Need help getting upgrade to Version 8

[Mill Man]

I need some ammo (info) I can use to help convence my boss that we need to get Version 8.What new things will it do that version 7 want do.

Thanks

Mill Man

[KMaynard]

Well for 1 thing right off the bat ..solids and surfacing now has full associativity which save a lot of time on changes ..very valuable just on that alone for the price of the upgrade. anyone who has done surfacing in ver 7 knows how much of a pain it is to regenerate an operation to change a feedrate or a tool . Also the drafting features have become associative and they snap directly to the solid instead of just the wireframe.

[KMaynard]

Well for 1 thing right off the bat ..solids and surfacing now has full associativity which save a lot of time on changes ..very valuable just on that alone for the price of the upgrade. anyone who has done surfacing in ver 7 knows how much of a pain it is to regenerate an operation to change a feedrate or a tool . Also the drafting features have become associative and they snap directly to the solid instead of just the wireframe.

[Rekd™]

Stop me if you've heard this... And also, the ability to use .stl files as "irregular stock shapes" for verfiy. If you do parts with multiple ops, having the machined part from Op1 to use as stock size/shape for verify on Op2 is awsome! Not to mention the 'Compare' function. (compare your machined part with an .STL model.)

Machining .STL files.

Better sub program support.

Custom Tool Definitions.

And these are just the enhancements from 8 to 8.1, Many other features have been added since 7.x

IMHO, upgrading to 8.1 is a no-brainer.

As I said before, kudos the the entire CNC team for a job well done with all the great features they're bringing us!!

Rekd

[jeepman]

I'm up to my eyeballs in work! We got our ver 8.1 disk the other day. When I upgrade to ver 8.1 from 8.0 can I expect any "problems" or is it a slam dunk? Just thought I'd ask before I jump into it during a busy time.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

I would suggest (just in case) that you install Mastercam 8.1 in a "new" location. For example c:Mcam81, or d:Mcam81, etc... I've always done it that way (but for different reasons). I, being a dealer need to have multiple installations for technical support reasons.

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James Meyette

[Toby]

Mill Man,

I posed this same question on the forum a number of months back. If you check the responses this should give you pleanty of ammo. And by the way vs8.1 is very nice and worth the upgrade.

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Toby Baughman

Magic Mfg

[CycleTimeCharles]

When I recieved the 8.1 CD I installed it to the c:mcam8 directory like it suggests and it kept all my original config and toolpath defaults.

So it was a very easy switch over.

[jeepman]

Thanks for the replies. The switch to 8.1 from 8.0 was no problem. It's nice to work with-out some of those little bugs. I also installed into a different directory in case some problem arises, but so far everything is working fine.