in my config? or is this phenomenon unavoidable and mcam related (NCI too large, too much entities in database,...)?

[gcode]

What version are you running? X3 and 4 had a lag issue, but it was better in X5 and completely gone in X5MU1

[David Colin]

What version are you running? X3 and 4 had a lag issue, but it was better in X5 and completely gone in X5MU1

 

Argh... i'm using X3MU1 and i will be stuck with it for a few months or even years... I tried X5 demo and its new 2D and 3D dynamic toolpaths... i'd love to work with them but my boss don't want to pay

[gcode]

i'd love to work with them but my boss don't want to pay

 

 

that's too bad.. with the right parts, dynamic toolpaths would pay for the upgrade with one part.

 

I just finished an op on a big aluminum hog out..

 

One high speed horizontal operation finished a whole face that would have taken 20 to 25 ops

 

and a day to program doing it old school... very cool stuff... the hard part is getting the operators to trust all that zooming

 

around and pull the trigger

[Fred from Université de Sherbrooke]

What should I see as a difference between a SSD and a hdd?

 

toolpath calculation? file loading?

[gcode]

Your computer will boot much faster... and programs will launch faster

 

you should see better toolpath calculation times as well

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

SSD all the way for OS and Programs. Data... depends. Large files, or complex files... work with it on the SSD, when complete, transfer to the HDD.

 

CATIA launches ready to draw in under 30 seconds. Mastercam is ready to work in under 10...

[Joe788]

The OS and MCX installed on the SSD = Winning.

 

I took a brand new Costco ZT systems computer with Windows 7 Pro X64, Core i7-2600, 12GB RAM, slapped in a Samsung 128GB SSD and a Quadro FX580, and promptly destroyed pretty much everybody in the benchmark for $1300 total (and no time spent/wasted building a computer from scratch). Mastercam opens in 1-2 seconds. Solidworks 2011 in about 3-4. It takes about 20-30 seconds from hitting the power button, to creating toolpaths. It would be a little bit faster but there's a delay for the wireless keyboard to activate before I can enter my password.

 

I was still getting lag opening the toolpath parameters in X5MU1 with my old computer. The new computer opens them instantaneously. Now I recommend the SSD to everybody I know.

[Mcam Nut]

We Have 3 new workstations at work, they are all the same except mine has a ssd drive (only drive installed), and the other 2 machines have wd velociraptors, and I have tested the machines regenerating the same program on both machines, and the SSD was only 2 seconds faster than the velociraptor. Boot times, and loading mcam are much faster with SSD though.